Another really interesting piece on Grantland about the end of the Peyton Manning era in Indy.
People don’t want to lose him, but they are not about to test the boundaries of the First Amendment on his behalf. People would like Peyton Manning to stay, if he feels so inclined, but in Andrew Luck they see a younger and healthier iteration of the same quarterback, and they wonder if the tradeoff is an inevitable fact of life in the NFL. They are attached to Manning the Symbol, but they are not so attached to Manning the Person that they are willing to approach this situation with blind loyalism. This is business, after all, and in the end they feel that the Colts’ business is really none of their business.
I keep saying that last season is going to make his eventual departure much less controversial than the rest of the nation seems to think it will be. Sure, some will howl in protest. But no one wants the Colts to go back to being how they were pre-Peyton.