Remember when Buzz Aldrin & Neil Armstrong didn’t land on the moon in July of 1969? Remember when they were THISCLOSE to touching down on the lunar surface, but Flight Command called it off at the very last moment? Remember the exchange that took place?
“Too risky,” Flight Command cautioned the astronauts. “We’ve been thinking it over down here, and our ultimate mission is space exploration — not moon exploration. We need you all healthy for future missions.”
Aldrin & Armstrong & That Other Guy were mortified. Remember?
“Jesus, Command,” Armstrong argued over the radio. “Seriously? I mean, we’re RIGHT HERE. You seriously want us to come all this way and then bail? Really???”
“10-4,” Flight Command ordered. “Abort mission.”
Remember that?
No. You don’t remember that. And you know why? Because NASA did not bail. They embraced the moment & all the perils that came with it. They took that moment by the scruff of its neck & shoved it into history’s immortal bin of Greatness.
Just like how the Colts did not.
And we’ll remember that for a long, long time.
And you know why? Because the Colts High Command bailed in every way imaginable. They so balls-lessly eschewed the moment & all the perils that came with it. They took that moment by the hand & shoved it in front of a speeding garbage truck. It’s dead now, of course.
And so too is their chance for immortality.
By Hamilton Fish, December 28, 2009 @ 10:15 am
What is the exact opposite of how the Colts handled yesterday’s game and in essence this season? Oh, I don’t know, maybe this
Sometimes I think humans tend to over think things. Maybe we could learn a thing or to from our equine brethren. I’m not even a horse racing fan, but that race gives me chills every time I watch it.
By Allen Wedge, December 28, 2009 @ 10:39 am
Man you Colts people are a whiny bunch, “oh no… we sat our starters, we can’t be undefeated…” come on now, take a look at the Saints Nation, we’re leaving our starters in and we’re still blowing games against crap teams! I’ll take your “problem” any day.
By P Daddy, December 28, 2009 @ 10:41 am
My water heater broke this weekend, crappy weekend to have that happen. I called our heating company and this is what the manager told me:
“I’m sorry sir but our best plumber is home resting today b/c our busy season is coming up, but we’re sending you this kid straight out of shop class in his place. Oh and by the way, it’ll still cost you the same.”
By Roy Hobbson, December 28, 2009 @ 10:45 am
Wedge: Losing b/c you got beat is 19 billion times better than losing b/c you quit.
By Me hates foosball, December 28, 2009 @ 10:47 am
Which is why I watch Indycar and NASCAR on Sundays then take a break during foosball season. Foosball sucks!
By Larry Phelps, December 28, 2009 @ 10:47 am
Hey Allen, there’s a slight difference between trying to win and failing and gift wrapping games like it was prime milk-fed veal to an office colleague. If Colts fans are whiny because we would rather play to win as opposed to shrinking from the moment due to an assortment of broken labias then color us guilty.
By Me hates foosball, December 28, 2009 @ 10:48 am
BUT the risk of losing a player now when they need them later makes sense. Swallow your pride. Take one for the team. In this case the team takes one for the team. Pay it forward! What have you.
By DZ, December 28, 2009 @ 10:54 am
I visited the link by HamFish and also the related link by ESPN Sportscentury. Both gave me chills while watching.
I understand both sides of this argument and it seems the final score now will only be determined by whether or not this Colts team wins the super bowl.
I can see the side of thought which says ‘if Manning gets hurt in the Jets game and is out for 6 weeks, then we look pretty stupid for playing him’.
I can also see the desire by the fans to see greatness achieved. Especially in Indianapolis or Indiana, a city and state that I feel all too often goes unrecognized for the general way in which ‘we go about our business’ type of mentality, without fanfare or self-aggrandizing. I think IMS and the IRL are great reflections of this mentality.
With that as backdrop, the achievement of a perfect season by this Colts team would be all the more sweet. Now, Mr. Polian, anything less than a SuperBowl ring is unacceptable.
I also leave you all with this quote by Teddy Roosevelt which may add something for both side of this argument to consider…
“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
Teddy Roosevelt, speaking at the Sorbonne in Paris, April 23, 1910
DZ
By Allen Wedge, December 28, 2009 @ 11:06 am
Isn’t the goal to win the SuperBowl? I mean yeah we can talk about immortality and all that, but do you guys REALLY want to see Jeff Saturday hanging out with Mercury Morris?
A more interesting note is why “sitting starters” hasn’t started a federal investigation for game fixing. This is maybe the 4th or 5th time the Colts have single handedly, not only fixed a game by sitting starters, but they actually determined specifically who gets into the playoffs. In 2007 they sat starters and let Tennessee beat them in week 17 which knocked out a very late-season strong resurgent Brows team; this time they basically gave a shaky Jets team control of the wild card spot… is there a greater scheme going on here where they are purposefully choosing who they want the wild card teams to be? Conspiracy wheels turning…
By Larry Phelps, December 28, 2009 @ 11:17 am
Wedge: Going for perfection and winning the Super Bowl are not mutually exclusive. This is not an either or situation. You can, shockingly enough, do both.
By pressdog, December 28, 2009 @ 11:41 am
Once again, the paying customers (you remember him and her?) gets corn holed. I bet those fans who bought tickets for the game got a discount because Peyton and the stars would “rest.” No, wait, what happened was a Colts representative handed each fan a $20 cash refund as they exited the arena. Oh, wait, no, neither of those things happened. The fans still paid $50+ per and got to watch Peyton sit on the bench. YEAH. Sounds a little like bait and switch to me.
By James, December 28, 2009 @ 11:46 am
I can’t believe pulling starters can be for the sake of the “big picture”. Someone wins the superbowl each year. It will always happen. There are very few chances for a team to have a perfect season. Thus far only one team has truely gone unbeaten. The colts stood on the cusp of history last night. While starring into the abyss, an unbeaten juggernaut of epic proportion, softy and quietly backed away in the face of risking all for gory.
Something was seen that we are not used to here in Indianapolis. As race fans we come to expect the same unmerciful percuit of perfection that the autoracing world delivers in every aspect of sport and life. Where a points leader will fight tooth and nail for 12th spot on the last lap of the season just to be up an extra 5 points at the end. Where a team 20 laps down will fix their car and race their hearts out for 2 hours in hopes of gaining one more spot on the leaderboard. This is the norm, even expected, in our world. In the world of stick and ball sports, it seems to be very much the exception. This is why my heros will always be race drivers.
By BC, December 28, 2009 @ 12:26 pm
“If Manning gets hurt…”
GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH if I hear that argument one more time….
Actually, this whole business was so sickening I put a completely off-topic essay about it on my website last night (no, it doesn’t have the massive stopping power of Mr. Hobbson’s analysis…but then again, what ever does?)
Play Manning for 40 minutes, only to pull him for the final 20 in fear of what just maybe COULD happen (and hasn’t ever happened before)?
GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
By Sarge, December 28, 2009 @ 12:38 pm
The Football Gods are angry today, my friends. And I fear they will have their vengeance.
By Chris, December 28, 2009 @ 1:15 pm
BC is right. Manning has started every game for 12 years. Besides sitting out a play when he broke his jaw against the Dolphins six years ago and dinging his thumb against the Patriots in the AFC Champhionship game, the guy has really never been hurt. He has only been sacked 10 times this year. He has a better chance of pulling a “Ron Artest” and tripping over a box at home and getting hurt than he does during a game.
I also think that the Colts need to stop worrying about finding the next “Tom Brady” with selecting Quarterbacks in the sixth round and start worrying about finding the next “Peyton Manning”. They need to get a back-up with a first or second round pick. To think that Jim Sorgi or Curtis Painter might be the next starting Quarterback of the Colts when Peyton retires makes me sick to my stomach. Time to get a talented quarterback that the Colts can start grooming to take his place in 4 or 5 years. Somebody the caliber of Aaron Rodgers maybe.
By DZ, December 28, 2009 @ 1:15 pm
Sarge, if by vengeance you mean the Colts will not win the Superbowl, I fear the same. As we all (and especially Mr. Kannan) know, Karma is an outright beyotch. Not judging, I’m just sayin’…
DZ
By 99forever, December 28, 2009 @ 2:21 pm
I think we should send AJ in to have “a word” with the coaching staff.
By George Phillips (Oilpressure), December 28, 2009 @ 2:38 pm
When the Titans are in that situation next year, I can assure you that they will NOT pull the plug.
By Coz, December 28, 2009 @ 4:00 pm
As I said before, Da coach has it right. To sit players when they have a chance at going undefeated, is chickensh*t. It was a tight game, and nobody, not Peyton, not Brady, not Montana or Young nor anyone else, can have enough experience playing in a tight game, against a desperate team that is decent. That’s what a playoff game usually is. When the 49ers & Bears had their 19-1 seasons, they had their starters playing in the game they lost. The Pats had their starters play to go 16-0 into the playoffs. To not give the Colts, and in particular Peyton Manning, (and I think Jeff Saturday has been there most, if not all of the time Peyton has been in Indy,) this opportunity, is BS, and something that Colts fans will have to bitch about, forever. This is Ursay’s big mistake, and the coaching staff’s big mistake. For us Bear fans, as much as we love Ditka, it still remains a thorn in every old time fan’s side that Walter Payton didn’t get to score a TD in that Super Bowl. Da Coach’s admission of this oversight is why it isn’t ever brought up any more.
By The Speedgeek, December 28, 2009 @ 4:47 pm
“They so balls-lessly eschewed the moment & all the perils that came with it.”
[slowly standing up]
[clap]
[clap]
[clap]
[clap]
By Bickelmom, December 28, 2009 @ 5:19 pm
I walked out of the room cursing my Colts yesterday. That hasn’t happened since we signed Lindy Infante to coach.
By lindy thackston, December 28, 2009 @ 6:26 pm
hey, here’s an idea: let’s take dario out of the car at long beach after the first pit stop since we want to make sure he’s in good shape to drive the 500 and put the guy who drives my golf cart in the target car to finish the race.
no offense to painter b/c i gotta support a purdue guy… but COME ON coaching staff!!!!!!!!!
By kid_charlemange, December 28, 2009 @ 9:51 pm
In unrelated news, my Bears still suck.
By Bob, December 28, 2009 @ 10:21 pm
You play to win the game; especially when a perfect season is on the line. I despise the decision on Sunday. I lost sleep over it. I really feel for the fans at that game, as well as Peyton and the other starters forced to watch the perfect season slip away. I don’t see how a team can rebound from something like that.
By Shane from .au, December 28, 2009 @ 10:33 pm
Get Beekhaus in as coach, because this is about, Mo-mo-mo-mo-mo-ment-um.
By Boo Boo, December 29, 2009 @ 12:33 am
It’s a no-win situation for the staff. If a key player is injured during the game, I guarantee that the very same fans that are crying now will start worrying about being one and done in the playoffs, and blame the staff for gambling the post season on what is, at the end of it all, an utterly meaningless statistic.
My Chargers have beaten the Colts 4 out of the last 5, and eliminated them from the playoffs twice. Over the course of the last 10 games, the Chargers average score against opponents is 31 – 16, while the Colts have averaged 26 – 20. There is a very strong possibility that these two teams will meet in the post season again, and just as strong a possibility that the Chargers would have stopped the unbeaten streak in any case.
The Colts, in spite of their record, are not a dominant team. If they were a dominant team they would have beat up their opponent when they had the chance (in the first half), and won the game. Instead, they blew big plays by overthrowing and dropping passes, and pulled their usual trick of putting off winning a game until the end of the 4th quarter. Manning knew they had to score their points in the first half, and they didn’t get it done. Oh dear, how terrible. I’ll never recover from the disappointment.
History interrupted!
Feh. It doesn’t mean a damn thing to anybody except couch-potato fanboys.
Y’all ought to be glad that the Colts staff is preparing the team to take their best shot in a game that really matters. Beating up on a bottom feeder will be precious little consolation if the Colts can’t win in the post season.
Get over it.
By Ron Ford, December 29, 2009 @ 12:31 pm
On December 9, 1967 the Green Bay Packers faced a game situation similar to the Colts/Jets game. They played the Rams in L.A. At that point the Packers has already clinched the Central Division title. From a playoff standpoint the game could have meant little to the Packers. Not so for the Rams who desperately needed a win to stay even with the Baltimore Colts in the old “Coastal Division”. There was rampant speculation in the press that the Packers would take it easy and rest key players. Those doing the speculating apparently did not know Vince Lombardi well.
The Packers rested no one, the game was played with great intensity, and the Packers lost in the final minutes. Afterward, Jim Murray, the gifted sportswriter for the Los Angeles Times had this to say:
“When Vince Lombardi loses a football game, particularly with the numbing suddeness that he did that day, it is wise to enter the locker room with a whip and a chain. Not that day. Vince Lombardi’s face was suffused with pride. All he had lost was the game. But he hadn’t tried to sell the Green Bay Packers with one wheel missing or the engine failing. He hadn’t come to town with a plastic team craftily disguised as the real thing. His team lived up to the warranty and no one wanted his money back. No one hollered for the Better Business Bureau.:
The Indianapolis Colts fans deserve to have their money back. The teams fighting with the Jets for a playoff spot got screwed. Bill Polian and his puppet coach just don’t get it.
By BC, December 29, 2009 @ 1:21 pm
“It doesn’t mean a damn thing to anybody except couch-potato fanboys”
So…are you saying Colts players really ARE robots? Because I’d believe that before believing that a human sports competitor wouldn’t care about losing the chance to do something historical.
By H.B. Donnelly, December 29, 2009 @ 8:53 pm
To those of you complaining about the Colts’ fans, I offer this retort:
*plugs ears* “LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA”
that is all.
By Leigh O'Gorman, December 30, 2009 @ 12:08 am
This kind of happened in the Soccer Premier League in the UK a few weeks back. Wolves had two games with middling teams two Saturdays apart and were playing the league leaders on the Wednesday in-between.
So they put out their regular squad on the two Saturday games, but deliberately put out their second squad for the Wednesday match because “they probably would have lost anyway.”
Needless to say, many of the thousand’s of fans that travelled to game and a lot of money for the pleasure were happy…
By cappy, December 30, 2009 @ 12:23 am
Look on the bright side: Mercury Morris is blowing lines of coke off shrimp cocktail in the Keys right now.
By Izod9, December 31, 2009 @ 12:39 am
This is kind of off the subject like everything else, but didn’t the Colts want to play a game on the main straight in the shadow of the Pagoda a long time ago? My kids think I’m nuts but I know I read that before the Dome was built. That would have made the Pagodians wild with pleasure.