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Bob Kravitz is a columnist for The Indianapolis Star. Call him at (317) 444-6643 or email bob.kravitz@indystar.com. You can also follow Bob on Twitter at @bkravitz.
Kravitz: Colts fans, please don't blame Irsay or Manning
We knew this was coming, knew it all the way back when the Colts went to 0-13 and earned the pole position to draft Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck. And yet, hearing and reading the news Tuesday night -- Peyton Manning to be released by Colts -- was still somehow shocking.
Shocking and so, so strange.
He was going to be a Colt for life, a Colt up until the day he couldn't throw a football any longer. The idea that he would someday play elsewhere seemed foreign and downright ridiculous.
How could that happen?
And yet it's happened.
The Manning era, which saw the Colts win 10-plus games 11 times, play in 19 playoff games and win a Super Bowl, is over.
And it's happened because it had to happen. It had to happen because there were just too many questions about the state of his surgically repaired neck and his right arm, and because only a fool tosses away a chance to grab Luck and let him grow with a new, rebuilding team.
There is no bad guy here.
Not Colts owner Jim Irsay.
Not Peyton Manning.
It was the perfect storm of imperfect circumstances, a 2-14 season, a devastating series of neck injuries and the unexpected and incredibly fortuitous availability of Luck at the No. 1 draft spot.
I give Irsay credit for having the backbone to do the most difficult thing he's had to do as an NFL owner.
And I give Manning credit for understanding that times and circumstances change, that it was better for him and for the organization to move on and try to win a championship elsewhere.
"With all the moves that happened this year after the season was over with -- the GM being fired, all of the coaching staff and all of that -- I kind of figured something was going to happen,'' Dwight Freeney told the NFL Network. "Peyton is like family to us, family to me. He's been here 10 years with me. It's been great, but we also understand this is the National Football League, and these things happen.''
There will be a lot of anger toward Irsay. That will be understandable. It's impossible to overstate the civic impact Manning had on this franchise, on this city and on this region. He did it not only as an athlete but as a philanthropist. He was, and still is, the most important athlete ever to grace the playing fields of Indianapolis.
And yet, people need to temper their anger with the understanding that Irsay had very little choice.
Archie Manning was absolutely right when he said it the first time: Peyton and Andrew can't be on the same roster.
Irsay tried to open the door, if only a little, for Manning's return, saying he would renegotiate the deal and have him back if he bought into certain conditions. He would have to take less money. He would have to play mentor to Luck, sharing a percentage of practice snaps. He'd even have to battle Luck for the starting quarterback job.
But Manning -- and don't blame him for this, either -- felt he was better off elsewhere. He felt he could make more money, have more autonomy and have a better chance to win a Super Bowl in another city, and he's right on all counts.
This has been a beautiful marriage for 14 amazing years. But the pair, Irsay and Manning, have grown and gone in different directions. Nobody wanted it to end this way, but it has, and now it's time for goodbyes.
Tears?
There will be lots of tears today at that news conference. From Irsay, from Manning, from an entire city who'd fallen in love with Manning and his family. Without No. 18, the Colts might not still be in Indianapolis. Certainly, there's no Lucas Oil Stadium, and there's no Indianapolis Super Bowl. His impact is incalculable.
The statue goes up immediately.
And how cool would it be if everybody who owns an 18 jersey -- and that's a lot of you -- wore it around town today?
This city is a different place, a better place, because Manning was a part of it for so long -- and he will continue to play a huge role here.
"His numbers speak for themselves,'' Gary Brackett told the NFL Network. "You talk about us being the winningest team in any decade of football. The 12 consecutive winning seasons, the Super Bowl.
"For me, getting here in 2003, the stands were suits and Green Bay jerseys. Probably now, there are 80 percent Colts jerseys, and largely his jerseys. He was a guy that really changed the landscape of Indianapolis and really changed the landscape of football.''
Surely, the relationship between Irsay and Manning has taken a hit and been strained. Manning had some issues with the way Irsay handled his business in recent months. Irsay was upset with some of the things Manning said to me in a story in The Star and was flabbergasted by the recent Manning-throwing video.
In the end, though, the relationship will endure and re-strengthen once the divorce proceedings are complete. These two men have done too many remarkable things together, taken too fantastic a journey, for it all to fall apart now. When the two profess their love and admiration for one another this afternoon, do not cynically dismiss it as a bunch of empty happy talk. It is real. It is very real.
But it was time.
Irsay's calculation was a simple one: Do I toss a lot of money at a severely injured 36-year-old quarterback when I have a rookie No. 1 pick coming on line? Do I put sentimentality in front of common sense?
The answers were no and no.
Where do you want this franchise to be in three years? Do you want them led by a quarterback who is hobbling into retirement, or by a young quarterback heading into his prime?
The sadness, the grief, is understandable. We are proprietary about our great athletes and especially our great citizens. We never want to say goodbye, never want the good times to end. But circumstances led Irsay and Manning to this unfathomable crossroads.
Wherever he plays next, whatever he does next, Manning will always be a Colt at heart, Indy's favorite son. No change of uniform can ever alter that.
Kravitz: Colts fans, please don't blame Irsay or Manning
We knew this was coming, knew it all the way back when the Colts went to 0-13 and earned the pole position to draft Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck. And yet, hearing and reading the news Tuesday night -- Peyton Manning to be released by Colts -- was still somehow shocking.
Shocking and so, so strange.
He was going to be a Colt for life, a Colt up until the day he couldn't throw a football any longer. The idea that he would someday play elsewhere seemed foreign and downright ridiculous.
How could that happen?
And yet it's happened.
The Manning era, which saw the Colts win 10-plus games 11 times, play in 19 playoff games and win a Super Bowl, is over.
And it's happened because it had to happen. It had to happen because there were just too many questions about the state of his surgically repaired neck and his right arm, and because only a fool tosses away a chance to grab Luck and let him grow with a new, rebuilding team.
There is no bad guy here.
Not Colts owner Jim Irsay.
Not Peyton Manning.
It was the perfect storm of imperfect circumstances, a 2-14 season, a devastating series of neck injuries and the unexpected and incredibly fortuitous availability of Luck at the No. 1 draft spot.
I give Irsay credit for having the backbone to do the most difficult thing he's had to do as an NFL owner.
And I give Manning credit for understanding that times and circumstances change, that it was better for him and for the organization to move on and try to win a championship elsewhere.
"With all the moves that happened this year after the season was over with -- the GM being fired, all of the coaching staff and all of that -- I kind of figured something was going to happen,'' Dwight Freeney told the NFL Network. "Peyton is like family to us, family to me. He's been here 10 years with me. It's been great, but we also understand this is the National Football League, and these things happen.''
There will be a lot of anger toward Irsay. That will be understandable. It's impossible to overstate the civic impact Manning had on this franchise, on this city and on this region. He did it not only as an athlete but as a philanthropist. He was, and still is, the most important athlete ever to grace the playing fields of Indianapolis.
And yet, people need to temper their anger with the understanding that Irsay had very little choice.
Archie Manning was absolutely right when he said it the first time: Peyton and Andrew can't be on the same roster.
Irsay tried to open the door, if only a little, for Manning's return, saying he would renegotiate the deal and have him back if he bought into certain conditions. He would have to take less money. He would have to play mentor to Luck, sharing a percentage of practice snaps. He'd even have to battle Luck for the starting quarterback job.
But Manning -- and don't blame him for this, either -- felt he was better off elsewhere. He felt he could make more money, have more autonomy and have a better chance to win a Super Bowl in another city, and he's right on all counts.
This has been a beautiful marriage for 14 amazing years. But the pair, Irsay and Manning, have grown and gone in different directions. Nobody wanted it to end this way, but it has, and now it's time for goodbyes.
Tears?
There will be lots of tears today at that news conference. From Irsay, from Manning, from an entire city who'd fallen in love with Manning and his family. Without No. 18, the Colts might not still be in Indianapolis. Certainly, there's no Lucas Oil Stadium, and there's no Indianapolis Super Bowl. His impact is incalculable.
The statue goes up immediately.
And how cool would it be if everybody who owns an 18 jersey -- and that's a lot of you -- wore it around town today?
This city is a different place, a better place, because Manning was a part of it for so long -- and he will continue to play a huge role here.
"His numbers speak for themselves,'' Gary Brackett told the NFL Network. "You talk about us being the winningest team in any decade of football. The 12 consecutive winning seasons, the Super Bowl.
"For me, getting here in 2003, the stands were suits and Green Bay jerseys. Probably now, there are 80 percent Colts jerseys, and largely his jerseys. He was a guy that really changed the landscape of Indianapolis and really changed the landscape of football.''
Surely, the relationship between Irsay and Manning has taken a hit and been strained. Manning had some issues with the way Irsay handled his business in recent months. Irsay was upset with some of the things Manning said to me in a story in The Star and was flabbergasted by the recent Manning-throwing video.
In the end, though, the relationship will endure and re-strengthen once the divorce proceedings are complete. These two men have done too many remarkable things together, taken too fantastic a journey, for it all to fall apart now. When the two profess their love and admiration for one another this afternoon, do not cynically dismiss it as a bunch of empty happy talk. It is real. It is very real.
But it was time.
Irsay's calculation was a simple one: Do I toss a lot of money at a severely injured 36-year-old quarterback when I have a rookie No. 1 pick coming on line? Do I put sentimentality in front of common sense?
The answers were no and no.
Where do you want this franchise to be in three years? Do you want them led by a quarterback who is hobbling into retirement, or by a young quarterback heading into his prime?
The sadness, the grief, is understandable. We are proprietary about our great athletes and especially our great citizens. We never want to say goodbye, never want the good times to end. But circumstances led Irsay and Manning to this unfathomable crossroads.
Wherever he plays next, whatever he does next, Manning will always be a Colt at heart, Indy's favorite son. No change of uniform can ever alter that.
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