These Colts have come a long, long way. They actaully formed from old Dayton Triangles who evolved into the Boston Yanks/Brooklyn Tigers and eventually became the All-American Football Conference entry that was known as the New York Yankees/Dallas Texans franchise of the early 50's. In 1953, this team moved to Baltimore & proceeded to endure after an ugly 3-9 start their 1st year in the NFL and were led by QB's Fred Enke & George Taliaferro (who was the 1st African-American QB drafted by an NFL team) for most of the season. Things became brighter when the Colts landed a savior out of Louisville, now HOF'er Johnny Unitas who delivered when the Colts won back-to-back NFL titles in 58' & 59' beating the New York Giants twice while also partly leading them to a Super Bowl 5 victory over Dallas. Overall, things weren't that easy. Even the great arm of QB Bert Jones out of L.S.U. tried to bring life back into the Colts franchise in the later 70's but couldn't get it done due to a lack of support coming from a porous defensive secondary. Things couldn't get any worse after the Colts failed to sign John Elway out of Stanford in the early 80's as a 1st-round pick combined with the after midnight Mayflower trucks move to Indianpolis. Those losses were the toughest since the franchise holocaust witnessed when Unitas led Baltimore to an 11-0-2 record in 1967 but lost the NFL Coastal Division championship to the Los Angeles Rams 34-10 in the last week sending them home for the season with an incredible 1 loss. Similar to all these pivotal franchise situations of the past is the biggest decision to date facing Jim Irsay who must decide to keep or trade Peyton William Manning. Let's put all things into perspective sitting at the 50. Manning has endured through 3 neck surgeries in less than 2 years and is still waiting for the critical nerves in his neck to heal from it all in hopes of competing again. Not losing hope after coming up with any resolvement from his trip out of the states, Peyton still remains optimistic after realizing there's no special training or medications to speed up his return. There is heavy pressure now being unleashed on Jim Irsay. He is now faced with weighing the odds of having to pay an extra 28 million on March 8th to Manning (who is Mr. Longevity) even though he may not play again. He's taking a hard look after knowing Manning played in 209 consecutive regular season games until injury & has passed for over 4,000 yards in 11 seasons. This same guy led his franchise to a Super Bowl 41 victory by a 29-17 over Chicago & was MVP. Getting rid of a player to free-agency who owns numerous all-time NFL & franchise records isn't an easy one. However, the overall future of "The Horseshoe" and current NFL cold war tactics may trump over the legacy of Peyton Manning and his superior credentials. His current decisions of cleaning house with coaches and the GM clearly indicate that Irsay is preparing to draft another Stanford QB in Andrew Luck who can possibly lead the newly-vamped franchise over the next 10+ years. He's now aiming to start the new look by hiring a bevy of coaches from the Pittsburgh Steelers headlined by offensive coordinator Bruce Arians. I'm expecting player personnel changes will be taking root ove rthe next few months knowing the Colts still haven't adequately replaced Marvin Harrison with another consistent deep threat. Is Luck the guy who can intelligently run a no-huddle and hurry-up offense with effective audibles at the line of scrimmage? Will Irsay blow everyone's mind by pulling deals while drafting Blackmon & gambling on a risky 35-year-old QB's return to health? Only time will tell. The state of this evolving franchise is in the hands of Jim Irsay. By Mike Handzelek
 

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