Colts throw in the towel on perfection - NFL - Yahoo! Sports
If you step back and think about it, a game like this flies in the face of what the NFL promotes with its brand. It goes against the grain of what its own players so often preach: that you don’t give up in the NFL. You don’t roll over. No matter the circumstances. Didn’t we just have this whole debate about Randy Moss(notes)? Why is it abominable that a player would coast late in an unwinnable game, but it’s totally fine that the Colts pull their starters in the third quarter of a game that absolutely could have been won? Don’t they both violate the same spirit – that this isn’t a league that tolerates a white-flag mentality?
If we criticize players for saving their bodies and taking plays off, then we should criticize teams that essentially do the same thing. A team doing it for strategic purposes should be no more acceptable than a player who does it for selfish reasons. Think of all the AFC teams that needed the Jets to lose on Sunday. How do you think they feel knowing that the Jets’ opponent basically rolled over? Think they might feel a little cheated?
Well, they should. We all should. Not because we won’t see a 16-0 season, but because whenever we think about why, we’ll remember the Colts throwing in the towel. And I bet someone like Peyton Manning will remember it that way, too.