BRIAN HOWEY: Keeping Peyton in the Hoosier pantheon

When it comes to the pantheon of Hoosier sports heroes — Johnny Wooden, Knute Rockne, Bob Knight, Larry Bird, Reggie Miller, Rick Mount, Bobby Plump, George Gipp — the newest name will certainly be Peyton Manning.

Today is one of the most bittersweet days in Indiana sports history. The NFL Super Bowl comes to Indianapolis, the city has risen gloriously to the occasion, but the virulent subplot is that Peyton Manning might have taken his last snap as the Colts quarterback. We've been treated to an onslaught of speculation by the media, talking without the normal honor and armor of "facts."

And the "facts" are that Colts owner Jim Irsay intends to bring Manning back, as long as he's healthy. He said on Dec. 23 in Houston, "I think the situation is if he's back and he's healthy, I see him coming back and playing here."

On Monday, former Colts coach and current NBC analyst Tony Dungy told WTHR-TV that he had spoken with Irsay several times in the past month. "I think if there's any way he can play, it will be for the Colts," Dungy said.

Despite these assurances, the speculation has ramped up, to the point where Yahoo Sports was reporting late Monday that sources close to the Colts don't believe Manning will be healthy enough. They say his arm strength isn't returning.

But Manning himself refuted that with ESPN on Tuesday. "The doctors are encouraged, and that's encouraging to me."

Should the Yahoo speculation bear out, it is as stunning a development as what occurred in 1939, when "The Iron Horse" — New York Yankee first baseman Lou Gehrig — took a precipitous statistical and physical decline just as his amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, began to eat away at his legendary skills as well as his life.

Batting .145 in April, Gehrig took himself out of the lineup, ending a 2,130-consecutive game streak. He stayed on the team the rest of the season but never played again.

Sportswriter James Kahn observed of Gehrig: "I think there is something wrong with him. Physically wrong, I mean. I have seen him time a ball perfectly, swing on it as hard as he can, meet it squarely, and drive a soft, looping fly over the infield. In other words, for some reason that I do not know, his old power isn't there."

Of course, we know the Manning Iron Horse legend: only Brett Favre, at 297 regular season games and 321 including playoffs, has more consecutive starts in NFL history than Manning, 208 regular season games and 227 total. The next two on the list are Eli Manning (129) and Ron Jaworski (123), far behind in the rearview mirror. While Major League Baseball is a grinding, every-single-day sport, it simply doesn't compare to the violence a modern NFL quarterback is subjected to with 350-pound marauders paid millions to rip a QB's head off.

Manning, we believed, was destined to become the greatest statistical QB ever with more games and touchdowns than Favre, his 54,828 yards third only behind Dan Marino (61,361) and Favre (71,838). Manning's 361 touchdowns trailed only Marino (420) and Favre (497). His 95.2 career quarterback rating is second only to Steve Young. These were all records to be claimed by Manning wearing the horseshoe.

The silver lining here is that as the Colts tumbled from perennial playoff to a dismal 2-14 team, the consolation prize most likely will be Stanford QB Andrew Luck. The scenario I love is Manning tutoring the rookie. "Guys like that come along so rarely," Irsay said Oct. 10. "Even if that means that guy sits for three or four years, you'd certainly think about taking him ... you see what Green Bay did with (Brett) Favre and (Aaron) Rodgers, and you'd like to be able to do the same thing."

Given what happened to the Colts, the Chicago Bears with an injured Jay Cutler, Miami, Kansas City and Oakland — none of whom made the playoffs after fast starts and injured QBs — having two quality quarterbacks seems wise.

The critics of keeping Manning suggest he would return to a team struggling to contend. I'm not buying that. The Colts were decimated for a second consecutive year with injuries, particularly on defense. With the top choice in each round, they can quickly reset, as San Francisco and Cincinnati did this year.

The prevailing prediction with most national sports pundits is that the Colts release Manning. Which would be sheer lunacy: What if Manning ended up in Tennessee or Jacksonville? Or the hated Jets?

It took the Boston Red Sox almost nine decades to overcome the curse of the Bambino. The curse of Peyton would be a terrifying thing.

I think Manning stays. There is too much bad karma involved for Irsay to just release him.

Yes, we know the NFL is big business. It's not "fantasy league football," as Irsay reminded us. Yes, we understand the overt tug to rebuild. But Hoosiers are a loyal people. We don't like our college programs to cheat. We like the three-pointer, tenacious man-to-man defense and Manning going to the line, audibling.

We like the sharpest tool in the shed. For 14 years, that was Peyton Manning. For most of us, if it ends next month, that is too short a time.

Brian Howey is publisher of Howey Politics Indiana, a daily briefing on Indiana politics. The opinions are the writer's.