Life cannot be very good for UT’s own Peyton Manning right now.
For those of you who don’t follow the NFL very closely, here is a recap of the last year in the life of Manning.
Last summer: There are rumors that Manning and his wife Ashley are on the fritz; turns out they were trying (and succeeding) to hide the impending birth of twins, little girl Mosley (seriously) and little boy Marshall. (Note: I am pretty sure that Manning was happy about this part.) Manning has neck surgery even though the lockout will keep Manning from working with team trainers. Manning negotiates a contract that includes a clause allowing the Colts to cut him following the 2011-2012 season with minimal salary cap implications. Certainly, all parties involved assumed this fail-safe, in case the surgery didn’t work, would be a mere formality come March. That neck surgery turns out to be a big deal. News leaks out that Manning will miss at least the first two months of the NFL season.
Last fall: Manning watches as the Colts, to put it plainly, suck really bad. The situation is made all the worse since General Manager Bill Polian, who drafted Manning and built effective teams around him, is about as media friendly as Oscar the Grouch at 80 with a heavy drinking problem. This may not have mattered except coach Jim Caldwell turned out to be a barely sentient tree person. The local media decided all the discourtesy Polian had shown them over the years was too much. They attack him. Also, there is Andrew Luck looking like Manning while leading Stanford to a BCS bowl. Manning stays upbeat as he misses the whole season waiting for some nerve to regenerate, which is never a guarantee.
This winter: Manning hears Jim Irsay claim that the Colts will draft Luck even if Manning is healthy. For Manning, that means two unappetizing propositions. 1: The Colts draft Luck and keep Manning, which hinders the Colts from improving the team Manning might be starting for. 2: The Colts cut Manning before the next season, leaving Manning on the open market with a host of other teams who want him but have to ask, “If he was healthy, would the Colts have cut him?” In the middle of a conversation about his off-season rehab with Polian, the long-time general manager is summoned to Irsay’s office to be fired. New boss Ryan Grigson is hired about a week later, and most of the coaching staff is fired, retires or leaves to accept other jobs. Rob Lowe tweets that Manning will retire.
After all that, Manning has to watch over the next few weeks as his little brother’s Giants and arch-nemesis Tom Brady take over his practice facility to prepare for the Super Bowl in the stadium he is largely responsible for. It is hard to blame him for complaining about the state of the franchise (especially since we know one week into his job, the new GM hadn’t bothered to call Manning). “It’s not a real good environment down there right now,” he said. Duh.
OK, so Manning isn’t exactly a tragic hero. The man has made hundreds of millions of dollars, has two healthy kids and a very attractive wife. But as a long-time Colts fan, I can’t help but wonder if there isn’t a better way to handle the dismantling of a franchise. Within a few weeks, the Colts will have their new head coach and soon after the infrastructure will be back. Over the next month, Manning will find out his fate, and maybe he will come back as the unquestioned leader of the Colts, especially if they trade the number one overall pick for a bevy of young talent or draft picks. Maybe it is a good time for the best player in Indianapolis Colts history to move on, go to a franchise that already has a team he can compete with right away, like the Jets.
But I cannot believe that this was the best way to manage the franchise, to leave Manning as the figurehead even while his own fate was uncertain. Perhaps both parties will come out for the better, and Manning will have a successful swan song as the Colts get the next great QB. All I know is that if anything less than that happens, it will be Mr. Irsay’s fault, not Manning’s.
— Gregory Bearringer is a graduate student in medieval studies. He can be reached at gbearrin@utk.edu.
