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===Earliest rivalries===
In the years 1953–66 the Colts played in the NFL Western Conference (also known as division), but were never known to have a significant rivalry with any of the other franchises in that alignment, seeing as they were the eastern-most team and the rest of the division included the [[Great Lakes]] franchises [[Green Bay Packers|Green Bay]], [[Detroit Lions]], [[Chicago Bears]], and after 1961, the [[Minnesota Vikings]]. The closest team to Baltimore was the [[Washington Redskins]], but they were not in the same division, and they were not very competitive at that time.

====New York Giants====
In [[1958 NFL season|1958]] Baltimore played its first NFL Championship Game against the 10–3 [[New York Giants]]. The Giants qualified for the championship after a tie-breaking playoff against the [[Cleveland Browns]]. Having already been defeated by the Giants in the regular season, Baltimore was not favored to win, yet proceeded to [[NFL Championship Game, 1958|take the title in sudden death overtime]]. The Colts then repeated the feat by posting an identical record and routing the Giants in the [[NFL Championship Game, 1959|1959]] final. Up until the Colts' back-to-back titles, the Giants had been the premier club in the NFL, and would continue to be post-season stalwarts the next decade losing three straight finals. The situation was reversed by the end of the decade, with Baltimore winning the [[1968 NFL season|1968 NFL title]] while New York would arrive at continuously less impressive results.The Colts starting quarterback Peyton Manning and the Giants starting quarterback Eli Manning are brothers.

====Miami Dolphins====
Baltimores post [[NFL-AFL merger]] passage to the AFC saw them thrust into a new environment with little in common with its fellow divisional teams, the [[New York Jets]], Miami Dolphins, [[Buffalo Bills]], and [[Boston Patriots]]. Powered by QB [[Earl Morrall]] Baltimore would be the first non-AFL franchise to win a division title in the conference, outlasting the Miami Dolphins by one game, and leading the division since Week 3 of [[1970 NFL season|1970]]. The two franchises were denied a playoff confrontation by Miami's first-round defeat to the [[Oakland Raiders]], whereas Baltimore would win its first Super Bowl title that year.

Yet in 1971 the teams were engaged in a heated race that went down to the final week of the season, where Miami won its first division title with a 10–3–1 title compared to the 10–4 Baltimore record after the Colts won the Week 13 matchup between them at home, but proceeded to lose the last game of the season to Boston. In the playoffs Baltimore advanced to the AFC title game after a 20–3 rout of the Cleveland Browns, whereas Miami survived a double-overtime nailbiter against the [[Kansas City Chiefs]]. This set up a title game that was favored for the defending league champion Colts. Yet Miami won the AFC championship with a 21–0 shutout and advanced to lose [[Super Bowl VI]] to Dallas. In 1975 Baltimore and Miami tied with 10–4 records, yet the Colts advanced to the playoffs based on a head-to-head sweep of their series. In 1977 Baltimore tied for first for the third straight year (in 1976 they tied with Boston) with Miami, and this time advanced to the playoffs on even slimmer pretences, with a conference record of 9–3 compared to Miami's 8–4, as they had split the season series. The rivalry would in the following years be virtually negated by very poor play of he Colts, including a 0–8–1 record during the NFL's strike shortened 1982 season. In 1995, now as Indianapolis, the two both posted borderline 9–7 records to tie for second against Buffalo, yet the Colts once again reached the post-season having swept the season series. The following season they edged out Miami by posting a 9–7 record and winning the ordinarily meaningless 3rd place position, but qualifying for the wild card. The last meaningful matchup between the two franchises would be in the 2000 season, when Miami edged out Indianapolis with an 11–5 record for the division championship. The two then met in the wild-card round where the Dolphins won 23–17 before being blown out by Oakland 27–0. In 2002 Indianapolis moved to the newly created [[AFC South]] division and the rivalry was effectively retired. Yet until then the two had had a lively history, based usually on Indianapolis owning slightly better regular season records, but Miami winning both post-season meetings.