Day after Manning

March Madness is in full swing, but it is getting squeezed a little bit this year with all the other things happening this march. Because of the off-season lockout, the NBA trade deadline slipped into mid-March and the tiring Dwight Howard saga dragged on and on. Finally, there were a few interesting trades, but nothing earth-shattering happened. But the Peyton Manning courting really is the news of the season and it made the NFL free-agency infinitely more intriguing than usual. Not only was he the big name on the market, but he was also blocking many other QB signings since every team that needed a QB and some that didn't went after him with gusto. Finally, he has made the decision. He has decided to suit-up for Denver. The Niners were a late entrant - at least officially, as they clandestinely worked Manning out and now are caught up in a drama involving Alex Smith. Denver is the winner here as they get Manning despite having a phenomenon named Tebow on their roster. Manning is going to cost way more than what I would have originally guessed for a 36 year-old guy coming off of a neck injury. But he is still going to excite the Denver fan-base and the other suitors can only wonder what might have been if he had picked them.

The Niner situation is interesting. Denver had a good, choir boy QB under contract and if Manning had flaked out on them, they just had to kiss and make up with Tebow. He is the type who would have said all the right things and played his rear-end off as always. The problem with the Niners is, they didn't have a starting QB under contract. Alex Smith was a free-agent himself. So they were going after both Manning and Smith after a season of love affair between coach Harbaugh and Smith. Hence the secret workout with Manning that eventually leaked. It did stay a secret rather long for this day and age. The fact that they did it in secrecy tells you they wanted to hide it from someone and Smith is the only possible target of this secrecy. Ordinarily, going after Manning is a great PR move for the team and thats something the team would want on the front pages. So the assumption here across the bay is that the Niners wanted to hide it from Smith. The only reason I am not entirely sure about that is that Manning and Smith also have the same agent - another nice twist to the story. I can't imagine Smith's agent helping the Niners double-cross him like that. Either Tom Condon is the worst agent ever or the Niners kept Condon out of their courtship of Manning as well by dealing with Manning directly and asking him to keep his own agent in the dark so that Smith is in the dark too.

We may never know what happened behind closed doors and how much Alex Smith knew or if he was upset about the whole drama. But it is providing an interesting sideshow to Manning's free agency. Now, the focus is on what happens to Alex Smith and the Niners. There is a 3-year, 24 million contract on the table and he may have to settle for it eventually. The leverage has been shifting every 6 hours in this story and right now, since the Dolphins signed David Garrard, the Niners seem to have the upper hand again. This should be resolved in a day or two. I almost want Alex Smith to sign with another team and stick it to the Niners. He can also fire Condon while he is at it. But I don't think any of that will happen. Also, I like both Alex Smith and coach Harbaugh and want them to continue their marriage by the bay for at least one more year. It will be interesting to see what they do next season with that defense back in full strength and with Randy Moss and Mario Manningham added to the receiving core. The Niner fans are in a funny situation here too as they desperately wanted their team to go after Manning. I guess they were not careful what they wished for. The Niners did chase Manning and lost. Now the fans are reduced to sweating the Alex Smith signing and understandably so. Hope all ends well for them. As for Manning, the next steps are about figuring out the number of zeroes in his contract. There will be many, but the details will be interesting. Then the Tebow trade drama can begin in earnest.

In the NCAA tournament, we have the sweet 16 all setup. For all the talk of madness, all four 1 seeds, two 2-seeds, two 3-seeds and three 4-seeds are still dancing. There is a 6 and 7 seed in the mix, but the interesting ones are 10-Th seed Xavier, 11-Th seed NC State and 13-Th seed Ohio. There are also 4 teams from the state of Ohio - the first time any one state pulled that off. There is also the remote possibility that Xavier and Cincinnati - the two teams that had an ugly fight earlier in the season, may end up meeting in the championship game. There are enough 1 seeds that will prevent that from happening, but keep an eye on that. The best day so far in the tournament was the Friday when Lehigh and Norfolk State took care of two 2-seed including the hated Duke. Unfortunately, both those 15-Th seeds got blown out on Sunday in the round of 32. Thats how the tournament rolls. You never know who's going to win and when. Thats why you watch it and watch it closely. As for my bracket, Missouri shredded it when they lost to one of the aforementioned 15-Th seeds, but I can take solace in the fact that even President Barack had Missouri going pretty deep.

End of a great era

The event that seemed impossible even 6 months ago happened today. The Indianapolis Colts released Peyton Manning. We knew this day was coming the past 3 months, but we never thought this was even a possibility until November 2011 or so. It's amazing how quickly things can change and like Kevin Garnett once deliriously shouted "anything is possible"! Manning and owner Jim Irsay appeared together and parted ways as friendly adults in an emotional news conference today. I thought they handled it in a classy manner given the circumstances though Irsay had some juvenile moments in this saga during the past few months. It was of course staged and had it's awkward moments from the point he picked him up yesterday from the airport, but it was done the right way. And the emotion, at least from Manning's side seemed real and genuine. It doesn't matter who you are, it's going to be tough to walk away from a place you have been working at for 14 years. And in his case, it's a workplace that made him incredibly rich, successful, famous and a living legend. He had some fun times there to say the least, including that super bowl win and it was definitely a tough day for him to cut that chord today.

Manning came in as a can't-miss rookie in 1998 and went 3-13 while showing several flashes of brilliance. The very next season, he threw for more than 4000 yards and helped the Colts go 13-3. The rest as they say is history. He pretty much became the face, heart and soul of the Colts and the city of Indianapolis for the next 14 years as the Colts kept winning many, many games. He took a mediocre franchise in a basketball town and made it the premier football franchise in the league. I once blogged that when you say "franchise player", the guys who are on the top of that elite list - the creme de la creme, are Michael Jordan, Peyton Manning and Tim Duncan. Their impact on the city and the franchise is way beyond what they did on the field for the duration of their career with the club. Unfortunately for the Colts, Manning's career with them is already over. The good news for them is that they have another can't miss prospect coming their way in the form of Andrew Luck. Another number 1 pick just in time to replace a legend. Reminds me of the Spurs scoring Tim Duncan with their number 1 pick many years after David Robinson. Of course, the circumstances there were different and Duncan and Robinson could play together and win a ring, but it is still interesting that the Colts are able to go from Manning to Luck. It will be totally unfair to expect Luck to be Manning-good, but even if he turns out to be a decent starting NFL QB, the Colts have nothing to complain.

It was the combination of availability of Luck, the high price-tag on Manning - $28 million for this upcoming year, and Manning's age that made this the right decision for the Colts. As they say, father-time is undefeated and Manning is the latest athlete joining that fight. Even without the four neck surgeries, you would think he has probably 2 good years left on the football field and if you are the Colts, you definitely go with the younger Luck. It will be interesting to see Luck play and evolve. Manning's shadow will definitely follow him for a while. The good news for Manning is that, he seems to be recovering well and capable of playing in the NFL again. If he can play, there will be no shortage of suitors for him. The entire NFC West, except the St. Louis Rams are in the list of teams somewhat to extremely interested in Manning. He is so good, he can pick his team and can also influence the receiving corps around him. We don't know how this will end for Manning, but it sure looks like he will have a new start at a new place soon and all eyes will be on him. The hype machine will be in full flow, and deservedly so. When Brett Favre started with the Jets, we were all watching and that season didn't end great for Favre though he had some good moments. Of course, he was spectacular with the Vikings the next year before fading away in 2010 when he was 40 years old. Manning is a little younger now than Favre was when he left the Packers, but he is also coming of major surgeries which was never the issue with Favre. But Manning will also not miss training camps and avoid starting the season late like Favre used to. So it will be interesting to see Manning in 2012. We already have a great story waiting for us to start the NFL season.