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INDIANAPOLIS - When it comes to the pantheon of Hoosier sports heroes –Johnny Wooden, Knute Rockne, Bob Knight, Larry Bird, Reggie Miller, Rick Mount, Bobby Plump, George Gipp – the newest name will certainly be Peyton Manning.
We all know the story, but sometimes you have to state the obvious. Until Manning arrived in 1998, the Indianapolis Colts were almost an afterthought, to be lampooned on the Bob & Tom Show, playing in “Naptown” with the only perennial Pro-Bowler being punter Rohn Stark. They played second fiddle to the Indiana Pacers and Hurryin’ Hoosiers. Without the arrival of Manning, we’d probably be cursing at the “Los Angeles Colts.”
This week becomes one of the most bittersweet in Indiana sports history. The NFL Super Bowl comes to Indianapolis, the city has risen gloriously to the occasion, but the virulent subplot is that Peyton Manning may have taken his last snap as the Colts quarterback. We’ve been treated to an onslaught of speculation by the local and national sports media, talking without the normal honor and armor of “facts.”
And the “facts” are that Colts owner Jim Irsay intends to bring Manning back, as long as he’s healthy. He said on Dec. 23 in Houston, “I think the situation is if he’s back and he’s healthy, I see him coming back and playing here.I think the hope is that his health is in the position where he could return again. That remains uncertain and that’s something that’s first and foremost on my mind.”
On Monday, former Colts coach and current NBC analyst Tony Dungy told WTHR-TV that he had spoken with Irsay several times in the past month. “I think if there’s any way he can play, it will be for the Colts,” Dungy said. To the Star on Wednesday, Dungy said, “I just don’t see Peyton playing for another team in another jersey. I don’t think Jim wants that, I don’t think Peyton wants that. I think he’s going to play here if he’s physically able to play.”
But there are other facts: the Colts house-cleaning has come and gone without management consultation with Manning, who has rehabbed at the team HQ and watched his general manager, head coach and even his trainer get canned. Whether you’re an NFL quarterback or a newspaper beat reporter, the scenario of rolling heads is a difficult one.
Despite these assurances, the speculation has ramped up, to the point where Yahoo Sports was reporting late Monday that sources close to the Colts don’t believe that Manning will be healthy enough. Jason Cole reported: “The underlying issue is that people close to him don’t believe he’ll resume his career. The nerves in Manning’s arm are not healing as quickly as hoped and, worse, don’t appear to be progressing at enough of a rate to indicate that he will play again, according to two sources with knowledge of Manning’s rehabilitation from neck surgery.”
But Manning himself refuted that with ESPN on Tuesday. “The doctors are encouraged, and that’s encouraging to me.”
Should the Yahoo speculation bear out, it is as stunning a development as what occurred in 1939, when “The Iron Horse” – New York Yankee first baseman Lou Gehrig – took a precipitous statistical and physical decline just as his amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, began to eat away at his legendary skills as well as his life. Batting .145 in April, Gehrig took himself out of the lineup, ending a 2,130-consecutive game streak. He stayed on the team the rest of the season, but never played again.
Sportswriter James Kahn observed of Gehrig: “I think there is something wrong with him. Physically wrong, I mean. I don’t know what it is, but I am satisfied that it goes far beyond his ball-playing. I have seen ballplayers ‘go’ overnight, as Gehrig seems to have done. But they were simply washed up as ballplayers. It’s something deeper than that in this case, though. I have watched him very closely and this is what I have seen: I have seen him time a ball perfectly, swing on it as hard as he can, meet it squarely, and drive a soft, looping fly over the infield. In other words, for some reason that I do not know, his old power isn’t there.”
Of course, we know the Manning Iron Horse legend: only Brett Favre at 297 regular season games and 321 including playoffs, has more consecutive starts in NFL history than Manning, 208 regular season games and 227 total. The next two on the list are Eli Manning (129) and Ron Jaworski (123), far behind in the rearview mirror. While major league baseball is a grinding, every day sport, it simply doesn’t compare to the violence a modern NFL quarterback is subjected to with 350-pound marauders paid millions to rip a QB’s head off.
Manning, we believed, was destined to become the greatest statistical QB ever: more games and touchdowns than Favre. His 54,828 yards third only behind Dan Marino (61,361) and Favre (71,838). Manning’s 361 touchdowns trailed only Marino (420) and Favre (497). His 95.2 career quarterback rating is second only to Steve Young. These were all records to be claimed by Manning wearing the horseshoe.
The silver lining here is that as the Colts tumbled from perennial playoff to a dismal 2-14 team, the consolation prize most likely will be Stanford QB Andrew Luck (though Dungy likes Baylor’s Robert Griffin III), setting up the franchise for another generation of great helmsmanship.
Indianapolis Star columnist Bob Kravitz has been convinced for months that Peyton Manning has taken his last snap as a Colt. It comes even though the new NFL contract dramatically reins in rookie contracts, meaning that Luck or Griffin would come in around $4 million (the same amount the team paid Kerry Collins for four games last season). The scenario I loved was Manning tutoring the rookie. “Guys like that come along so rarely,” Irsay said on Oct. 10 at an NFL owners’ meeting in Houston. “Even if that means that guy sits for three or four years, you’d certainly think about taking him … you see what Green Bay did with [Brett] Favre and [Aaron] Rodgers and you’d like to be able to do the same thing.”
Given what happened to the Colts, the Chicago Bears with an injured Jay Cutler, Miami, Kansas City and Oakland – none of whom made the playoffs after fast starts and injured QBs – having two quality quarterbacks seems like an appropriate way to venture into the NFL violence.
The critics of keeping Manning suggest he would return to a team struggling to contend. I’m not buying that. The Colts were decimated for a second consecutive year with injuries, particularly on defense. With the top choice in each round, they can quickly reset. Teams such as San Francisco and Cincinnati proved that a moribund team can rebound quickly.
Invading all this emotion were apparent hard feelings last week, with Irsay calling Manning a “politician.” The two quickly released a joint statement, saying, “We would like to dispel any misperception that there might be any hard feelings between us. Since 1998, we have enjoyed a great relationship, based upon mutual respect and trust. We have always been able to talk and address matters we’ve faced over the years, not just as owner and player, but as friends. We had a long talk today and we want to assure Colts fans everywhere that we are both committed to maintaining our close relationship and to working together through any challenges the future may bring.”
The prevailing prediction with most national sports pundits is that the Colts release Manning. Which would be sheer lunacy. What if Manning ended up in Tennessee or Jacksonville? Or the hated Jets?
An idiot caller on Dan Dakich’s 1070TheFan Show said this week, “Peyton Manning is the greatest, but you’ve got to dump him.”
Huh?
It took the Boston Red Sox almost nine decades to overcome the curse of the Bambino. The curse of Peyton would be a terrifying thing.
So this surreal week in Indianapolis sports history moves on with the NFL village, with the NFL Experience, zip lines, along with Tom Brady and Bill Belichick in town to win a fourth title for the hated New England Patriots. It is Eli Manning who will defend the House that Peyton Built, Lucas Oil Stadium. Peyton Manning is off in the shadows. He may never return. He might come back in those ridiculous Titan uniforms.
I think Manning stays. There is too much bad karma involved for Irsay to just release him. He knows Hunter S. Thompson wouldn’t let him sleep peacefully again for doing such a stupid thing.
Yes, we know the NFL is big business. It’s not “fantasy league football” as Irsay reminded us. Yes, we understand the overt tug to rebuild. But Hoosiers are a loyal people. We don’t like our college programs to cheat. We like the three-pointer, tenacious man-to-man defense, and Manning going to the line, audibling, messing with the heads of the linebackers who don’t know whether they should lean in or back pedal (or try and get off the field before a snap).
We like the sharpest tool in the shed. For 14 years that was Peyton Manning. For most of us, if it ends next month, that is too short a time.
Friday, February 03, 2012 |
