Pagano: Irsay reveres Peyton
Only 24 hours after comments from Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay about Peyton Manning — whichwere largely interpreted as disparaging— hit the Internet, second-year Colts coach Chuck Pagano wasn’t going to bite.
“All I know is that since I’ve been here, my conversations with Mr. Irsay regarding Peyton have been nothing of the sort,” Pagano said Wednesday when asked about the seemingly negative nature of the owner’swords. “I don’t think there’s anybody that Mr. Irsay respects and cares for more than Peyton.”
As for Irsay, he continued the dialogueWednesday, unleashing a string of tweets clarifying his comments. Irsay said on Twitter that if the Colts had given Manning better special teams and defense instead of asking him to do too much, they would have won more than one Super Bowl title. Some of his other tweetswere less comprehensible, but Irsay seems to stick by his assertion thatManning told him to draft former Stanford star Andrew Luck. Calling out ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, Irsay tweeted that he doesn’t recall Mortensen being privy to the conversation when Manning said the Colts couldn’t pass on Luck.
In Indianapolis, the ghost of Manning looms large, and never more than this week, although Luck joked that the only difference between preparing for his predecessor and any other quarterback is having to answer more questions. Just like his coach, Luckwasn’t going to cop to any opinion on Irsay’s words or the pressure of succeeding perhaps the greatest quarterback of all time. When asked whether he felt the Colts were his team or Manning’s, Luck deflected with what might be termed the typical cop-out, saying that “it’s a team of a bunch of guys.”
But in response to Irsay’s comments about having only one Super Bowl title and wanting more, Luck allowed himself a laugh.
“It would be great to win multiple Super Bowls, but we know there’s a long way to go until then,” he said.
That long way includes this weekend’s game, when the Colts (4-2) host the Broncos (6-0) on “Sunday Night Football.”
Before the game begins, though, the Colts plan to honor Manning with a ceremony at Lucas Oil Stadium. It might seem like a strange concept, the home team honoring the leader of the visitors— a leader who might just pick them to pieces within minutes of said ceremony— but to Pagano, there’s no question whether to honor Manning was the right choice.
“There probably should be (a ceremony), wouldn’t you agree?” Pagano said. “Just go back to everything that he’s done for this organization and this city. I don’t knowwhy theywould not do that. It’s the right thing to do.”