Peyton Manning / Jim Irsay

[Mitch]

I really don't care how many billions Jim Irsay has, the man is a frigging idiot! He not only insulted Peyton, but Dungee and all of the members on his own team that went to the playoffs 11 times in 14 years.

“We’ve changed our model a little bit, because we wanted more than one of these,” Irsay told USA Today while displaying his Super Bowl ring. “(Tom) Brady never had consistent numbers, but he has three of these. Pittsburgh had two, the Giants had two, Baltimore had two and we had one. That leaves you frustrated. You make the playoffs 11 times, and you’re out in the first round seven out of 11 times. You have to love the Star Wars numbers from Peyton and Marvin (Harrison) and Reggie (Wayne). Mostly, you love this.”

Manning was asked to talk about his relationship with Irsay these days.

“I can’t and I won’t,” he said. (The man is a class act!)



Of course there is some truth to Irsay's statement, but you don't say it! OMG! - Hard to believe!

I'm sure Indy won't get the calls like they did when the Hawks played them in their house. In fact, I expect just the opposite! With Luck, they are going to be an awesome team. But this is not the year!

When Seattle plays Denver in the Super Bowl, in the cold of New York, I want the Legion of Boom to intercept him five times. But tonight, with the whole country watching, I want to see Peyton put up 60 points on Jim Irsay's team! It's only fair, he built the Team & the Stadium & the Dynasty; I really want to see him DESTROY them tonight!

 

[nsport]

Irsay is right, but clearly taken out of context.

They had an embarrassment of riches during the Manning era - but they did not play defense and Peyton literally was an awful clutch player, going back to his days at Tennessee. This includes last night's game, where he was flustered and had no answer to the "Seattle style" of defense - solid man-to-man and a great pass rush. No doubt that Peyton Manning will be up there with the greats and is a first-ballot HOF'er, but let's not forget that a QB does not win the SB - and Irsay is right, they are building this team to be more balanced and resilient - last night's display by Manning just shows how non-resilient he is when facing adversity. Most of those Colts teams were not good enough to win games when it counted - it's not Peyton's fault, but Manning himself is not enough. The Colts will want to win the SB (same as the Seahawks) before they have to give Luck a Manning/Flacco contract - $25MM per year is not valuable for team balance or chemistry - ask the Ravens how the Flacco contract affects their team. It's definitely no bueno!