Brady vs. Manning by Gary Myers

Author:Gary Myers
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crown/Archetype
Published: 2015-09-21T16:00:00+00:00

It didn’t end the way it should have for Johnny Unitas in Baltimore, Joe Namath in New York, or Joe Montana in San Francisco. They were the biggest names in the history of their franchises, but they all finished their careers with other teams. It didn’t end the way it should have for Peyton Manning in Indianapolis, either.

The problem started in the spring leading into the 2011 season. Manning had neck surgery in May, the NFL players were locked out March 11 by NFL owners in a labor dispute, and Manning was one of the named plaintiffs in an antitrust lawsuit against the league, so the Colts’ contact with him was minimal. Team president Bill Polian said he was “barraged” by league counsel and team counsel not to talk to Manning. The league was advising all teams not to speak with any of their players during the shutdown. The lockout lasted 136 days, until July 26.

Polian could not be in touch with his franchise quarterback, even after he had neck surgery. “Dr. [Hank] Feuer, our neurosurgeon, had some contact but not a lot. Our trainer had some contact but not a lot,” Polian said. “Only the bare minimum, because the constant refrain was, ‘Don’t talk to him, don’t talk to him, don’t talk to him.’ ”

When the lockout ended, Polian had a lengthy phone conversation with Manning. Manning reported to the training facility the next day and told Polian he was fine and expected to be ready for the start of the season. The Colts then signed Manning, a free agent, to a five-year, $90 million deal.

Polian said Manning told him he didn’t need as much money as Brady. “You figure out something that works so we can keep people on the team,” Manning said.

“You need to get as much as Brady,” Polian said. “There’s no reason to do otherwise.”

There was a $28 million option inserted for 2012 to protect the Colts in the event Manning’s neck was worse than they thought. The minimal contact in the off-season prevented the Colts from getting a precise picture of what was going on, and as a result, Polian left the Colts exposed at backup quarterback. As practices started in early August, Manning was not on the field. There was no indication when he was going to be able to throw.

“Believe me, as training camp went on, we became more and more concerned, because he wasn’t coming along the way you wanted him to,” Polian said. “He, of course, was becoming more concerned and more irritable about it. I never blame a player who’s hurt for feeling that way.”

Panic began to set in. Colt owner Jimmy Irsay and Polian had loaded up to make one last run with the core group that had been to the Super Bowl two years earlier, but Curtis Painter was the next man up at quarterback. Painter was best known for coming in for Manning in the third quarter of the fifteenth game of the 2009 season when the Colts had a lead on the Jets.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.