Please don’t go, Peyton.
Pardon? The Colts released Peyton Manning? The same guy who brought them from relative obscurity to relevance after the franchise relocated from Baltimore? The same guy who led them to a world championship in 2007? The same guy whose oversized mug adorns the edifice of Lucas Oil Stadium?
Yeah, right. And I bet Peyton’s little brother won the Super Bowl.
Looks like Colts owner Jim Irsay can go ahead and tear down the mural on the stadium. Peyton’s gone – released and free to write the final chapters of his Hall of Fame narrative elsewhere. Let the malevolent riots begin.
Irsay did the right thing. There’s no loyalty in professional sports, buster. The sooner you learn that, the better. Thinking with your heart and not your head can get you in trouble. Luckily for Irsay, he didn’t face that dilemma. He thought with his wallet.
If the Colts chose to keep Manning, they’d owe him $28 million March 8. That’s a shitload of money for someone who didn’t play a single down last year because he was hurt. Why would you give someone who is lactose intolerant that much cheddar?
I’m no doctor but a neck injury that required two surgeries in four months and sidelined Manning for the entire season is serious. There is no guarantee he’ll return to the form he was in prior to the injury.
If he does, that’s great. But if the Colts paid the $28 million bonus and he played at a level somewhere between a bum and Curtis Painter then, well, then Manning becomes a real pain in the you know what.
The organization is undeniably indebted to Manning, but there is no such thing as a lifetime achievement bonus. That’s exactly what the sunk $28 million would have been had Peyton not returned to superior form. Anything less than a Most Valuable Player-type season and keeping Manning would have become a grave financial mistake.
Manning has done innumerable things for the city of Indianapolis and made the Colts a viable competitor against Indiana University and Pacer basketball for popularity in the state. Heck, it might have surpassed both of them all because of Manning but that’s irrelevant when it comes to spending copious amounts of cash.
And any angst by fans toward either party would be misplaced. In fact, there’s no place for emotion at all. Maybe both sides didn’t get exactly what they wanted but they both got something.
The Colts will surely draft Andrew Luck and he’ll flourish or flounder. He might eclipse Manning, win two Super Bowls and sit courtside at Indiana basketball games. On the other hand, he might suck while Manning sticks it to the man – wherever he goes.
There’s only one certainty: we’ll all be watching.
