Former Colts defensive lineman Joe Ehrmann recorded 38.5 sacks in eight seasons in Baltimore, but Ehrmann’s off-the-field impact in his nearly 40 years of retirement has also made him worthy of one of the state’s highest honors for athletes.
Ehrmann, who has founded multiple public service nonprofits in his retirement, will become a member of the Maryland State Athletic Hall of Fame at the organization’s 63rd induction banquet in Baltimore on Nov. 21.
“I’m much more proud of what I’ve accomplished off the field,” Ehrmann said on Glenn Clark Radio July 19. “Football and Baltimore gave me a foundation to really do some great work, and I’m forever appreciative of my opportunity to be a Baltimore Colt.”
“Baltimore shaped me and molded me, and gave me tremendous opportunities,” he added.
Ehrmann, 75, has dedicated his post-football life to bettering the society around him, through promoting his faith, addressing social issues and encouraging a positive culture in sports.
He is the president of the InsideOut Initiative, a role he’s held since 2015. The InsideOut Initiative is an organization dedicated to promoting and prioritizing “connecting student-athletes to transformational coaches in a community of belonging for their social-emotional and character development,” according to its official site.
“One of the great myths in sports is that sports build character,” Ehrmann said. “It’d be nice if that was true, but sports don’t build character. Cultures build character … but it can’t be learned if it’s not modeled.”
In 2003, he founded Coach for America, a nonprofit dedicated to creating societal change through impactful youth sports coaches, and in 1984 he founded The Door, a Baltimore community-based ministry. He is also an outspoken advocate for positive masculinity and against violence toward women.
“[Our] challenge, all of us as dads and as men, is to be as healthy and whole as we can,” Ehrmann said. “… We want to keep [kids] in sports and athletics as long as their entire life. It really needs to be about enjoyment. Young youth, you don’t have to prove your manhood or masculinity through sports.”
Ehrmann grew up in Buffalo and went to school at Syracuse. He was a member of the Colts from 1973-1980 before finishing his career with stints on the Detroit Lions and in the USFL. He was in the USFL when then-owner Bob Irsay moved the Colts to Indianapolis overnight, a move Ehrmann called “heartbreaking.”
“Somebody like Bob Irsay wouldn’t get in the NFL today,” Ehrmann said. “You have some kind of moral character and some context of being an owner of a team that it’s a great civic responsibility. [Baltimore was] tremendously shortchanged by Bob Irsay.”
But Ehrmann is very grateful for what the Ravens have done for the city of Baltimore in the Colts’ absence. He praised the team’s ownership for fully revitalizing a passionate football culture that went more than a decade without a team to root for.
“Change is always perceived as a loss, and certainly it was a great loss to the city,” Ehrmann said. “But I think the Ravens have more than made up for that. Now we’ve got one of the great ownerships and great organizations and all of the NFL.”
For more from Ehrmann, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Indianapolis Colts