Whole Family No Longer Colts Fans.

[neverstop1863]

Are you a prophet im sure not, im just having faith im not going to bail on my team.....so i will have faith, and look forward to the future of colts football. After last season yes this had to happen, 18 doesnt play and we go 2-14 was that not miserable for you to watch....it sure was for me.

[oldunclemark]

I think I am more proud then ever of the Colts. In many ways with all the firings this offseason I feel cleansed. A fresh start and new era I feel is what the doctor ordered. This team was developing more holes over recent years then an aging slice of swiss cheese.

wow.....I enjoyed the 10 years of playoffs....

..we're an expansion team now......expansion teams can build quickly or slowly.

We dont have many high draft choices....and little cap room this year.

It will be slowly

[Mark Starling]

pfft dble posting in editing Erase me.

[neverstop1863]

He deserves a chance at another championship before his career is over. I didnt like seeing him go ill never support the decision to let him walk but i believe it was in his best interest to play on a team that could get him to another trophy.

[coltfily]

The first game I remember watching was the Joe Namath Jets against the Johnny U Colts--been seriously addicted ever since.

Right there with you. Will not leave the Horseshoe, because I am expecting Luck to be better than Marty Domres, Jack Trudeau, Gary Hugaboom, Jeff George etc if I stayed through those years. I am not going anywhere.

[Nadine]

They think Irsay is a liar and diss like him quite a bit. Mom hopes he burns in hate mail and will be eating crow real soon... Dad is going to quit watching sports altogether (highly doubtful IMO). My brother and sister were never that big of colts fans to begin with... I've grown up watching Peyton play all of my younger years (I'm 20 now). Watched Peyton play colts ball from 8 years old to 20. I hope that Peyton wins more SBs than any QB has before. I'd like to see him win 4 more... Ive been hearing and reading a lot of negativity and rightfully so. The only thing left for me that the Colts have is the horse shoe. Everything else is new maybe even including a new uni design by Nike. But if one thing remains the same. It's the horse shoe. It's an emotional time for my parents, and I. But if one thing remains. Its my love for the horse shoe. I can't imagine myself being a fan of any one team besides the Colts. And if we lose for the next 5 years, it's going to be a long hard time for us Colts fans. Because I'm already getting a lot of ridicule from different ppl for still supporting my Colts... Guys. This is a hard time... Keep the faith.

I'm sorry, that's tough

I hope in time your family comes back around

In the mean time you've got our smiling (and sometimes snarling) faces

[Jules]

wow.....I enjoyed the 10 years of playoffs....

..we're an expansion team now......expansion teams can build quickly or slowly.

We dont have many high draft choices....and little cap room this year.

It will be slowly

I never said I didn't enjoy the playoffs.

I also am not counting out the prospect of playoffs again here.

Times change. Eras change.

But, in some ways a few years of low expectations might do us all some good. It's good for the soul Mark, we will get through this. I promise.

[neverstop1863]

We have had our fair share of success, ive loved every minute of it. I will never forget any player not with us now, there will be future success and i will be right there to enjoy every moment again

[oldunclemark]

I never said I didn't enjoy the playoffs.

I also am not counting out the prospect of playoffs again here.

Times change. Eras change.

But, in some ways a few years of low expectations might do us all some good. It's good for the soul Mark, we will get through this. I promise.

I hope I'm still here when we do..Jules.....you sound like a real fan...

[21isSuperman]

Comforting words..man of steel

..but its hard..we dont even have a full boat of players right now..

no QBs...2 WRs....left

..few DBs.....

I appreciate that faith is the belief in something you cannot see and is not obvious..

..but these are dark, dark days.

we are the worst team in the NFL and since the dn of the year..we've done nothing but release players...while other teams sign them

WE have to start adding players

And I'm sure we will. We have 9 picks in the draft, plus lots of free agents to go after, plus all the undrafted rookies. As Polian has shown, there is lots of talent out there with undrafted rookies

[Jules]

I hope I'm still here when we do..Jules.....you sound like a real fan...

I think I might be more patient then I thought.

Also, I do think there will be a few more players soon that we fall in love with. There always is. Someone new will tug at your heart strings....

[MAC]

I will no longer spend money on the colts. My wife is a die hard patriots fan which i can not stand. My son grew up knowing Manning like a super hero, You didnt see the pats release there franchise QB after a injury that basicly made there whole city a city of doing things the right way.

Instead we have an owner who completely tossed manning aside after he got what he wanted, new stadium on tax dollars , superbowl ring, hosted superbowl. Irsay is a joke, he could of given Manning a contract laced with Bonus incentives to keep him and drafted Griffen who stated he would of enjoyed sitting behind Manning like Rogers an learned till it was his time.

Me and my family have put all the colts jersey's in a box donated them to goodwill, and will not watch anymore colts games on tv or radio, Or head to the yearly colts games, i dont make a lot of money so we only make 1 game a year and i think i would rather spend that money driving up to chicago and watching the bears that one time a year instead of here In the city Manning Built.

Simply when 1 single person does as much as he did for the city / state / team / he needed to be allowed to finish his carrer here no matter how good or bad his Health is / was as long as he is cleared to play.

You make it sound like Irsay intentionally injured you in some way because he is a sadist. What he is is the steward of the franchise, and he made an incredibly painful decision because he thought that it was in everyone's best interests. That's his responsibility. He didn't lie, he didn't do it to save money (the salary cap is what it is), he did it because he felt it was the right thing to do. Please don't demonize the man. PERSONALLY I would have preferred that Polian and Caldwell had stayed, and that the pick had been traded. I wanted to see every last minute of Peytons career maximized - as a Colt. But Luck is sitting out there, and they don't want to pass him up. I can't say that I blame them, because nobody can be 100% sure that Peyton will be himself.

Even if Peyton wins the next five Super Bowls with another team (which is my fondest wish), it still wouldn't mean that Irsay made a bad decision - as long as Luck has a long and successful career in Indy. Because the sad fact is that if Peyton had stayed, he wouldn't have been winning five straight Super Bowls. The roster was filled with highly paid, injury prone, and aging players - and the Colts couldn't have kept them all, much less upgraded. Would you prefer to see Peyton up close and personal - floundering in mediocrity - or would you rather watch him on TV going out in style, while your son gets to watch Luck grow into his new favorite player.

The one thing that you can be sure of in sports in that players come and go. I've been a Colts fan since the 60's, and I've seen a LOT worse than this. The Colts have just completed a virtually unprecedented period of success. Of all the possibilities surrounding the team, assuming that it would just continue indefinitely is far and away the most naive and unrealistic. It just doesn't work that way. Be thankful that we have an owner who is willing to try to make the right call even if it hurts (did you SEE the man at the press conference? I'd be willing to bet that he is in a lot more pain about this than us). It would have been easy to keep Peyton, and we could have been paying for the decision for the next 15 years. Come on back, the waters fine.

[Jules]

Just out of curiosity if someone is dumping the Colts who are they going to go for next? Peyton's next team? Or, is there another team they always rooted for on the side? A lot of us have that "second team" we have been fond of. I often root for the Packers on the side for example. Sometimes the Panthers since I have relatives in NC.

But, the Colts have had my heart my whole life and I can never give them up no matter what they do.

[Coltssouth]

It will be nice to see a little passion on game day. From the coaches and players. I’m not talking about the showboating of TO or Ocho or the screaming and spitting of Bill Cohwer but just a little excitement. I have felt for the last several years that the team had gotten too caught up in playing like robots. We do what we do. Do our job go back to the sidelines and wait till we have to go back out. Then when the brain of that robot wasn’t there the rest of the body didn’t know what to do.

Oh no! I hadn't thought about this. Pagano is not going to scream at the players on the sidelines is he? I don't know that much about him but that is something that totally drives me nuts!!

[21isSuperman]

Oh no! I hadn't thought about this. Pagano is not going to scream at the players on the sidelines is he? I don't know that much about him but that is something that totally drives me nuts!!

I think he will be like Harbaugh. Scream at players for none sense like this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaHMo_btCx4&feature=related

But I don't think he will be a Todd Haley type of guy who yells just for the sake of yelling

[Mark Starling]

You make it sound like Irsay intentionally injured you in some way because he is a sadist. What he is is the steward of the franchise, and he made an incredibly painful decision because he thought that it was in everyone's best interests. That's his responsibility. He didn't lie, he didn't do it to save money (the salary cap is what it is), he did it because he felt it was the right thing to do. Please don't demonize the man. PERSONALLY I would have preferred that Polian and Caldwell had stayed, and that the pick had been traded. I wanted to see every last minute of Peytons career maximized - as a Colt. But Luck is sitting out there, and they don't want to pass him up. I can't say that I blame them, because nobody can be 100% sure that Peyton will be himself.

Even if Peyton wins the next five Super Bowls with another team (which is my fondest wish), it still wouldn't mean that Irsay made a bad decision - as long as Luck has a long and successful career in Indy. Because the sad fact is that if Peyton had stayed, he wouldn't have been winning five straight Super Bowls. The roster was filled with highly paid, injury prone, and aging players - and the Colts couldn't have kept them all, much less upgraded. Would you prefer to see Peyton up close and personal - floundering in mediocrity - or would you rather watch him on TV going out in style, while your son gets to watch Luck grow into his new favorite player.

The one thing that you can be sure of in sports in that players come and go. I've been a Colts fan since the 60's, and I've seen a LOT worse than this. The Colts have just completed a virtually unprecedented period of success. Of all the possibilities surrounding the team, assuming that it would just continue indefinitely is far and away the most naive and unrealistic. It just doesn't work that way. Be thankful that we have an owner who is willing to try to make the right call even if it hurts (did you SEE the man at the press conference? I'd be willing to bet that he is in a lot more pain about this than us). It would have been easy to keep Peyton, and we could have been paying for the decision for the next 15 years. Come on back, the waters fine.

Id would rather have a Dan Marino to never win a superbowl who worked his butt off for his team and was able to finish his Pro life with his team winning or losing . To me thats not selfish either Manning knew what was happening he wants to stay in INDY, Its not about money and while im sure he hates losing more then he enjoys winning, he just wanted to finish his career with 1 team from start to finish good or bad. I think for all that he has done Irsay owed him that. But instead pushed him aside cause he wants to start selling them LUCK jerseys since we all already own Manning ones.

[Coltssouth]

I think he will be like Harbaugh. Scream at players for none sense like this

But I don't think he will be a Todd Haley type of guy who yells just for the sake of yelling

Love the music . . . not so much the sideline action.

[Jules]

Oh no! I hadn't thought about this. Pagano is not going to scream at the players on the sidelines is he? I don't know that much about him but that is something that totally drives me nuts!!

Not sure how nuts he will be but I am positive he will show more signs of life then Caldwell.

[coltsIam]

A lot of fans are still missing the point about Peytons contract. If we were as pushed as we seem to be.....why did Irsay want to pay Peyton even more.......and make him the highest payed player ever......more than Brady. Irsay said he wanted Peyton to finish his career as a Colt. Peyton was happy to have that contract and said he was glad he would be able to finish his career as a Colt. I agree with Mark.....Irsay owed Peyton that.....heck he owed us all that. I'm not buying into the "we love a new start bologna". Don't believe that Peyton is not deeply hurt by this, even though he acted with character and acted like a man. He is hurt as most of the city is. I'm not acting like a happy camper when I realize that our most fierce rivals know how to build piece by piece and year by year......how many teams can anyone say in recent years that has gutted their team like ours have been. When Green Bay lost Farve they didn't cut the team to shreds and the same can be said for many other teams. Pittsburgh has been successful for years without destroying the team and the heart of the city.

[willysp]

..... Mom hopes he burns in hate mail and will be eating crow real soon... Dad is going to quit watching sports altogether (highly doubtful IMO). My brother and sister were never that big of colts fans to begin with...

You and your family are nuts, yes? Bye - please never post agin.

[MAC]

Id would rather have a Dan Marino to never win a superbowl who worked his butt off for his team and was able to finish his Pro life with his team winning or losing . To me thats not selfish either Manning knew what was happening he wants to stay in INDY, Its not about money and while im sure he hates losing more then he enjoys winning, he just wanted to finish his career with 1 team from start to finish good or bad. I think for all that he has done Irsay owed him that. But instead pushed him aside cause he wants to start selling them LUCK jerseys since we all already own Manning ones.

I understand your point, and part of me agrees with you, but I don't think that you do yourself any favors by characterizing Irsay the way that you do. He didn't do this to line his pockets by selling Luck jerseys. That's just silly. In fact short-term the franchise is going to suffer financially because of this move.

As I said, keeping Peyton would have been the easy, safe, painless, conservative move. He tried to make the "smart" move instead. There are no ulterior motives, no lies, he's just running a business in which the definition of success is trying to win the Super Bowl. It is utterly pointless to try to find a enemy to blame and punish. There is no enemy - Irsay is trying to HELP us. These things happen in sports on a smaller scale everyday. You just don't happen to care personally about all those other players so there isn't an emotional reaction. The Colts roster has been completely churned probably three times since Peyton has been here. I rooted for all of them, but players come and go - that's the nature of the game.

If you think this is disturbing, I have a better one. I grew up a Mets fan and Tom Seaver was my childhood sports hero. The Mets GM M. Donald Grant traded him to the Reds for incredibly petty reasons. He did what HE wanted to do, and alienated millions of fans in the process. It wasn't for the good of the team. There was no salary cap. It was personal and it was cheap. Seaver cried at his press conference as well. Within a short period of time he traded Dave Kingman as well - who was the only Met I had seen in my life that was actually capable of hitting home runs. I was furious, and I never forgave the GM, and the team wasn't much to root for over the next few years because of his stupid moves, but I never stopped being a Mets fan.

In fact one of the men who the Mets received from the Reds (Steve Henderson) was a minor league player whom I had happened to see play two games for the Trois Rivieres Aigles when on vacation in Quebec the previous summer. I thought that that was the coolest thing, and sent him a game program to autograph. He did so, and several other former Reds in the clubhouse signed it as well. Henderson became my new favorite ballplayer. The point is that I'm a fan on my terms, because it provides me enjoyment. Wallowing in self-pity and "punishing" M.Donald Grant by changed my rooting interests would have only hurt myself. I think that giving up on the Colts is only going to hurt you (and your son). I'm just going to adopt Peyton's new team as my temporary second favorite, and enjoy the ride.

[neverstop1863]

The sad truth: We havent built piece by piece like these other successfull teams, we have let good players walk and not replaced them, think about it who has replaced Tarik? who has replaced Edge? we let things get out of control and this was the result, its not easy to admit but true. Holes just kept showing themselves til they could no longer be covered by Peytons superior play, which is why we havent had much success post season, yea we have made the playoffs but been eliminated just as quick, so what happens last season it all comes to the surface 18 doesnt play, ending in a 2-14 season. So now we see these overwhelming holes in our team and it is time to fill them. Yea this wasnt the ending that we, Peyton, or Irsay wanted but i do believe it had to happen.....would you really wish it upon Peyton to come back to this team run for his life behind this thing we call an o-line and struggle to even make the playoffs just to see us get eliminated again.

[mahagga73]

They think Irsay is a liar and diss like him quite a bit. Mom hopes he burns in hate mail and will be eating crow real soon... Dad is going to quit watching sports altogether (highly doubtful IMO). My brother and sister were never that big of colts fans to begin with... I've grown up watching Peyton play all of my younger years (I'm 20 now). Watched Peyton play colts ball from 8 years old to 20. I hope that Peyton wins more SBs than any QB has before. I'd like to see him win 4 more... Ive been hearing and reading a lot of negativity and rightfully so. The only thing left for me that the Colts have is the horse shoe. Everything else is new maybe even including a new uni design by Nike. But if one thing remains the same. It's the horse shoe. It's an emotional time for my parents, and I. But if one thing remains. Its my love for the horse shoe. I can't imagine myself being a fan of any one team besides the Colts. And if we lose for the next 5 years, it's going to be a long hard time for us Colts fans. Because I'm already getting a lot of ridicule from different ppl for still supporting my Colts... Guys. This is a hard time... Keep the faith.

they were never Colt's fans.good riddance.Reminds me of the Bulls after MJ.

[MAC]

Id would rather have a Dan Marino to never win a superbowl who worked his butt off for his team and was able to finish his Pro life with his team winning or losing . To me thats not selfish either Manning knew what was happening he wants to stay in INDY, Its not about money and while im sure he hates losing more then he enjoys winning, he just wanted to finish his career with 1 team from start to finish good or bad. I think for all that he has done Irsay owed him that. But instead pushed him aside cause he wants to start selling them LUCK jerseys since we all already own Manning ones.

Too late too edit my other post - I should say that I never stopped following Seaver. Always my hero. Years later (under new ownership) he came back to the Mets, and pitched on opening day. I was there. Just the elation of 55,000 people screaming and chanting as he walked in from the bullpen to start the game was one of the highlights of my sports fan life. Peyton's story isn't over yet, and I'd be willing to BET that if he wins another Super Bowl, Irsay will be waiting right there to congratulate him with genuine joy. From my perspective, he will be representing all of us in doing so.

[Warhorse]

You make it sound like Irsay intentionally injured you in some way because he is a sadist. What he is is the steward of the franchise, and he made an incredibly painful decision because he thought that it was in everyone's best interests. That's his responsibility. He didn't lie, he didn't do it to save money (the salary cap is what it is), he did it because he felt it was the right thing to do. Please don't demonize the man. PERSONALLY I would have preferred that Polian and Caldwell had stayed, and that the pick had been traded. I wanted to see every last minute of Peytons career maximized - as a Colt. But Luck is sitting out there, and they don't want to pass him up. I can't say that I blame them, because nobody can be 100% sure that Peyton will be himself.

Even if Peyton wins the next five Super Bowls with another team (which is my fondest wish), it still wouldn't mean that Irsay made a bad decision - as long as Luck has a long and successful career in Indy. Because the sad fact is that if Peyton had stayed, he wouldn't have been winning five straight Super Bowls. The roster was filled with highly paid, injury prone, and aging players - and the Colts couldn't have kept them all, much less upgraded. Would you prefer to see Peyton up close and personal - floundering in mediocrity - or would you rather watch him on TV going out in style, while your son gets to watch Luck grow into his new favorite player.

The one thing that you can be sure of in sports in that players come and go. I've been a Colts fan since the 60's, and I've seen a LOT worse than this. The Colts have just completed a virtually unprecedented period of success. Of all the possibilities surrounding the team, assuming that it would just continue indefinitely is far and away the most naive and unrealistic. It just doesn't work that way. Be thankful that we have an owner who is willing to try to make the right call even if it hurts (did you SEE the man at the press conference? I'd be willing to bet that he is in a lot more pain about this than us). It would have been easy to keep Peyton, and we could have been paying for the decision for the next 15 years. Come on back, the waters fine.

Large resounding applause followed by low bows of utmost respect.

[Fireman818]

They think Irsay is a liar and diss like him quite a bit. Mom hopes he burns in hate mail and will be eating crow real soon... Dad is going to quit watching sports altogether (highly doubtful IMO). My brother and sister were never that big of colts fans to begin with... I've grown up watching Peyton play all of my younger years (I'm 20 now). Watched Peyton play colts ball from 8 years old to 20. I hope that Peyton wins more SBs than any QB has before. I'd like to see him win 4 more... Ive been hearing and reading a lot of negativity and rightfully so. The only thing left for me that the Colts have is the horse shoe. Everything else is new maybe even including a new uni design by Nike. But if one thing remains the same. It's the horse shoe. It's an emotional time for my parents, and I. But if one thing remains. Its my love for the horse shoe. I can't imagine myself being a fan of any one team besides the Colts. And if we lose for the next 5 years, it's going to be a long hard time for us Colts fans. Because I'm already getting a lot of ridicule from different ppl for still supporting my Colts... Guys. This is a hard time... Keep the faith.

Listen my friend, I was about your age now when I started rooting for the Colts. I went through the good and bad years and the bad years are what defines you as a fan of your team. It's the blood, sweat and tears or the heckling, bashing and heartache in this case, that will mold you. You will give your team loyality and have your heart broken more than once but when your team does the impossible, you will stand up and thump your chest and say I was there through the hard times, as well as the best of times. You may even shed a tear from time to time because you will someday be sitting there watching a part of your life achieve the highest achievable success and remember the sacrifices you made to support a team when others would only gather to tear you down and distract you from your path of support.

But always remember, as you get older and more important things come into your life, you will see that your support will sway and the things you once did as a fanatical fan won't mean as much. You will earn loyality and the respect from those who gathered to tear you down but your team's management will not live by the same values you have had as a fan and you will be grow tired of it and resent the fact that you feel you waisted your time. Enjoy your years of youth and support your team with all your heart but just know, in time your perspective will change and you will see things in a different light someday.

[Gavin]

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20120308/SPORTS01/303080054/Peyton-Manning-s-career-timeline

seems to me he should have waited on a new deal until he was healthy and not between surgeries

[subvet]

A lot of us have that "second team" we have been fond of. But, the Colts have had my heart my whole life and I can never give them up no matter what they do.

The Colts are now and always will be number one in my heart but I won't know my second favorite team for a few more days.....

[mb122]

I am a colts fan that came when Peyton came in 98 I grew up in NW Indiana so I always loved the Bears but they couldn't get back the years of good old days like the 80's so having watched 18 in college I fell in love with the guy. As of the day I watched his press conference I got a gut feeling man that if Irsay can do our most famous player like that and throw him out along with the rest of the guys that mad indy the city it is today. So as a Bears/Colts fan I feel as if we leave we should be able to do so I mean who's gonna cheer for Luck and a bunch of nobody guys out there. It'll be 10 years before they even become half of what they were known as. Irsay doesn't know football his actions these past few weeks have shown just that. Who gets rid of their franchise QB along with let all of the weapons Luck would need to win with?

[bluebambi]

they were never Colt's fans.good riddance.Reminds me of the Bulls after MJ.

I agree they sound like manning fans, Not colts fans. I'm glad this all happened for one reason,,,, it separates the real colts fans from the bandwagon ones