Any questions as to whether the Colts tanked last season?

[tombonneau]

That team made a Business Decision to roll over like a dog when they learned about Peyton's fate last year. No doubt in my mind. They purposely rolled over like puppies to land Luck. Everyone knows it. I posted about it all last season after watching their second half performances in numerous games. Leads mysteriously evaporated, balls were mysteriously dropped and fumbled, on and on and on. It was sickening.

I'll never forget the game against Cincinatti when they had the Bengals beat and Pierre Garcon literally held the ball up in traffic before he went to the ground for no reason whatsoever and he held the ball up allowing 3 Bengals to literally tip it out of his hands for the game winning fumble recovery when the Colts literally had the game won. It was bogus. Why the commisioner never reviewed that game and others is beyond me.

Except that tanking would not have benefited any of the individuals who would have had to be responsible for doing the tanking.

 

[Ive_Killed_People]

They were damn lucky to win 2 games with Curtis Painter.

 

[Rob0729]

You can't judge year to year. Look at the Saints. They basically have the same team minus the head coach and they are a shell of their former self. Maybe losing Caldwell was the difference.

I think the Colts tanking it was an overrated story. You had players and coaches playing for jobs and contracts. You really think a player heading to free agency was going to hurt his market value so the Colts could get luck and he could potentially lose millions? Do you really think Jim Caldwell wanted to make himself get fired and virtually unhireable again as a head coach so he would have to go back to being a position coach while the Colts rebuild with Luck? Yu think Reggie Wayne playing for his last contract decided to forgo millions to make people think he is washed up so the Colts could get Luck?

Sorry, the Colts were a facade team Caldwell. You could see in 2010 that they were carried by Manning and without him they would have be a 4 win team.

The Colts like many teams were able to rebuild quickly. I bet next year like most teams who go from one of the worst teams in the league to a playoff contender the next, will take a significant step back. We see this movie play out year after year in the NFL.

 

[SVN]

Frankly ,I dont know why luck is not being discussed for the MVP. doesnt have the numbers maybe but this team won 2 games without a QB last yr.

 

[tuckeverlasting]

been waiting for this thread. knew it last year. been proved now.

 

[Ring 6]

No but as an owner you have some of the strongest power of sentiment over your team (besides the HC). Irsay wasn't exactly chipper last year. I think there are ways to make your team lose as bad as they did last year without being explicit. The success they are having this year makes that seem even more so.

Yes, give them the worst QB in the NFL in an era where QB is far, far, far and away the key to winning, and they will suck.
COMPETANT QB play, along with a defenisve scheme change away from one that only cares about rushing the passer, turns you into a team that can be 8-4 by beating one winning team on a day when the team was ramped up to play for their cancer beating coach.
And, they aren't going 12-4.

 

[JMarr]

There was clearly more than enough talent on that team to win more than 2 games last year. Getting a new (as well as an impromptu interim) Head Coach, a Rookie QB (as good as he has been playing) and a few street veterans is not enough to propel a team from 2-14 to potentially 12-4.

I'm shocked by what you are insinuating. Clearly a man of Jim Irsay's integrity, and a team whose very birth was accomplished by literally sneaking out of Baltimore in the middle of the night would never think about doing anything like this..

 

[tombonneau]

I'm shocked by what you are insinuating. Clearly a man of Jim Irsay's integrity, and a team whose very birth was accomplished by literally sneaking out of Baltimore in the middle of the night would never think about doing anything like this..

I'm curious about the Tanking Conspiracy Theorists: How do you logistically think this took place and was implemented?

I'm genuinely curious and fascinated by this viewpoint. It reminds me of people who think Ernie Adams was breaking down defensive signal footage at halftime ....

 

[JMarr]

I'm curious about the Tanking Conspiracy Theorists: How do you logistically think this took place and was implemented?

I'm genuinely curious and fascinated by this viewpoint. It reminds me of people who think Ernie Adams was breaking down defensive signal footage at halftime ....

It's a good question, but one that will probably never be answered to your satisfaction given that, you know, it would call into question the integrity of the game itself and all that, and people that do such things usually tend to do them in a way that evades detection.

Sometimes "I know it when I see it" is as good of an answer as you're going to get. That, coupled with it involving guys like Irsay, Poilan and the overall slimeball nature of that organization is good enough for me. If that makes me a "Tanking Conspiracy Theorist" (that's a good one ) then so be it.

You're basically saying that it probably didn't happen because no one can definitively prove it. Let me ask you, do you there's any game fixing going on in the NBA or other sports right now?

 

[Crazy Patriot Guy]

A quote from Dr Zs power rankings on cnnsi.com going into Week 3 of the 2001 season, in which he had the Pats dead last in the league:

"This is sad. Drew Bledsoe took a big hit and is out indefinitely. Honestly, I don't know what weapons they have with which to win a game"

I'm having a hard time understanding how fans of a team voted by NFL brass least likely to win a Super Bowl in the next 5 years before the 2001 season have to assume a tanked season is the only explanation for the Colts doing so well this year. Seriously?

I remember thinking after Bledsoe went down: "Well, we suck now. Let's suck all the way and get the #1 pick." 5 months later, we were Super Bowl champs. 3 years and 5 months later, we had won 3 of 4.

Find me something, anything, written by someone outside New England before the 2001 season that thought we had the talent to go to the playoffs, let alone win the Super Bowl. So what was it? Did we tank on purpose in 2000 to land Richard Seymour?

 

[PatriotSeven]

Colts clearly tanked in my opinion.

No way would have the talk about Manning's contract issue started so early if they were not sure they could control their own "tanking" destiny and replace him with Luck.

 

[tombonneau]

It's a good question, but one that will probably never be answered to your satisfaction given that, you know, it would call into question the integrity of the game itself and all that, and people that do such things usually tend to do them in a way that evades detection.

Sometimes "I know it when I see it" is as good of an answer as you're going to get. That, coupled with it involving guys like Irsay, Poilan and the overall slimeball nature of that organization is good enough for me. If that makes me a "Tanking Conspiracy Theorist" (that's a good one ) then so be it.

You're basically saying that it probably didn't happen because no one can definitively prove it. Let me ask you, do you there's any game fixing going on in the NBA or other sports right now?

No, I don't believe any sports are fixing games. Regardless, I'm seriously asking how you think an entire organization decides to tank a season when the only one who benefits is ownership.

And I'm not saying it probably didn't happen, I'm saying it definitely didn't happen.

 

[VJCPatriot]

There was clearly more than enough talent on that team to win more than 2 games last year. Getting a new (as well as an impromptu interim) Head Coach, a Rookie QB (as good as he has been playing) and a few street veterans is not enough to propel a team from 2-14 to potentially 12-4.

Can't prove it. Besides, Luck is a ridiculously good rookie. The comeback he just led, even Peyton Manning would have trouble pulling it off. Good on the Colts, if they keep winning, we face em next year too. Then Brady vs Luck II will steal the headlines for that weekend. And hopefully we humble him again! ^_^

 

[Hercules Rockefeller]

It's a good question, but one that will probably never be answered to your satisfaction given that, you know, it would call into question the integrity of the game itself and all that, and people that do such things usually tend to do them in a way that evades detection.

Sometimes "I know it when I see it" is as good of an answer as you're going to get. That, coupled with it involving guys like Irsay, Poilan and the overall slimeball nature of that organization is good enough for me. If that makes me a "Tanking Conspiracy Theorist" (that's a good one ) then so be it.

You're basically saying that it probably didn't happen because no one can definitively prove it. Let me ask you, do you there's any game fixing going on in the NBA or other sports right now?

What if the majority of people in the thread didn't "know if when I see it?"

They didn't tank. So many people lost jobs. Polian is a slimeball, sure. But he wanted his son to succeed him as GM, and that didn't happen because the team sucked. Jim Caldwell didn't want to get fired. The team sucked.

There are so many logical points in this thread being ignored. They did not tank because professional athletes value their jobs, and don't want to lose them, and the way to lose them is to suck. It's so simple that it makes conspiracy intriguing, but it's that simple because that's the way it is.

You play to win the game. Hello!

 

[Avenger]

they just had a high school level QB playing for them, Painter sucked in college and shouldn't be in the league. After the season they did a poll of who was the worst starting QB and 97% said Painter, and quite frankly I'm shocked that it was that low.

 

[fnordcircle]

Colts clearly tanked in my opinion.

Why would coaches or players do that? You only have so many seasons in the NFL in either case.

It makes zero sense that people would gamble with their livelihood like that. None.

 

[tobias funke]

This is like when people start talking about the Kennedy assassination and how "Oliver Stone could have been right!"

 

[Palm Beach Pats Fan]

The owner kept in place a truly awful coach all season for a reason.

The Colts kept running Curtis Painter out there as their "starting QB" for a reason.

They kept passing on waived players, despite being first in line and having some cap room, for a reason.

They kept sitting hurt-but-not-injured key players like Dallas Clark game after game for a reason.

I don't think that the players that actually took the field necessarily did things to lose games on purpose, but the front office certainly manipulated the assortment of players that took the field in order to lessen the chances of winning last year.

What muddies the picture is that Polian and his son got fired after carrying out Irsay's orders, but I am guessing Bill was eyeing retirement anyway and got something under the table for delivering the top draft pick.

The tanking theory isn't second guessing or hindsight. We all talked about it when it was happening. Suck for Luck T-shirts were a best seller in Indy by about week 7. Indy fans know what was happening then, admit it now, and are happy with the overall result.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Why would coaches or players do that? You only have so many seasons in the NFL in either case.

It makes zero sense that people would gamble with their livelihood like that. None.

Emotionally I "feel" that they tanked the season. Sure looked like it and the FO had their good reasons. But rationally, why would professionals risk their lucrative careers?

 

[PatsFan2]

There was clearly more than enough talent on that team to win more than 2 games last year. Getting a new (as well as an impromptu interim) Head Coach, a Rookie QB (as good as he has been playing) and a few street veterans is not enough to propel a team from 2-14 to potentially 12-4.

Wouldn't you? Luck is going to be GREAT...he has made thows i have NEVER seen Brady make nuff said!:snob: