Feels Like The Colts Won't Be Indys Team, Indianas Team Ever Again.

[Malakai432]

Chicago is not on the same level as the Heat. They have an inflated winning percentage due to their easy schedule. Only the Knicks had an easier schedule thus far(which tells me all I need to know about linsanity)

I hate the Heat, but they are on a whole other level compared to the rest of the NBA and this is their championship to lose

Yeah I kind of agree, but the Bulls are still much closer to them compared the 3rd seeds and up. Hopefully they end up dumping eventually. I can't stand the Heat myself.

[USAFHoosier]

Colts fans are not going to abandon the team. Bandwagon people will abandon the team. The fans that were cheering for the colts through all the bad seasons that are still here are true fans. Maybe some people are just spoiled because they became fans when the Colts were up and coming. Also every team goes through rebuilding periods. No team can compete for superbowls for 20 straight years with free agency and the amount of money players get now. I for one will be a colts fan until the day I die. Sorry for the rant.

[funktacious2]

No, that's moving older players or bigger contracts but making sure their core is there. The Pats do it the right way, they don't tear down the house and rebuild it. They just remodel rooms as needed.

This is a purge. This is starting from scratch. Irsay is all in on Luck and that gamble better pay off sooner rather than later or the OP of this thread is going to be prophetic.

Purge? Yes.

Starting from scratch? Not exactly

Going all in on Luck? No. I don't think it costs us Peyton Manning, and 4 of our bigger paid players to get Luck. If a player were good enough for their contract to reach the value of our future saving from these cuts/releases then he better be able to leap into the endzone from the 50 yard line. Most of this money is going elsewhere to be used in the future, If Luck sucked we'd only really be losing money from his rookie contract, maybe a slightly better record in 2-3 seasons, and a wasted 1st pick, but isn't that really the risk in any pick? That is may be wasted?

Could a few bad years really hurt the team? Yes, possibly. Pacers went off the radar after one season, but who knows. I know I'll still be watching.

[dgambill]

The point is us fans don't know as much about it as Irsay and the management. First off, it doesn't give a good impression when you call Irsay stupid for no reason. He did what he had to do; it wasn't easy for him, but it was the correct business decision. The Pats are in a very different situation than we are. Take Brady off that team and they've shown they can still almost make the playoffs. Take Peyton off our team and we become the worst team in the league. There is something very wrong when your entire team's success depends on one player. The Pats have a better O-line than we do and much better coaching. The players that were released were all aging, injury prone, and had high cap hits. The best thing for the team was to let them go and prepare for the future. Keeping those guys on the team would have helped in the short term, but would have hurt in the long term

I agree that we had to shed some players to get better...no doubt....but getting rid of our best and only real talent..that was stupid in my opinion. Even with all this money it is going to be hard to attract FA talent. We have always had to overpay for talent because this is a small market and few opportunities to get endorsements and well little that is attractive to most football players with the exception of playing with Peyton Manning. You hear how almost every player in the league wants to play with him and we had that....and just gave it away. I think Irsay was dumb for doing that...my opinion and I am not going to just keep my mouth shut about it. I say what I feel. I am not an employee of Irsay...but I am a customer of his. I have the right to voice my concern over how he is running his business just as people that are supporting him are. I am not just spouting crap. Keeping Manning and sheding some bad contracts like Addai and Freeney could easily opened up enough cap to sign a couple key FAs and allowed us to rebuild through the draft with Manning's heir and get help for our new defense. I am not happy with the product he is offering me...true he can win me back by rebuilding a great team but he has to prove it. We had a proven product one I enjoyed thoroughly. I paid lots of money for that product and would have been willing to continue to do so if he had kept the main reason for our success within the team. I am not angry we are drafting Luck. But I am that we got rid of Peyton. He took the easy way of tearing down and rebuilding and turning his back I feel on fans and so makes it very easy for me to stop giving him my money. I won't ever stop supporting the team with my heart but that doesn't mean I have to support them with my pocket book.

[dgambill]

Colts fans are not going to abandon the team. Bandwagon people will abandon the team. The fans that were cheering for the colts through all the bad seasons that are still here are true fans. Maybe some people are just spoiled because they became fans when the Colts were up and coming. Also every team goes through rebuilding periods. No team can compete for superbowls for 20 straight years with free agency and the amount of money players get now. I for one will be a colts fan until the day I die. Sorry for the rant.

I know I am going to sound very very bad but all teams have bandwaggon fans. Indy is not a big enough market to only rely on hardcore fans. Having only Hardcore fans left the RCA Dome half empty and the team with blackouts. Hardcore fans only was what got the team moved here and would likely get it moved again. Those "bandwaggon" fans as you call them are what make this team and many many other teams enough money to be profitable. I love the Colts. Watched them ever since they moved here all through the blackouts..the Jeff Traudou days, Jeff George, Jim Harbough and so many more. My whole family are Bears fans and have only recently been Colts fans. Fact is the Colts need those fans. With the way things have happened the franchise will have to be very careful not to throw away all those fans that helped build Lucas Oil. We need both sets of fans for the organization to survive. It is the hardcore sure that are the core life-blood but those bandwaggon put all of those hardcore into that nice new stadium and the reason we had bandwaggon fans was because of one Peyton Manning and his success that he brought. His energy and entertainment filled the stadium that hardcore fans couldn't. His skill that sold his jersey and made others like harrison, clark, and waynes sell. Many of these fareweather fans as people want to talk down on are really the ones that have made the nfl so popular. You lose those you lose your business. Just remember that before telling people to leave the boards or good riddence. I know you didn't go that far but I have heard others. This is an entertainment industry. People pay to be entertained and Peyton did that with all his winning..but also HOW he won. Throwing that away won't be easy to replace....definately not as easy as the roster. We could have done this with Peyton moving forward that would have won over alot of those fans in the transition. We could easily lose a lot of them.

[BleedingBlue]

I know right?

"I'm so angry I have to register on a football forum to tell people I've never interacted with that I'm leaving! That will show them!"

Yes because its so much less sad to be a 200 post a day "celeb" on an internet forum (that you don't get paid to post on).

[DG1]

You should have seen their fan forum right after the loss. I went there, curious as to what they would say. Many of the posts I read were people saying they need to get rid of Belichick and that Brady has lost the fire and doesn't care anymore and that ever since they got caught with Spygate, Brady hasn't looked as confident (their words, not mine). Heck, some were even calling for Mallett to be the QB next season. If you go over there, some of the posts might still be up and you can see for yourself what they had to say.

Boy, I am glad this forum does not have fans with knee-jerk reactions...

[21isSuperman]

I agree that we had to shed some players to get better...no doubt....but getting rid of our best and only real talent..that was stupid in my opinion. Even with all this money it is going to be hard to attract FA talent. We have always had to overpay for talent because this is a small market and few opportunities to get endorsements and well little that is attractive to most football players with the exception of playing with Peyton Manning. You hear how almost every player in the league wants to play with him and we had that....and just gave it away. I think Irsay was dumb for doing that...my opinion and I am not going to just keep my mouth shut about it. I say what I feel. I am not an employee of Irsay...but I am a customer of his. I have the right to voice my concern over how he is running his business just as people that are supporting him are. I am not just spouting crap. Keeping Manning and sheding some bad contracts like Addai and Freeney could easily opened up enough cap to sign a couple key FAs and allowed us to rebuild through the draft with Manning's heir and get help for our new defense. I am not happy with the product he is offering me...true he can win me back by rebuilding a great team but he has to prove it. We had a proven product one I enjoyed thoroughly. I paid lots of money for that product and would have been willing to continue to do so if he had kept the main reason for our success within the team. I am not angry we are drafting Luck. But I am that we got rid of Peyton. He took the easy way of tearing down and rebuilding and turning his back I feel on fans and so makes it very easy for me to stop giving him my money. I won't ever stop supporting the team with my heart but that doesn't mean I have to support them with my pocket book.

Is keeping Peyton here really the best thing for both sides? You want Peyton to play behind a poor O-line and a changing defense with almost no support from the running game? And force him to teach the guy who is going to replace him? And take a $28 mil hit for it too? Why not let Peyton go out to where he has a better chance of winning a championship while we get to free up some cap space for the future? And Peyton has plenty of money, so he won't be going to the team that offers him the most. He wants to win a championship, and if he believed his best chance to do that was here in Indy, he probably would have stayed

[JWF]

Im sad to see Peyton and some of the players gone. One thing im not sad to see go is the overall generally finesse/speed style of football. Dont get me wrong it was very successful overall but its just not the style want my favorite team to run.

No guarantee though the new style will work though.

[dgambill]

Is keeping Peyton here really the best thing for both sides? You want Peyton to play behind a poor O-line and a changing defense with almost no support from the running game? And force him to teach the guy who is going to replace him? And take a $28 mil hit for it too? Why not let Peyton go out to where he has a better chance of winning a championship while we get to free up some cap space for the future? And Peyton has plenty of money, so he won't be going to the team that offers him the most. He wants to win a championship, and if he believed his best chance to do that was here in Indy, he probably would have stayed

It will be a better line than we had in 2010 imo. I am fine with the cash. I think the defense this year will be better than last year even retooling lol. The team didn't just become crappy over night. Peyton Manning just made that much of a difference. Call it the Tebow effect or whatever but he made everyone better...even the defense because we had "Confidence" played with the lead and simply played way more inspired. The team would be very competitive and easily threaten a playoff spot. I will take playoff teams and watching one of the greatest entertainers in sports history and then transition to another great qb over what we did any day. I don't have a choice but to take what we have now but yeah...I would take it. I'm not going to change your mind probably but me and a lot of fans felt the same way. Whats done is done but I until we get back to where I think we could have been with Peyton I will not be happy. That is the right I have as a customer and fan.

[21isSuperman]

It will be a better line than we had in 2010 imo. I am fine with the cash. I think the defense this year will be better than last year even retooling lol. The team didn't just become crappy over night. Peyton Manning just made that much of a difference. Call it the Tebow effect or whatever but he made everyone better...even the defense because we had "Confidence" played with the lead and simply played way more inspired. The team would be very competitive and easily threaten a playoff spot. I will take playoff teams and watching one of the greatest entertainers in sports history and then transition to another great qb over what we did any day. I don't have a choice but to take what we have now but yeah...I would take it. I'm not going to change your mind probably but me and a lot of fans felt the same way. Whats done is done but I until we get back to where I think we could have been with Peyton I will not be happy. That is the right I have as a customer and fan.

Would you still want Peyton back now? After we released all those people and Garcon has said he will test free agency?

[bavanlan]

It feels like everyone is gone from the team. All our favorite plays except Mathis and bethea. Everyone I grew up watching that was here is gone. There's a lot missing from the heart you know?...

Wait long enough and this happens in everything.

*cue sad, emo music

[dgambill]

Would you still want Peyton back now? After we released all those people and Garcon has said he will test free agency?

We all know everything would play out differently if Peyton would have stayed. We would have cut Addai, Bethea, and we would had to trade Freeney. That would have freed up enough cap space to bring back Sat., Mathis, and Wayne or Garcon. We would have used the Freeney pick we will get and 2nd rounder to replace the other holes. WR and DT in 2nd and 3rd round and still had Luck. Obviously it makes no sense if your going to strip the team and rebuild to keep PM. I would have gone a whole other route. Like many have said...rebuild one part at a time. To me it is much easier to replace Freeney who wouldn't have fit our new scheme than PM. I really think we would have been competitive 9-7/10-6 team...and the Giants shown get in and you have a shot. Then groom Luck and we never miss a beat. I think Irsay thought it would be easier to do the quick chop then try to manage the transition. Perhaps he knew Luck would demand a trade...I don't know...so I have to just hope he makes the right choice but I don't have to be happy about it.

[21isSuperman]

We all know everything would play out differently if Peyton would have stayed. We would have cut Addai, Bethea, and we would had to trade Freeney. That would have freed up enough cap space to bring back Sat., Mathis, and Wayne or Garcon. We would have used the Freeney pick we will get and 2nd rounder to replace the other holes. WR and DT in 2nd and 3rd round and still had Luck. Obviously it makes no sense if your going to strip the team and rebuild to keep PM. I would have gone a whole other route. Like many have said...rebuild one part at a time. To me it is much easier to replace Freeney who wouldn't have fit our new scheme than PM. I really think we would have been competitive 9-7/10-6 team...and the Giants shown get in and you have a shot. Then groom Luck and we never miss a beat. I think Irsay thought it would be easier to do the quick chop then try to manage the transition. Perhaps he knew Luck would demand a trade...I don't know...so I have to just hope he makes the right choice but I don't have to be happy about it.

Why would we cut Bethea?

[dgambill]

Bullitt sorry...darn thats the second time I've done that lol!

[CanuckColtsFan]

You don't have to tear down a franchise to rebuild it. I haven't seen the Patriots tear anything down nor have I saw Pittsburg or Green Bay. They simply transition. They don't gut their team and leave their franchise and fans floundering and tell them don't worry...in a couple years we will be good again....that sounds like an EXCUSE. There is an easy way and a hard way. The hard way is to keep your franchise relevent...winning while you reload. The easy way is to just blow it all up and not worry about what your fans and supporters think. Give them some vague promises to hold on hope to. Sounds a lot like some other franchises that I see in the top 10 of the draft year in and year out. Could we have moved Freeney and restructured some people or cut them to free up cap space. Yep. Could we have kept Manning and drafted Luck..yep. Could we have gone another route with a different young qb and traded those picks. Sure. We could have freed up 20 million just by trading Freeney because we already had 6 million. That would have allowed us to sign Saturday, our picks, and either Garcon and Wayne or some other FA. Drafted a replacement for Peyton and d-line or WR. This isn't how it had to happen...but it is how it happened. I will hold the team accountable. Until they field playoff quality teams they have to prove to me they did the right thing because we could have been back with the team we had with some retooling the way the other elite franchises have. All we did was show that our top brass doesn't do things the way that the elite most admired franchises do things. That just tells me of the quality leading the organization. We don't have the skills to do it the hard way...lets take the easy way out. The only one to suffer will be our fans and loyal captains of the team who have led us the last dozen years.

You really expressed a lot of how i feel. The Great teams use their greatness they don't run from it.