I love Jim Irsay’s competitiveness. And that’s about it.
On Thursday, Jim Irsay suggested that his All-Universe QB, Peyton Manning, was “a politician.” That he loved Peyton, yet his injured superstar was wrong to state what he did on the previous day…ultimately that the Colts facility was a total downer…no good for rehabilitation. Sure, Manning was right on the money. Was he out of line? There’s not a Colts fan or football fan–other than Irsay–who is saying so.
Irsay went on to state:
I don’t think it’s in a good interest to paint the horseshoe in a negative light, I really don’t…He’s such a big part of that and everything else, but the horseshoe always comes first.
The horseshoe…always comes first…
You don’t have to be adept at inference to pick up what Irsay is laying down. Manning is all but gone, and Irsay is tossing him under the bus, trying to save whatever face he can for the loyalist fan base. A fan base that has become incredibly frustrated with the asininity rolling out of the owner’s office. If Irsay thinks that Colts fans are going to tolerate a healthy Manning playing elsewhere, he’ll quickly become the next Frank McCourt of the sporting world.
You have to love that a guy is pledging allegiance to his team, and the horseshoe, but let’s be honest here, this is the same horseshoe that galloped out of Baltimore in the dead of night all those years ago. It’s already painted yellow in the eyes of many older NFL fans. Irsay is now proving to be a stubborn fool. That or he simply doesn’t lack the integrity and brass to state, “We’re cleaning house–starting over–I don’t know that Peyton is going to fit into that mix.”
So the next question: If Petyon is healthy, where does he play next season? I’m going with Kansas City.
