Former Colts Receiver Aaron Bailey Is a Good Sport

A few months ago, an IM editor was working on “30 for 30,” a list of the most memorable moments in Indianapolis Colts history. High on that list was the team’s unlikely run to the AFC Championship game in 1996—and the last-second end-zone toss from quarterback Jim “Captain Comeback” Harbaugh that nearly sent Indy to the Super Bowl.
In the meantime, the editor took a sneak peak at a spread of Indiana T-shirts featured in IM’s August issue, and saw one by Indianapolis-based Hayes and Taylor that read, “I Still Think Aaron Bailey Caught It.”
It hit the editor like a sack from a 300-pound lineman: Interview Bailey—the Colts receiver who nearly caught that Harbaugh Hail Mary—and then talk him into posing for a photo while wearing the shirt that honors his place in Colts history.
The editor tracked down Bailey, now an educator and high-school coach in Michigan, and he agreed, under one condition: Send an extra tee for his wife, Jennifer.
Deal.
Brian Kelly of Hayes and Taylor generously supplied the shirts, the editor shipped them to Michigan, and these images arrived a couple of weeks later.
We’ll say this much for Bailey: He didn’t get the touchdown on that fateful day in 1996, but in 2014 he scored big points for sportsmanship.