The 28 Million Dollar Question

Manning and Owner Jim Irsay sharing a moment before Super Bowl XLI

        How quickly things can change. Less then seven months ago, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning was on the mount rushmore of quarterbacks playing in the NFL today. Beloved by his peers and fans with his funny commercials and Saturday night live skits. He has lead his team to two super bowls, winning the first in 2006 season against the Bears, and losing the second to the Saints in the 2009 season. He has been to the playoffs nine times in his thirteen years of starting at quarterback for the Colts.Which is rare in this era of football with free agency, causing teams to have different rosters ever year. He is a four time MVP, eleven time pro bowler. His career numbers are amazing, his quarterback rating is 94.9, thrown a completion percentage of 64.9. One touchdown away from throwing 400 total touchdowns, not counting playoffs (Nfl.com/player/peytonmanning.com). There is no doubt Peyton Manning is one of the best quarterbacks to ever put on a helmet.
        In July, owner Jim Irsay signed Peyton to a five year ninety million contract extension, guaranteeing Manning would retire has a Colt. He will be 39 years old at the end of the contract. Manning at the time was still recovering from a second neck surgery he had on May 23. But said recovery was ''going good, and would be ready for the season opener. Barring any major setbacks''. Well he had a setback in august and was questionable for the season opener. Manning missed all of the preseason and training camp. Then on September 7th Manning had a third neck surgery ending his season. The surgery he had is called a anterior fusion procedure, in which they had to remove soft disk tissue between the vertebrae. Then fusing the bones together using a graft. The main goal of the surgery according to (spine-health.com), is to ease pain or address a disk problem. A statement from Colts Management said ''rehabilitation from such surgery is an involved process, therefor there is no time table for Peyton's return''. He Missed the entire season, but was still paid his 23 million in salary and bonus they agreed too.
        Fast forwarding to February, the Colts finished the season (2-14) with the worst record in the league. This gives them the first pick in the draft in April. Peyton's absence was sorely missed without having the captain leading the ship. The offense never really got on it's feet playing three different quarterbacks all season. The Colts defense had always been a weak spot on the team, but they benefited with Manning being able to put up points fast in games and control the time of possession. Thus making the opposing team have to play catch up and pass the ball. Freeing up Pro Bowl defensive ends Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis, the one bright spot on the defensive side.
        Most draft experts have Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck as the best player in this year's draft. Analysts also have Luck being the best quarterback prospect, since John Elway was taken number one in the 1983 draft. The talk of Luck being taken by the colts started to really pick up after the season ended. Owner Jim Irsay fired General Manager Bill Polian and his son Chris Polian. Two weeks later They fired head coach Jim Caldwell, essentially cleaned house with firing most of the  coaches on the staff. They even dumped the athletic trainer and Manning's close friend Jim Torine who had been working with Peyton everyday. Peyton made comments after the firing saying ''I'm not in a very good place right now for healing'', he continued on saying ''Everybody's walking around on egg shells. I don't recognize are building right now, there's such complete and total change''. Referring to the new head coach Chuck Pagano and General Manager Jim Grigson.
       Peyton has been cleared by doctors to start throwing again, and reports surfaced that he was throwing the ball around with colts receiver's and even went and worked out at Duke, where his offensive coordinator at Tennessee is now the head coach. On February 12th Owner Jim Irsay tweeted  he watched Peyton throw and was pleased and even said discussion of Peyton's 28 million dollar  bonus which he is due on March 8th could be pushed back. Giving Peyton more time to get his arm strength back. The Colts if the deadline stays the same, have a buyout in Peyton's contract which allows them to cut him and not have to pay the rest of the contract. Adam Schefter of ESPN reported on February 6th, that Manning would be willing to sign a contract if released by the Colts. That would be a small amount of salary in years, but would give him big bonus's if he is healthy and starts the season. He made no comment on whether or not he would be flexibly in doing that with the Colts.
       There seems to be this feeling that Manning is for sure done in Indianapolis, with the cleaning house of the coaching staff and management. And the uncommon comment's from both Irsay and Manning to the media. Irsay commented on Manning's comment's about the change of staff and management. Irsay replied with ''i think Peyton should keep those types of comments in house'', and said ''protecting the horse shoe(Colts Logo) was the most important thing. Irsay also said that he wouldn't rule out drafting Luck or even Heismen trophy Winner Robert Griffin. Manning told (indystar.com) that he wants to retire a Colt, but acknowledged ''that with all the changes around here i may be next. Who knows?''.
        Really only Jim Irsay knows. The Colts can keep Manning if they think he's healthy enough, and even take Luck and have him sit behind Manning for a couple of seasons. Or trade the pick and get multiple high draft picks for this and next years draft's. Or they can follow their trend and completely clean house, with new management and coaching staff. Plus a fresh face at quarterback. It's very rare for a star player to finish is career with one team, Joe Montana finished his career with the Chiefs, Joe  Namath with the LA Rams, heck even Brett Favre with the Vikings. But like the saying goes, ''only time will tell''.