Mr Irsay hurry up please; it is Peyton Manning all over – Part Two
It was not just the 2011 National Football League (NFL) regular season that Indianapolis Colts’ quarterback, Peyton Manning, was the major focus of the media; he has been making headlines more frequently now in the offseason.
Following the controversial and contradictory viewpoints expressed by Bill Polian in the later part of the season, the owner, Irsay came out with his firm stance that Manning would not be joining them in the season.
He did not say anything about his future at Colts beyond the 2011 season. One of the negative outfalls of the Manning controversy that lived on and kept growing in some cases on the media hype came apparent in the offseason.
The performance given by Colts on the field in the absence of Peyton Manning in the regular season did not leave much space for Irsay to think about.
The Colts finished the season with only two wins and 14 losses, and it did not take Irsay much hard work to make all officials who part of the team during its lowest ebb of its history scapegoats of the results.
He sacked the outspoken chairman, Bill Polian, his son, Chris Polian, the general manager at Colts, head coach, Jim Caldwell and eight assistant coaches in the week-long cleansing drive.
Almost all these developments reported in the perspective of Peyton Manning’s absence from the team, which cost the team the entire season of 2011. Almost all of them had worked with the player in good times.
They were all his supporters and have come out to his defence at many occasions. Their past glories were overshadowed by their one bad season in front of their employer and he got rid all of them in one sweeping drive.
Almost all of them had expressed of Manning’s importance for Colts before their departure. So, the issue of Manning, which for a short while was put on the back burner, all sudden got new life from the reports of rash hiring firing at Colts and public comments
made by all the departing officials.
So, the controversy, which had managed to linger on got a new vigour and top the media coverage throughout the week. This made his employer, Jim Irsay, try his best to distract media focus from the issue. He did not succeed much, though.
Having been silent over the developments at the team’s headquarters, Peyton Manning finally gave up and spoke of his disappointment and hurt caused of by the departure of his former managers and coaching staff.
It was for the first time that player had gone public on the issue of his return, affecting almost all people around him.
His remarks did not please his employer and he came out with equally befitting reply. He labelled the player a ‘politician’ and asked him to keep all pertaining issues within the family.
Manning defended his remarks in a later statement saying they were not in intentions of generating public feud. It was too late for him to mend the damage done.
Almost media outlets have hit the apparent rift in the ties between Peyton Manning and Irsay, giving more opportunities to rumour mongers to build on the hype.
This happened to prove more frustrating for the owner, Irsay, who finally and sensibly decide to remain silent on the issue before it comes up on his agenda.
People around the player in the meanwhile have kept talking and expressing themselves in favour of the player, rejecting chances of his release by Colts beforehand.
One among those notables is Peyton’s father, Archie Manning, who has never let down his son at the times need and crisis.
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