Peyton Manning - The idea didn't seem so outlandish at the time. Not for a city about to open a spanking new $720 million stadium, and surely not for a team with Peyton Manning under center.

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PEYTON MANNING
POSTED BY EIZ ON THURSDAY, 19 JANUARY, 2012, 7:14 AM
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Not for a city about to open a spanking new $720 million stadium, and surely not for a team with
Peyton Manning under center. FILE - In this Jan. 1, 2012, file photo, Indianapolis Colts quarterback
Peyton Manning watches from the sideline during the ...
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PEYTON MANNING
POSTED BY EIZ ON THURSDAY, 19 JANUARY, 2012, 7:14 AM
The idea didn't seem so outlandish at the
time. Not for a city about to open a
spanking new $720 million stadium, and
surely not for a team with Peyton Manning
under center.
Hosting a Super Bowl would put
Indianapolis on the map, sure. Give
residents something to do, too, like talk to
those people with the funny accents from
New York or ride the new zip lines
downtown.
They could, and they did. It wasn't the biggest stretch, either, because the Colts had already won a
Super Bowl behind Manning and were coming off a 13-3 regular season when the game was
awarded to Indianapolis in the spring of 2008.
A joint statement issued Friday by Manning and Colts owner Jim Irsay claimed otherwise, though
that was to be expected. The dirty laundry aired publicly the previous few days was so distasteful
that something had to be said to get the attention off the home team and back on a game that
means so much to the city's pride.
The self-styled great protector of the horseshoe himself — that would be Irsay — says it was all a
misunderstanding. Surely not anything that a good talk between friends — or, say, a payment of
$28 million — couldn't resolve.
Manning got the talk. Whether he gets the check will ultimately determine just how friendly the
owner and his quarterback really are.
The Colts seem ready to move on without the face of their franchise, a player so valuable that they
may not have been able to build their new stadium without him. Manning transformed a woeful
franchise into a perennial playoff contender, taking the Colts to two Super Bowls and winning one.
The prospect of even better times ahead helped Indianapolis residents swallow the increased
taxes they were forced to pony up for the new stadium, which opened in 2008.
The NFL gave the city a Super Bowl as a reward, something that seems to have boosted civic pride
even if few area residents will actually get inside the Lucas Oil Stadium for the event. As an added
bonus, it gave Colts fans a chance to forget about a 2-14 season that was doomed the moment