Insider: Does Peyton Manning want to run a team?
INDIANAPOLIS — Eventually, he’s going to grow bored of the carpools and the commercials, of Sundays that don’t end with a win or a loss, right? He’s going to miss the competition he craved for so long.
That football addiction that governed Peyton Manning’s life for 25 years, from high school ball in New Orleans to college in Knoxville, Tenn., to the pros in Indianapolis and Denver? It’s an itch this man is eventually going to have to scratch. Right?
Maybe. Maybe not. It doesn’t appear Manning will be riding in on his white horse and saving the mess that is the Indianapolis Colts. But he has at the very least considered it, according to a not-so-surprising report from Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer. Colts owner Jim Irsay made a “strong push” in trying to bring Manning back to Indianapolis for a front-office position, Glazer reported, but at this point it appears an “uphill battle.”
Just because it doesn’t happen now doesn’t mean it won’t happen in the future. Manning, by any measure, remains Irsay’s golden goose – nothing would rejuvenate a staid franchise more than luring its greatest player ever back to town to save the day.
It worked for John Elway in Denver, Irsay must be thinking. Why can’t it work here?
Irsay's dissatisfaction with his current regime — that'd be coach Chuck Pagano and General Manager Ryan Grigson – has never been more evident. An owner doesn't chase new decision-makers unless he's growing tired of what he's got.
Which brings us to Manning. And his future.
He has, by his own account, relished his first fall of freedom in nearly three decades. Manning has done the things an 18-year pro football career always prevented. He’s driven his young twins, Marshall and Mosley, to school. He attended a Comedy Central roast of longtime friend Rob Lowe. He fished with Dierks Bentley. He filmed lots of commercials (wait, that’s nothing new). He returned to Tennessee to watch his Volunteers play and to Indianapolis to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the Colts’ Super Bowl XLI triumph.
He also has spent time discussing his future with a few close confidants: former coach Tony Dungy and former teammates and friends Jeff Saturday and Reggie Wayne.
Manning is a man with options. Television networks would salivate at the chance of him joining their booth. He could see if he could replicate Elway’s success in Denver. He could surely find work as a quarterbacks coach or offensive coordinator, be it at the professional or college level — what team wouldn’t jump at the chance to hire him? Or he could keep filming pizza commercials.
“I think the biggest mistake would be to rush into something and go, ‘Wow, what am I doing?” Manning said in March.
“I am kind of taking the fall to breathe and take a little pause and kind of enjoy being a football fan,” he added in November. “I’ve been able to do some things that I haven’t been able to do in 25 years in the fall.”
That’s Manning — prudent, patient, prepared. His greatest attributes as a player seem the very ones that would enable to him to slide seamlessly into a front-office position. Manning was always more than a quarterback. He was cerebral in his preparation, a coach on the field, owner of one of the greatest football minds of his generation. He knew offenses, defenses, tendencies and talents as well as anyone in football.
One would presume evaluating and projecting talent, and constructing a roster, would come natural to No. 18. As a player, he always seemed in command. As a general manager, it would be his job title.
“He knew the strengths and weaknesses of every player on every defense in the AFC and many on offense, because he met them and got to know them at the Pro Bowl and soaked up information,” former Colts President Bill Polian said on Sirius XM last year. “He is a football nerd, as am I. He’s more than prepared to do (a front-office) job.”
Elway offers the most striking example of a legendary quarterback mirroring his success on the field with success running a team. After a five-year stint running the Arena Football League’s Colorado Crush, Elway took over the Broncos in 2011. A year later, he signed Manning, then a free agent, away from a host of suitors. He pieced together the league’s top defense. He hoisted the Lombardi Trophy last February, becoming the first former Super Bowl MVP to win the game as a top executive.
Ravens General Manager Ozzie Newsome, a Hall of Fame tight end, remains one of the most respected executives in football and architect of one of the league’s most consistent winners. As for iconic players in other sports trying their hand at running a team: Jerry West soared with the Lakers while Michael Jordan flopped with the Wizards. Larry Bird is a former NBA Executive of the Year, but outside of a pair of runs to the Eastern Conference finals, the Pacers have provided mixed results under his helm.
Manning might not even need any front-office experience before stepping into a central role with an organization. He’s been training for it for years. Before the 1998 NFL draft, he met with Polian and a host of Colts executives for an hour-long interview. Manning arrived 15 minutes early with a pad of paper and dozens of questions he wanted answered. Polian exited the hotel an hour later, asking a colleague, “He just interviewed us, didn’t he?”
Once drafted first overall, Manning petitioned the league to allow him to start practicing with the Colts early. After he was denied, he showed up for the first workout having memorized the entire playbook.
Throughout his 14 years in Indianapolis, playing under a Hall of Fame front office executive in Polian, Manning would routinely discuss draft prospects with his boss. A football nerd can’t ever really turn it off.
“He would often discuss with me prospects coming out in the draft, SEC players he’d seen, players he’d seen in other parts of the country,” Polian said. “He pays close attention to the rosters of the other (teams) in the league, with specific attention to the AFC.”
Years of training before he takes over a team? Please, says Polian. This is Peyton Manning we’re talking about.
“All he would need would be a brief tutorial on the league rules and things like the general terms of trades and contract language — one of which he’s also very familiar, because of his own contract,” Polian said. “He’s well prepared to do that. He could step right from the playing field into a role like that, because he’s ready.”
That was a year ago, shortly before Manning’s playing career ended with a victory in Super Bowl 50. He has since had time to rejuvenate, weigh his options, drive the carpool, go fishing with country music stars and consider what’s next. He’ll turn 41 in March.
There are only so many pizza commercials a man can film.
Call IndyStar reporter Zak Keefer at (317) 444-6134. Follow him on Twitter: @zkeefer.
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