Peyton Manning Saga Could Upstage Super Bowl Itelf

In five days, the entire sports world will be focused on the Giants and New England Patriots as they play Super Bowl XLVI at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. The entire sports world will be focused on Tom Brady and Eli Manning. Or will they?

You would think that the answer to that question is a no-brainer. You would think that the answer to that question wouldn’t require a lot of thought. But you might be wrong.

Eli’s older brother Peyton might upstage both star quarterbacks on Sunday. Peyton Manning might upstage both teams. He could upstage the Super Bowl. He might even upstage the entire NFL.

And you know what? It won’t be such a bad thing when it’s all said and done.

The entire NFL is wondering what the Colts are going to do with Peyton. He missed the entire 2011 season after undergoing three neck surgeries. His contract calls for the Colts to pay him $28 million dollars on March 8^th (at this point there is virtually no chance of that happening). The talk last week was that the Colts would wind up letting him go. Now there is talk that he might retire (making actor Rob Lowe right and guys like Chris Mortensen of ESPN looking very silly).

Make no mistake, the Peyton story is the talk of Super Bowl week. It has become bigger than the Super Bowl itself. The game is being played in the house that (basically) Peyton built. Without his contributions, it’s doubtful the Colts would have been as successful as they have been over the last twelve seasons. Without that success, do you really think the Colts would have such a nice new stadium to call home?

Let’s look at some of the other storylines we’ve gotten as this game draws closer. We can start with the Eli Manning talk. It’s okay if you want to put Peyton’s younger brother in the ‘elite’ class of quarterbacks. I’ve got no problem with that. After what he did this year he deserves it (and this is coming from someone that isn’t an Eli fan). But to actually sit there and try to debate who the better Manning is? That is ridiculous.

No matter what Eli has accomplished, even if he wins more Super Bowls than Peyton does, the older Manning is the better Manning. It’s not even close. Take a look at the numbers. Peyton has a better completion percentage. Peyton has thrown 399 touchdown passes with 198 interceptions (that’s better than a 2-to-1 margin). Eli has 185 TD passes compared to 129 picks. Again, advantage Peyton. I could give you more numbers, but I think you get my point.

So the talk about which Manning is better is ridiculous. It might fill a segment of a sports talk radio show, but there is no case to be made for Eli as the better Manning (even if he wins the second Super Bowl ring that Peyton doesn’t have).

Then there has been the talk about what Tom Brady’s place in history is if the Patriots win on Sunday. Again, it’s a short conversation. Whether or not New England wins Sunday is irrelevant. Brady has three Super Bowl rings. He’s one of the best that has ever played the game. He is right up there with guys like Joe Montana. There is no need to belabor the point.

There are three other stories that have people talking this week. The first one is about Pats tight end Rob Gronkowski and his high ankle sprain. Will he play? Well, all I can say is that Sunday is the Super Bowl, and ‘Gronk’ will do everything he can to play in the biggest game of his life. Other than that, again, it’s a short conversation. None of us really knows if he will be able to go. Only Gronkowski, the Patriots and a higher power knows, and none of them are telling us right now.

Now let’s talk about Tom Coughlin. Where does the head coach of the Giants belong if he wins another Super Bowl. I have a one word answer for you on that one – Canton. A win makes him a Hall of Famer in my mind. Multi-time Super Bowl winners have to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The only reason Bill Parcells isn’t at this point is because he came back time and time again.

And the last story people are talking about is the confidence of the New York Giants players. Antrel Rolle told reporters on Monday that the Giants ‘expect’ to win the Super Bowl. Patriots fans are upset at this. How dare he talk so brashly about winning it all? Well, what do you expect him to say? That the Giants hope to win the Super Bowl? Come on! Get over it.

So as you see, the stories that many in the media have tried to come up with for Super Bowl XLVI don’t have staying power. A least they don’t have the staying power that the Peyton Manning saga has. This is a soap opera that could last for at least another six weeks. What will the Colts do with him? Will he retire? And if he doesn’t retire, where will he play?

The Peyton story has juice. It has legs. And it could upstage the Super Bowl itself.

Change is About to Catch Up with Peyton Manning

Peyton Manning

There is one constant in the NFL. Change.

It happens all the time in the league. Players move around. Coaches go from job to job. General managers go from place to place. Change is a fact of life in football.

These days, it’s very rare to see a player spend his entire career in one place. And I’m not just talking about average players. I am talking about star players, too. Dan Marino, who spent his whole career in Miami, is the exception rather than the rule. Joe Montana finished out his Hall of Fame career in Kansas City. Emmitt Smith was a member of the Arizona Cardinals. I could go on and on, but there is a larger point here that I am trying to get at here.

And that larger point is this. Don’t expect Peyton Manning, if he plays football in 2012, to be a member of the Indianapolis Colts.

I know it seems strange to read that. And it’ll be strange to see him wearing another uniform. But if he is able to return from the neck surgeries that kept him sidelined for all of the 2011 season, the colors Manning will wear on NFL Sundays will not be the colors of the Colts.

The signs are all there, and even Manning has said it himself. Bill Polian, the man who built the Colts into Super Bowl champions, is gone. Jim Caldwell, the man Tony Dungy handpicked to succeed him as head coach, was fired. And the players that Manning has been used to seeing on a daily basis are slowly walking out the door themselves.

The future Hall of Famer sees the writing on the wall, telling Bob Kravitz of the Indianapolis Star that, "It's not a real good environment down there right now, to say the least. Everybody's walking around on eggshells. I don't recognize our building right now. There's such complete and total change."

That wave of change is going to include Manning. The new coach in town is Chuck Pagano, who appreciates having a good quarterback, but is used to winning because of strong defenses. He has no ties to Manning. Neither does new general manager Ryan Grigson. There is a new regime in charge of the Colts, and they aren’t going to keep anyone around out of loyalty. And that includes Manning.

Especially when there is no guarantee that Manning will return from his medical issues. And even if he does return, will he be the same Manning we last saw in 2010? Or will he be a Manning who plays at a somewhat diminished level? No one knows which Manning we will see if and when he makes his return. Add to that the $28 million option bonus he is due to receive on March 8 and it’s very unlikely that he will be a Colt in 2012.

Yes, it comes down to something as simple as money. Owner Jim Irsay is no fool. He is a businessman. He knows what good risks are and he knows what bad risks are. As much as he probably would like to keep Manning around and not take the PR hit that will come with Manning’s release, do you think it makes good business sense to pay someone $28 million dollars if there is a chance he might not play again? I don’t have Irsay’s money or business acumen, but even I know that would be a bad business move.

As Manning told the Indianapolis Star a couple of days ago, he will sit down with Irsay at some point and the two of them will come to a decision about his future in Indianapolis. The two will talk about a lot of different things. His health being at the top of the list. They will talk about the changes made in the front office and on the coaching staff. And they will also talk about the fact that Andrew Luck, the star quarterback from Stanford, is going to be the team’s selection with the No. 1 pick in April’s draft. When the two emerge from their meeting, I would be very surprised to hear that Manning is still a Colt.

Where Manning winds up is a subject that we can bring up at a different time (though I think that the most intriguing spot for him is with the San Francisco 49ers). The subject at hand is change. It, as I mentioned at the beginning of the column, is the one constant in the NFL.

Change has hit Indianapolis very hard. It started with Manning missing the entire 2011 season. It continued with the firings of both Bill and Chris Polian. Change also saw Jim Caldwell leave town. Change also swept Grigson and Pagano into the roles they currently have.

And change will ultimately lead the Colts and Peyton Manning to part ways.

Scott Boras Does it Again

Scott Boras

Never doubt Scott Boras.

That’s the lesson that must be learned after Boras got his client, Prince Fielder, a nine-year contract from the Detroit Tigers worth $214 million. This deal is classic Boras.

In recent weeks, there were whispers that maybe Boras was losing his magic touch. After all, he had the biggest bat on the free agent market outside of Albert Pujols and had not been able to land that big money deal that he had talked about when free agency opened for business a couple of months ago.

There was a theory making the rounds that Fielder would have to take a short-term deal and try his luck on the open market again in a few years. There didn’t seem to be many teams willing to take a chance on the slugger. There was even speculation that the Milwaukee Brewers could somehow bring him back (which was something that was never going to happen).

And while all of this was happening, there was nothing coming from the Boras/Fielder side of things. There were no planted stories. There were no interviews given by Boras on the lack of a market developing for his client. Instead there was silence followed by the bombshell that was dropped yesterday with the news that the Tigers had landed Fielder, bringing him to the city where his father Cecil made his mark as a slugger in the 1990’s.

It was, like I said before, classic Boras. He worked behind the scenes to get the deal done. He did it on his timetable. He let it play out. And he got the deal he was looking for in November (a deal that averages over $23 million per season).

This deal is a win-win for everyone involved. It makes a winner out of Boras because he got his client the kind of deal he wanted. He got Fielder the kind of deal that many around the game thought he would not be able to get. He proved that at the end of the day, with apologies to rival agent Dan Lozano, Boras is still the best in the business.

The deal makes Fielder a winner because, simply put, he cashes in. Fielder has always been motivated by what happened with his father. In case you forgot, Cecil Fielder made a nice chunk of change when he played, but because of gambling issues, he blew most of his fortune. Prince Fielder always said he would never do what his father did. He wanted to make sure that he got what he thought he was worth and he wanted to make sure that his family would never have to worry about money. The younger Fielder accomplished all of that just by agreeing to this megadeal in Detroit.

The Tigers are also winners. First of all, it brings Fielder to Detroit, where his father’s name still carries a lot of clout. Fielder also will make the loss of Victor Martinez (torn ACL, likely to miss all of 2012) hurt a little less. Fielder is one of the top-five sluggers in the game. And putting him in the same lineup as Miguel Cabrera is simply going to be a nightmare for other teams in the American League. The Tigers were already good (remember they also have this pitcher named Verlander – maybe you’ve heard of him?). With Fielder in the lineup they are the class of the American League Central. With everything the Tigers have they could wind up being the class of the entire American League.

This deal is not without risks. Fielder will be 28 this coming May and will be 37 by the time the deal comes to an end. Given his weight, there is good reason to question whether or not giving him this large of a contract is wise. Given the fact that he isn’t the greatest defensive first baseman we’ve ever seen, there is good reason to question whether or not the Tigers were smart to extend themselves the way they have.

But no one in Detroit is thinking about those risks at the moment. You have to figure that Fielder will live up to his end of the deal for – at least – the first five years of the contract (just like a certain slugger that the Los Angeles Angels signed earlier this off-season).

Is it likely that Fielder’s weight will become an issue at some point? Yes, and it would be foolish to think otherwise. But, if you look at his body of work since he became a full-time Major Leaguer (beginning with the 2006 season), you will find that Fielder has been more durable than you would have thought considering his build. He has a track record of being durable.

As far as his defense goes, well, he’s never going to be known as a defensive whiz. But he’s not nearly as bad as some would have you believe. He might not be a Gold Glove candidate, but he is adequate.

And even if his weight and defense become factors towards the back half of this contract, the Tigers can simply move him to the DH spot. That should save wear and tear on his body. That should make his defense a non-issue.

At the end of the day, Fielder got what he wanted. The Tigers got what they wanted. Boras got what he wanted. Boras got what many thought he would not be able to get. And what did we learn after all is said and done?

Never doubt Scott Boras.