Well I guess I'm in the 1% because I don't know how I would personally feel taking 28 million dollars just the same as if I would have played for them. I would want something to cover my injuries and a little extra, but if I really wanted to stay in Indianapolis like Peyton says he wants to, I would take a cut.
You should see what Arian Foster said in the ESPN interview about his upcoming contract with the Texans. Jacobs, Giants RB, he also took a paycut to stay with the Giants, even though he was healthy. They needed cap room and he understood.
Not all players are like that. My thing is if you're going to judge Isray, then why not Peyton? Don't the other 53 players on the roster need money? Don't the fans need a good football team?
Not to mention the fact that Peyton has plenty of other avenues to make money so if he really wanted to be a Colt, I'm sure that could be arranged. If not, and you wanna keep the money, then Isray is right...stop acting like a politician and doing sob story interviews with newspapers. No reason to try to paint Isray as a bad dude for doing something he's boxed in to have to do.
Irsay built the box. In 2004 he wildly overpaid Manning raising the bar on QB deal by more than $4M in average value and nearly doubling the amount of bonus money. Then rather than work out an incremental deal (as all of Tom's have been even after he'd won 3 rings in the process) he kept blathering about how he wanted to make Peyton the highest paid player in the league (I think because that somehow fluffed his own Colts ego). You reap what you sow.
Manning did actually give Irsay a break this time around with an AAV deal equal to Brady's. And had they done it as a straight deal rather than option based, Irsay would be on the hook for too much bonus money to even cut Manning this season. He essentially gave Irsay a year to conclude whether he could still play at a level that warranted the investment, and the cap space to acquire additional talent (which they didn't) but the caveat was if he didn't think so then Manning was free to go wherever he wanted to if he could in fact still play at that level.
The existence of Luck and the way the season unfolded changed the landscape that existed when they did the deal. Tweets to the contrary, Irsay has moved on and Manning knows it. Irsay doesn't want him back any more than he wanted another Polian as his GM because he's already seen how the story ends. He's intent on writing a new story since the opportunity to has presented itself. I think Manning would prefer Irsay be honest about that or at least (Please be quiet - edited) about his situation in public. He remains in limbo while Jimmy is staging a palace coup complete with twitter feed like some exiled royal who just wrested control of his kingdom back from the evil generals - who brought Indiana a Lombardi... Irsay has replaced Manning as the face of the franchise. And he intends to replace him as the QB of the franchise in April. And he doesn't want to face any heat for making those decisions.
Manning isn't Favre, and he doesn't want to be cast into that role. He's never ****ed around with them. Other than hiring Condon as his agent, and Polian and Irsay were down with whatever Condon came up with as long as it kept Manning wearing that horseshoe. He's always given them 110%, on and off the field. And he elevated the play of those around him. Peyton intended to play his entire career in Indy. Just signed a 5 year deal to insure that would be the case. If he's not worth that deal to Irsay anymore it's because of injuries he sustained over the last 2-3 seasons in Irsay's employ converging with the opportunity to draft the flavor of the month replacement at a fraction of the cost. That's his choice, but if Manning can still play he wants to and compensated as a franchise player. Irsay has even gone so far as playing the best interest of the player card for cover, and that rightfully pisses Peyton off. Because that decision is his alone and not Irsay's to hide behind. We faced a similar uncharted situation with Tedy and played it the right way.
That said, as a Patsfan I love seeing rivals implode in a big pile of ego. Pittsburgh is up next with Rooney canning Arians - whom they brought in to let Ben be Ben after Cowher and Wisenhut departed - and Ben now wanting a sit down explanation and exchange of ideas as to what direction that organization is going...from the guy who actually thought about canning Ben's ass a year ago.
Then we have the whole debaucle in the swamp.
Meanwhile we're heading back to the show for the 5th time in 11 seasons. And some here wonder why others trust Bill or are reluctant to criticize him. Bill will never let the tail wag the dog, let alone in public. And Brady has set the tone for players here buying all in. In the end that is why this team generally responds positively to all manner of adversity, unlike so many others, and rebounds when it hasn't to contend again. Maybe IBBWT is why.
