Manning got his new deal without having to pass a physical

Posted by Mike Florio on September 8, 2011, 10:15 PM EDT
Reuters

As the football-following world processes the news that Colts quarterback Peyton Manning will miss considerable time after undergoing spinal surgery on Thursday, only one thing is clear.

Peyton Manning will get paid a ton of money, even if he doesn’t take a single snap this year.

Per a league source, that new five-year, $90 million contract was given to Manning without the quarterback having to pass a physical.  In other words, he got $20 million to sign, and the Colts didn’t insist on obtaining medical clearance that he can play before giving it to him.  (He eventually passed a physical before being cleared to practice last week — before suffering the setback that caused the latest procedure.)

With the Colts choosing to keep Manning on the active roster, he’ll also pocket his $3.4 million base salary for the new season, along with a $3 million roster bonus tied to Manning being on the 53-man roster for any one game in 2011.

The next question, if Manning can’t play in 2011, becomes whether the Colts would pay him a $28 million option bonus, which is due early in the next league year.  The Colts can avoid the payment only by cutting or trading Manning, and it would be shocking — actually, beyond shocking — if the team would sever ties with one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.

So why did the Colts sign Manning to this deal in the first place?  Peter King of NBC and Sports Illustrated explained during the debut of NBC SportsTalk that the Colts had no concerns about the most recent surgery at the time it was conducted in May 2011, and that team Vice Chairman Bill Polian said on the day of the prior procedure that it would not impact the contract talks.

If the Colts knew then what they know now, it’s hard not to believe that they would have at most kept Manning under the franchise tag in 2011, waiting until 2012 to sign him to a long-term contract.

Here’s Peter talking about the Manning surgery, rehab, and contract.

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56 responses to “Manning got his new deal without having to pass a physical”

  8. Yet another reason why the Colts and their GM are bunch of dumbasses. Made mistake publicly announcing they are going to make Manning the highest paid player. WHY? So he can go one and done in the playoffs. (9-10 playoff record, PATHETIC). And all this talk about can the Colts survive without Manning, whats the worst that could happen, not win a Superbowl, as usual. With a healthy Manning they had no chance, so whats all the fuss about. The guy has become the new Favre.

  13. Football is a TEAM sport. No one is above the TEAM. So pathetic how the Colts and the media just continually give props to Manning for everything regarding the Colts. People talk about how he is the Offensive Coordinator for the Colts, maybe that is why they constantly lose in the playoffs and every time they play a solid team in the league. His job is to be the QB, NOTHING ELSE.

  16. Bad management but also shame on Peyton for using up the cap space when he had to know this was coming. As someone who has had spinal surgeries: You know when you’re close to ready – and that’s for normal life, not just playing football. If he has to have a fusion, he knew already that there was no way he’d play. A cervical fusion? Could be the end of the road for him.

  18. And the last rant. Manning has 45 or 46 “game-winning” drives in career. And only 1 of them came in the playoffs. PATHETIC. (Translation – Most of those “game-winning” drives most likely came against his weak division opponents or wack teams between the months of September and early November).

  20. It’s Peyton, I’m sure if he can’t play again, he won’t keep that money. He’s not that kind of person.

  21. This is turning into a complete shibacle. With 3 procedures done, it puts him at a higher risk to be someone compared to Dennis Byrd than anyone else. Seems like the Colts may have to cut their losses (financially) and Manning instead of wasting money on wondering if he can play and not get seriously injured. I don’t see any other team taking the risk either. Career over? Sad, just sad.

  24. As a “Baltimore” Colt/Raven fan this salary punch in the gut couldn’t make me happier. I still despise the Irsays. As a fan of football I am sorry to see Peyton suffer this injury. Hope he can fully recover because he is one of the greatest to ever play the game.

  25. Finally an organization did the right thing and paid there best player ever a lifetime achievement check

    they knew he was in zero shape to play and my never play again

    good for the colts

  26. If Manning plays this year he is crazy. The typical recovery time is 4-6 weeks but that will be just for the incision. He could possible lose arm strength for up to a year or longer. The bone graph which is the important part of the fusion could take up to 18 months to fully stabilize. If he plays prior to the graph stabilizing he is relying on 4 small screws and a plate to prevent him from severe damage possibly paralysis. I know of several people that have had the screws loosen or break just performing normal household duties let alone being slammed head first into the turf by a 300lb man. A friend of mine broke her screw while having sex. It would take a lot of balls to return this year but not many brains.

  28. It looks like most of you skipped right over the part of this report that reads:
    “He eventually passed a physical before being cleared to practice last week”

  31. Basically they paid for a coach…caldwell is useless but by keeping him on the roster, Peyton can be calling plays from the sidelines…

  35. This just shows how desperate the Colts organization was. Can’t totally blame them though, w/o Manning you go from 1st in the division to 1st overall pick.

  36. Lets be clear…..as someone who grew up with the Harbaugh Colts and the 6 awful season before them….Peyton BUILT the new stadium in Indy, he BUILT the current franchise…he deserves the $$ as much as Irsay….. He is more powerful and more valuable than any player in any sport in the world right now

  37. Seems like a rather bad idea on the surface, but when you really think about it what would the physical have shown? They already knew about the surgery, and they knew he’d have to rehab for a bit. The physical probably wouldn’t have told them any more than that. To me, the bad decision wasn’t the lack of a physical before signing him to the new deal. The problem was signing him to the new deal when they did. He already had the franchise tag on him. They could have waited a bit to see how the recovery went before signing him. If the rehab went well, sign him to a new contract early in the season. If not, you still have him tagged, and worse case you tag him again while you finalize a new deal after the season is over.

  38. One other thing to think about: if Manning had been up front about thin injury earlier, they could have put him on the PUP list and preserved a roster spot. The team-player QB who was so generaous to take less than he coul dhave taken (as the media was telling us last month) signed a contract knowing he might not be able to play this year, and caused his team to spend the whole training camp pretending he’d be there rather than preparing for his absence. Now he’ll take a roster spot for the next 10 games with no hope of playing. What a great guy! He is my hero.

  39. These White built up players get all the love! A lot of these white owners are down right racist and that’s why they hate Marc Cuban and Al Davis, because they’ll do anything to win! Sucka’s!!!! Manning is good, but he’s like most of the has been white QB’s that get that appreciation pat on the back last contract! All the Black’s get released with a “see ya, but wouldn’t want to be ya” Note! Not all but most of y’all are sick!

  40. Its beyond me how you can have a 35 year old QB and not have plan B. I don’t care if its Payton Manning. When Collins falls flat….what next????

  41. They gave him the contract without him having to pass a physical?

    Q: Who’s going to have to pay for that mistake?
    A: The fans.

    Q: Would Bill Belichik make a mistake like that?
    A: Ya think?

    In part this is karmic payback for the colts’ leaving Baltimore in 1984. Had they done it a little more up front back then and had they left the name and colors in Baltimore this might not have happened.

    And don’t forget how jim irsay threatened to move the team to L.A. if indy didn’t build him a new stadium.

    And don’t forget that the Patriots play in a privately financed stadium.

    I am NOT happy to see this happen to Manning and I am NOT happy to see the indy fans get the shaft because of the irsay gang.

    I will miss seeing Manning play, but I will NOT miss his commercials.

  42. Its ok, because peyton has made the colts billions of dollars the last decade, without manning the colts would of been irrelevant, aint nothing wrong with a little kick back

  43. Mr. Manning – you do not owe the game anything, you do not owe the irsay family anything, you do not owe the fans anything.
    But you DO owe your family a WALK in the park and you do owe us out here – fans and non-fans – the pleasure of seeing you make your Hall of Fame acceptance speech in 2016 while standing on your feet, not sitting in a wheelchair and wearing a neck brace.

  45. croghan1919 says:Sep 8, 2011 11:58 PM

    It looks like most of you skipped right over the part of this report that reads:
    “He eventually passed a physical before being cleared to practice last week”

    —————————-

    The thing is, he did not have a setback. My understanding is that his recovery was slow to nonexistant. If he had the surgery because his arm strength wasn’t coming back, that means he did not have sufficient arm strength when he passed the “physical”. At no point did his arm strength get stronger and then regress.

    My feeling is that it was a token physical. 10 fingers, 10 toes and you remember your name. You passed.

    Manning made sure he was covered from challenges from the insurance company. He did just enough to maximize his earnings. He got paid. If the insurance company has isuses they now have to take it up with the Colts, instead of Manning. The insurance company should make Irsay pay every penny.

  46. This is a moronic non-story. In your own posting you note that, though Manning didn’t have to pass a physical to get the contract, he DID pass a physical a short time later:

    (He eventually passed a physical before being cleared to practice last week — before suffering the setback that caused the latest procedure.)

    Where’s the problem, exactly? Why the article — to poke some fun at the Colts brass for signing one of the best players in football to a contract? Yes, he was coming off of surgery — so what? He DID pass a physical before practicing, which means he likely would have passed it before signing the contract… and if not, he probably would have signed the contract closer to the beginning of the season, which is when he DID pass a physical.

    How about trying some actual ‘news’ (or at least ‘news-worthy’) stories once in a while?

  47. Irsay + Polian < Kraft + Belichick.

    no way the latter would strap their franchise for half a decade like that.

  48. If the Colts Org. did not have this contract insured against whats going on now then they are idiots.
    There isn’t one insurance co that would write a contract insuring someone like him who at the time of signing has had two neck operations, so the Colts eat all this money

    Sadly there onlyo saving grace may be that if he can’t ever play again they would get back all the non gauranteed money.

    I just can’t see any medical team clearing him to play again and facing paralysis. But then again BIG money talks.

  49. t16rich says:Sep 8, 2011 10:46 PM

    Now that’s one helluva agent Peyton has.
    ——————
    His agent is the elite sports media loving, a lot of clout having, Tom Condon. That is why PFT is not directing their scorn towards Peyton but instead have u questioning the rational of the GMs. None of Tom Condon clients can do wrong in the eyes of these hypocrits in the sports media.

    Bet u dollars to donuts u will not have articles claiming Peyton deceived anyone into thinking he was okay so he could get paid…NOPE…

  53. Lets stick with the facts. For one, whether it was intentional or not, this deal and not being medically cleared to play just makes Bill Polian looks stupid is an understatement. Its protocol for a player to pass a physical before signing a huge deal, especially after an injury, this move may signal handedly be the lowlight of his GM career and the one that people remember most on his legacy.

  54. I sincerely like Peyton. But if he can’t play this year because of an injury he had before he signed a new deal, and the club was relying on him to be forthcoming on his health status without a physical from an impartial physician, then Peyton should give most of the money back – until such time as he’s fully capable of playing in order to fulfill his contract.

    If he doesn’t do that, then it will change my opinion of Peyton.

  56. Mike likes to scream fire doesnt he! Look, if the Colts would have waited on giving him a new deal, they would have had to put the franchise tag on him. That would have paid Peyton a GUARANTEED 23.6 million for 2011. So the Colts actually SAVED MONEY by signing Manning long term.

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