I hope your wife and daughter are feeling better soon, LN.

I'm tired of the Peyton Manning bashing. He had another tremendous year. It will be remembered more for how it ended, which is unfortunate. He's a class act. The media, in the 2 weeks of hype leading up to the Super Bowl, were all debating about whether he was the greatest QB in NFL history. As soon as he threw that pick, most of the media turned on him. It's ridiculous how hypocritical they can be. I think the much bigger story is how the Colts as an organization have fallen short of expectations in all but one season.

Re: Manning walking off the field. This is something that is also completely overanalyzed by the media, particularly in the last 5 years. The only incident that was classless was Belichick refusing to shake another head coach's hand after losing a few years ago. LeBron walking off the court after losing to Orlando last year and Peyton Manning are both non-stories. We've reached a point where the media is consciously looking for any player who does not shake hands or do what the media believes should be done following a loss. What they are not reporting is how unbelievably competitive most of the athletes are. The athlete just lost an important game and have not even had time to process it. The athlete can be forgiven for wanting to get off the field/court ASAP.

Good luck and happy health to you and your family, LN.

I completely agree with goombah, here. The media finds an angle and beats it to death - is Peyton Manning the greatest ever? is his legacy tainted?

Not that I agree with any of these athletes walking off the field - good sportsmanship is part of sports, after all - but I wouldn't get on a high horse and bash them either. For the very logical reason given by goombah, you could understand where they may be coming from, especially when it's a moment out of character.

The minute the writers hold themselves up to the same standards that they expect the athletes to follow, then they can start throwing stones.

Peyton Manning would have to win 3 more Super Bowls just be tied with Montana and Bradshaw, who each have 4. I didn't hear anyone in the media last weekend ready to annoint Manning the greatest ever, and if they did.....uh, that's completely illogical considering two other active QB's in his own conference have more rings. Plus, by Peyton's own admission he's not as good his Colts predecessor, Johnny U, who played mostly in the pre-Superbowl era.

I agree, Goom. As far as a classless act to match Belichick's, I have to go way back to the Pistons in '91, when the Bulls finally got past them. Not only wouldn't they shake hands with Jordan, Pippen and company, they started to walk off the court while there was still time left on the clock.

The strange thing is that their coach, Chuck Daly, was one of the all-time class guys in the history of the NBA (a nifty dresser, too). But Isiah, Salley, Dumars, Laimbeer, Rodman, et al. displayed one of the single greatest showings of poor sportsmanship that I ever recall in a "Big Four" sporting event.

Frank Nitti, re: Johnny Unitas-Peyton Manning. Unitas is the biggest unsung hero in the history of the NFL, in that the formation of the modern day league (the latter half of the last century up until now) was built on his back. And Peyton Manning sure has a long way to go before being compared to him. But as far as Peyton saying that he's not as good as Unitas? He has to say that. A class guy won't knock the previous generations. And give Manning credit, he's consistently proven himself a class act (walking off the field Sunday not withstanding).

You know how many times the choker had comeback wins this season? 7 regular season and 1 in the playoffs. I believe he has the most all time in the NFL.

Montana and Bradshaw have 4 rings each, did either of them play in the salary cap era? How good were their teams without the QB? Try to say Bradshaw is a better QB than Manning and -- here's the tricky part -- keep a straight face.

The AFC south has had the best record in the NFL for awhile, look it up! It is consistently a very strong division.

I really believe that if Reggie Wayne was 100% there would have been no Tracy Porter INT. Wayne also would have made another catch he failed to pull in. And then there is the lack of a pass rush and just deciding not to cover people... and this is all on Peyton according to the media, and college football fans.


I did forget Staubach on my list, pretty good just from memory though...

I dunno why you still feel the need to 'defend yur team' after they lost and you've been GUARANTEEING their victory all season!

No offense, but I've noticed that when anyone made even the slightest attempt to debunk your "Colts gratest team evar, bitches!" theory this year, you've been prone to using hyperbole and childish name calling. You've chilled-out a bit now that they've had their asses handed to them, but really, your overzealous antics this season concerning what you perceived as your team's inevitable, inherent 'greatness' and championship just shows your lack of respect and knowledge of the game, as well as your ineptitude concerning the infinite variables that go into each game and each play.

You've forgotten (or failed to notice) that anyone can win on any given day. Let me say that again: ANYONE can win, on any given day. And quite frankly, you'll be lucky if 'yur team' gets one more ring, much less three.

And your logic is largely skewed on most of your other points, but in any case:
i.)statistics don't mean much in football, it's not like baseball where you can draw serious statistical inference through 182 games of repetition and routine. Football is all about who has the smartest, fastest, strongest players, with the best coaches, gameplanning, offseason preparation, and team management. It's not numbers that win games, it's your people.
ii.)any regular season heroic comebacks engineered by Manning do not negate his status as choker; it's what you do in the games where the season and your legacy are at stake that matters. He'll have more chances to prove himself a winner.
iii.) Bradshaw's Steelers were built to run, play defense, AND pass (unlike the pass-happy Colts) and that's why Bradshaw has 4 ring
iv.) the salary cap didn't prevent Brady & Pats from winning 3 out of 4 superbowls, where's Peyton's?
v.) the Colts are the only team in the AFC south who perennially have a winning record: the Texans (who almost beat Indy twice this season) and Titans are unproven and unreliable, and any good team would/should go undefeated in that sub-par conference.
vi.)Ya, I can see how you'd forget Staubach,it's pretty easy to forget a guy who went to 4 superbowls in 10 years and was 8 points away from being the greatest QB of the 70's, if not ever. ;p

To put it mildly there was a lot of bad blood between Detroit/Chicago and specifically between Thomas/Laimbeer and Jordan.

But let the record show that Dumars did indeed stay behind and shake Jordan's hand. Thomas shook McHale's hand despite years of similar bad blood between Detroit/Boston and Parish's vicious attack on Laimbeer. There was something about Thomas and Jordan that just rubbed the other guy the wrong way beyond the normal limits of sports decorum.

I am how I am, I talk trash about all my teams, be it my Indy Colts or my fantasy football team. I'd do it whether they were 16-0 or 0-16, it just wouldn't irritate people as much if my team wasn't so good.

1. Want to talk about a meaningless stat? Super Bowl rings. The most useless way to judge a one man on a 53 man roster, ever.

2. Put any average-above average QB on those Steelers teams, do they still win those Super Bowls?

3. Why would the Colts ever utilize their greatest strength? How silly..

4. You can absolutely make a better case for Tom Brady than Terry Bradshaw or just about anyone else. Brady is unquestionably top 5, just like Peyton Manning.

5. You didn't look it up, did you? The AFC south is a very strong conference, and it has been for awhile. Seriously, look it up.

6. Yeah it is pretty easy to forget those super bowls I wasn't around for.

No, no, see, that's where you're not making the connection. It's irritaing b/c all knowledgable fans of the game having been telling you Indy fans over the years that your defense and running game had problems, and that b/c of this, and the pressure put on the D from a pass-happy offense, the Colts were going to come up short just like they do each and every year. Your absolute insistence that the defense was in fact good enough to win a championship, and that statistically the Colts were still the best team in the league despite their obvious holes, is what 'irritated people.' We've now been vindicated (again) and you're all left with serious yolk in your face (again).

But now, what? You'll still insist they're the greatest team ever, and you've already begun jockeying for your chances in next year's Superbowl. Now that is irritating.

1. Dan Marino and Fran Tarkenton called. They want you to write their auto-biography: "How to become a winner by being a loser."

2. So you don't even know who Roger Staubach is, but you can pass judgment on his contemporay, Bradshaw? Riiight.

3. Refer to intro (above). You live by the pass and sooner or later you'll die by it. The Colts have died by it at the most inopportune moments. And you put tremendous pressure on your D if you go 3 and out with 3 incompletions and no time run off the clock. Gotta have some kind of running game to rely on in big moments of the game, i.e. the last minute of the Super Bowl's first half for Indy.

4. You admit you haven't been watching football for very long so stop using adjectives like unquestionably to qualify your statement about Brady and Manning's place in the top 5 among all time QB's. That's one of the most difficult 'best-of' lists to come up with in all of sports, and yet you, who just began watching football in the past 5 years, deem yourself qualified enough to make such an assertion simply b/c you hear a b-rate columnist annoint Manning an all time great in order to create buzz and sell tickets. (Bottom line: If Manning's in the top 5, then so is Favre, who still blows Manning out of the water, statistically, and then you're gonna have some real problems rounding out a top five list for a game that dates back over a century.)

5. Look what up? That they've all been .500 or below teams every year? I know who they have on their rosters and what they did in college.

6. Refer to # 4

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Did "Steve Thompson" just compare Jim McMahon to all of those guys?

Roger Staubach flew helicopters in the Vietnam War prior to taking the Cowboys to 4 Superbowls in 10 years, while Jim McMahon is one of the biggest punks of all-time who has one ring with the 85 Bears and probably wouldn't make my top 100.

mcmahon is no where near a great qb, but he was decent with being half blind and injury prone (doesnt help matters when a fat bastard from green bay bodyslams you to the ground).

Yeah. I shouldn't say that about McMahon given his blindness. I feel bad for the guy and I'm sure his ailment contributed to his less than civil behavior at times.

True dat. Dumars is class personified. He always has been. And truth be told, I've come to like John Salley a great deal in his second career as a sports talk tv guy.

But you'll NEVER get me onboard with Laimbeer. He was a thug and a second rate center. He couldn't carry Parish's jock. And I'm a Knicks fan. I LOATHE the Celtics!

And as far as Parish's "vicious attack" on Laimbeer? Are you forgetting game 4 of that series when Laimbeer had the audacity to clothesline Larry Bird? Parish just snapped in game 5. Okay, it was wrong, but it wasn't entirely unprovoked.

How did things ever get so far? It was so unfortunate. So unnecessary. Boston had a player clotheslined. We had a player beat down. We're quits. And if KC Jones agrees, I'm willing to let things go on the way they were before...

pistons were thugs back then, and wimps now lol

Big Ben was sacked 47 times in 2008 and 50 times in 2009. He was sacked plenty more times in other seasons. He was also in a near fatal vehicle accident in 2006 that resulted in plates inserted in his face. I think that all equates to something more than being bodyslammed. Yet he has two superbowl rings at age 26 within his first six seasons, and the youngest QB to win a Superbowl. He came off the bench as a rookie and won 13 games in a row, has had his team in the playoffs four of those seasons, and is not afraid to throw a block as he did in SB XL that led to a score. He is one of the most sought after NFL players for commercials and appearances, he is decent, gives good example, and most importantly, doesn't manifest bad example. That's what a QB should be and, for that matter, all NFL players.

KC Jones is a pimp. He never could've outcoached Chuck Daly .

But what I didn't know until this day..was that it was David Stern all along.

You "facts" and things you "know" are wrong.

I admitted to not watching football in the 70's so you claim I've been watching 5 years...

You refuse to look up actual facts about things instead choosing to rely solely on (wrong) assumptions and outdated opinions.

AFC South and Indy defense are prime examples of this, you assume the AFC South is a weak division because the Colts dominate it, when they usually have the best winning % of any division. The Indy Defense was a top 10 defense this year, and then injuries happened in the postseason, like our starting CB breaking his foot, our most important defensive player (yeah even more so than Fragile Bob Sanders) tearing a ligament in his ankle. Not to mention the absence of Bob Sanders and Marlin Jackson all year and Kelvin Hayden for a significant portion. But no, go ahead and listen to the TV announcers who still call the Colts a dome team and think we have the same defense as the 2004 Colts.

There is no way to actually debate anything with you because of these reasons, but I damn sure tried.

I know you're frustrated, LN, and I know Manning was frustrated greatly after the loss. He should have won atleast three rings by now, and instead, he only has one in two appearances, and it may very well be his last in the foreseeable future with the Patriots, Steelers, and Chargers all looking to get back in the AFC mix next year.

I'm not really debating the merits of those Colt teams b/c they're all pretty good teams in the all-time rankings, I guess what I'm wondering is: why your entire life is seemingly devoted to a pretty good american football team with an inconsistent but still sometimes great quarterback; so much so that you'll make callous and tactless remarks to other more self-effacing board members whose arguments (my own included) are not only logical, but in the majority?

I like pro-football as much as the next, but why anyone would define themselves and their personality by a professional football team is beyond me b/c it's not like you're 'defending' your college team and alma mater, we're talking about pro-football, here.

Are you saying we should all quit our jobs and become Colts fans, huh?

And are you even going to acknowledge once the Saints and their Championship season?

Or are you still *ahem* choked-up like yur boyfriend, Manning

Btw, I think that the quarterback position is the one position on the football field in which the generation the quarterback played in is mostly irrelevent when considering all time ranking. Guys may be bigger, stronger and sometimes faster in general among today's generation and that generally makes modern players supreme at most position, but size and speed really have no relevance with an athlete's ball skills.

I never saw Johnny Unitas play, but you don't have to be an NFL scout to look at those old tapes and realize why they called him the 'golden arm.' Hey, those old guys could chunk the ball just as good (if not better) than some of these testosterone-filled, hormonial imbalanced meatheads of the modern era.

I'm not sure what you think I should do to acknowledge the Saints win, should I drive to New Orleans and yell 'congratulations' from my car? Write a letter? What?

I think we had a great season, 14-0 and a super bowl... and if the Saints were against any other AFC team I would have rooted for them. I am a fan of Drew Brees from his Purdue days.

What disappoints me is people using this loss to try to knock Manning down and start the talk of being a choker again. It's just so illogical and fueled more by hatred than facts. Peyton Manning does not play college football anymore and he is not the same QB.

I love the NFL in general a whole lot, I am what you call a fanatic. I watch every game I can. I try to go to the Colts training camp each year since I can't afford going to a game.

I was never a Manning fan because he would always try to put everything on him and end up losing the game because of it, but he has matured as a QB, I would say about 2005 he learned to rely more on his team to help him.

I love my team, and if that's wrong, I don't wanna be right

Umm, as much as I enjoy talking about the Bulls-Pistons-Celtics rivalry, Peyton Manning's legacy and Ben Roethlisburger's face, ya think we can focus more on this year's Super Bowl MVP, Mista Mista Drew Breeeees!

Seriously, Brees-Mania is sweeping the nation:

Who?

Oh yeah, the pride of Austin, right?

Eh, a one hit wonder. Next year when he's 6 and 10 you'll be posting stories about when he embarrassed you by throwing up all over your girlfriend at the prom .

_Longneck_

@drewbrees I rooted for you at Purdue but after Super Bowl XLIV I am afraid we have become mortal enemies. P.S. Congratulations.

The fix was in for New Orleans.

Did someone just defrost you?