Thanks to the PFT crew for keeping the content coming during Wednesday’s special edition of PFT Live, which featured a live stream of the press conference regarding the Colts’ decision to release quarterback Peyton Manning.
Much can be said about the event. For now, I’ll focus on the comments that got lodged in the officially-licensed PFT bovine excrement filter.
Both Colts owner Jim Irsay and Manning said that the decision wasn’t about the money. Which means, as it always does, that it was about the money.
And it was. Required to pay Manning $28 million very, very soon and forced to carry a $17 million cap number in 2012 for a guy who may or may not be healthy enough to play in 2012, Irsay had no other choice. If the number had instead been, say, $10 million to Manning and a $7 million cap number, Irsay likely is inclined to keep Peyton around. Somewhere been the two extremes there was a go/no-go line.
For Manning, money was an issue because taking less was never an option. Delaying the due date for the $28 million by even a week was never regarded as a possibility, because Manning never showed the slightest willingness to do it.
The money lines were drawn last year, when Manning’s agents installed a plutonium pill into his new contract, forcing the team to pay or get off the pot before the launch of 2012 free agency. Period.
So, yes, it was about the money.
Just like it will be about the money, at least in large part, when Peyton picks his next team. No matter how many times he says it isn’t.