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In the end, the controversial resting of Peyton Manning could end up blowing up for the Indianapolis Colts in a way they never envisioned.
They sat out Manning for their own selfish agenda. They wanted to protect their franchise quarterback and themselves. They sneered at both perfection and history.
And they certainly weren’t the least bit concerned about providing any kind of opportunity for the New York Jets.
Maybe in all this, that was the mistake. Or the miscalculation. Or both.
All of which makes this Sunday’s American Football Conference championship game so delicious. It isn’t just the heavily favoured Colts against the suddenly emerging and surprising Jets. It isn’t just a coach who barely speaks against one who can’t shut up. It isn’t just the best quarterback in football — some say the best ever — against a kid who is as green as his team’s colours. It isn’t just a chance to get to the Super Bowl.
This is the kind of story they make movies and write best sellers about.
Undefeated
We take you back to the second last week of the NFL season. The undefeated Colts against the middle-of-the-road, one week good, one week not so good, Jets. The Colts are leading 15-10. In truth, it looks pretty easy. With a win, the Colts go to 15-and-0, and hell, with their final game in Buffalo on the last weekend of the season, the somewhat insane notion of a 16-and-0 season seems entirely possible.
On their own, the benching of Manning and the lack of respect for an undefeated season were controversial. But when you consider what has happened since, that was just the beginning of the conversation.
Karma
The Colts didn’t see what the future might bring. That superb builder of teams, Bill Polian, didn’t care much for karma or history or how this would affect any other team. He said, over and over until people started believing him, that his goal was to have HIS team healthy when it mattered. The rest of the league — he didn’t give a damn about.
In that second last game of the season, the Colts led 15-10 over the Jets with Manning in the game and wound up losing 29-15. With Manning, they win easy. Without him, they were outscored 19-0 and in the second half of the game the Colts looked like something out of that awful Keanu Reaves movie, The Replacements.
For the most part, the Jets were fortunate bystanders and are now happy opportunists. When the dust settled, they were in the playoffs. They didn’t give a damn how they got there so long as they got there.
And the NFL was anything but amused by the histrionics, vowing to look into the late season practice of resting players and how it affects both the competitive balance and the integrity of the league.
Now we fast forward to this past Sunday and the AFC Championship game and suddenly the Jets seem so very real. It isn’t just Rex Ryan talking, although he does that quite well.
This team has the best secondary in football — and certainly the best cornerback in Darrelle Revis — against the most succinct passer in the game.
This team can run the ball with two divergent backs of shape and size. This team, in spite of what the Colts may say or think, has to scare them a little.
Because they gave the Jets a lifeline; because they gave Ryan a voice to call his team a Super Bowl contender, not just a team lucky or happy to be in the playoffs.
Somehow along the way, they also forgot about history. A long time ago, way back when there was an NFL and an AFL, the Colts and the Jets met in Super Bowl III. The Colts were enormous favourites to win. But instead of having a boisterous ultra confident coach, they had a boisterous ultra confident quarterback named Joe Namath.
The Jets, we all know, won: And one of the coaches on that team, a boisterous dad named Buddy Ryan.
steve.simmons@sunmedia.ca