If you boil his logic down on 16--0 and 19--0, it is that since the Dolphins already achieved an undefeated Regular Season and Full Season, neither would have been "historic."
On the 16--0, you might be able to stretch logic to see his point, since the Pats just duplicated an undefeated regular season at the 16--0 level just two years ago.
But, there's really no way you can argue that going 19--0, something no team had ever done, wouldn't have been "historic," so I conclude he's just spinning his decision for an angry fan base and an angry group of players. But his argument makes no sense on its face.
The rest is pure appeasement.
The record for consecutive regular season wins is a fair point for him to make. The Patriots were proud of that record when they held it and the Colts should be now that they hold it. Hats off to them for that and no bull-**** about strength of schedule.
The second record that he cites is "most games won this decade."
This is totally a fabricated construct that the Colts have spun with the aid of the national media.
He doesn't say "most regular season games won this decade," which is what they have accomplished (and, at that, by at most a three game margin over the Pats out of 160 games played). As has been stated out here ad nauseam, it is the Pats who have the "most games won this decade."
Polian is a smart guy, so he doesn't try to claim "most regular season games won in a decade."
Because, then he would have to contend with the Dallas Cowboys of the 1970's who won 105 games, but who played eight seasons of only 14 games. If you apply the Cowboy's Winning Percentage for the decade to 16 additional games, they would have won 12 more games, giving them 117 for the decade, more than the Colts can theoretically win in the 2000's.
Then, someone would be smart enough to point out that a "Decade" is a construct of the calendar and that the record for the most regular season games won in a 10 year period (last time I checked, that's what a decade is) is held by the 1989--1998 San Francisco 49'ers, who won an astounding 123 games!
So, the most games won this decade is a pure construct and hardly "historical", but, of course, no one in the National Media has the cojones to point it out, certainly not a Profile in Courage like Boston's own Bob Ryan who gets a regular slot on HSPN.
Finally, for what it's worth, Indy is a relatively small NFL market. An overlooked fact is that the city and state are struggling financially to continue to subsidize Polian's new stadium, as the industrial Indiana taxbase shrinks or at best grows very slowly. The fans who are angry over the Colts not going for "perfection" are also potentially angry taxpayers and angry voters. He's trying to appease them.
