All's Not Well in Indy

So much for the fun party atmosphere in Indianapolis surrounding the Super Bowl...

In a season when in June it looked like the Indianapolis Colts might become the first team to play a Super Bowl in their home stadium (or at least as far as AK was concerned), things just keep going from bad to worse for the Colts.  First, the bad: Peyton Manning could just not heal up from his offseason neck surgery, even going overseas for experimental procedures to fix that nerve that just won't stop bothering him.  Second, the worse: a 2-14 season...no home Super Bowl to say the least.  However, many in Colts' fan circles didn't really seem to mind.  They were more than willing to sacrifice one season, even one as bad as this.  Why?  They would win the Andrew Luck sweepstakes.  Peyton can take as long as he needs to get healthy so that he can play out his remaining years in Indy, take the Colts to the promised land one more time, and all the while develop Luck so that the transition from the Manning to the Luck era would be smooth and painless. 

Well, so much for those pie in the sky thoughts as well. 

Peyton has a few things to say about the
Colts' recent troubles.

Third, the hideous: instead of continuity, the Colts decided to do a thorough house cleaning, canning head coach Jim Caldwell and GM Bill Polian, who orchestrated the highly successful Colts teams of the 2000s, including the team that won it all in 2006.  Now, the Colts are hiring former Ravens defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano to be the head coach, essentially starting from scratch, which is leading many in Colts Camp to scratch their head...including the maestro himself: Peyton Manning.  Manning made some public comments about how the atmosphere in Indy has been pathetic since the house cleaning began, even questioning the Pagano hire.  Colts owner Jim Irsay fired back, even going so far as to call his franchise player a "politician" while saying if he's got issues, keep them in house.  While there is something to be said for that, Manning I think has earned enough street cred throughout his career that he can voice his grievances with the media if he wants to.  Now the Colts have a decision to make.  Manning is due a $28 million bonus in March should the Colts decide to keep him.  They could cut him loose, and throw Andrew Luck into fire right away (assuming they do in fact take Luck with the first pick) which could make for a very tasty free agency season.  There would be several teams lining up to take a chance at Peyton, neck injury and all.

One of those teams could be the Redskins, but we have been down the road before, lest we forget the whole Donovan McNabb saga.  At least we were somewhat vindicated after he flamed out in Minnesota.  Manning is a very intriguing possibility, but with that neck still in question, I still feel like our best option for quarterback going forward is to make some kind of a move for Robert Griffin III.  There are still 3 months before the draft...stay tuned.