Cubs, Colts, Legends, and Brick

This picture is just so wrong.

     Ryne Sandberg and Peyton Manning are not really athletic contemporaries.  Sandberg last stepped onto the field at Wrigley in 1997.  Manning began his career in Indy in 1998.  One played baseball and the other plays football.  One was good while the other is IMHO the best to ever play his game.  But they do have two important things in common as far as I'm concerned.  The first is that in their respective sports they are the two people that I most enjoyed watching play their game.  The second is that both of them got completely screwed over by their long time team.

As is this.

 

     Any Cubs fan that was watching in the 80s and 90s knows what Ryno meant to that team.  He was the heart and soul of an organization that at times seemed right on the verge of turning things around.  Even during the dismal seasons Sandberg was the perennial ray of hope and the building block and the veteran to stabilize the club house.  He chased records and made all star teams.  He was the quiet leader on and off the field.  And even though he had personal problems that probably affected some of his career decisions, at heart his fans like me saw him as the ultimate Cub.  So the treatment that he got from the Cubs new organization last year of not even granting him an interview for the open manager position was both shocking and disheartening.  He deserved better and I'm pretty sure that history is going to show the Cubs that once again they have made a bad decision.

     But that doesn't even register with the level of disrespect that Peyton Manning received from the Colts this season.  I understand that no one player makes a team and that no one player is bigger than the team.  But that doesn't mean that all players are equal and their impact over time can't be measured and appreciated.  Peyton Manning is the best football player in history.  He redefined the position of quarterback.  He was the ultimate community guy for Indianapolis.  Not only was he the face of the Colts he was the face of the NFL.  And he got punked.  I'm not going to take the time to recreate the timeline on this because anyone that cares about this topic already knows it, but I will offer my take on why it happened.  I believe the Jim Irsay felt betrayed.  He is an old hippy that has more money than all but 311 Americans.  He loves the rock star image that his money provides for him.  I think he also loved thinking that Peyton and he were BBFs.  But when Peyton supported the players during the lockout and then was not completely forthcoming with him about his injuries, I think Irsay took it personally and decided that he would make a statement by getting rid of Manning no matter what the fallout might be.

     So both guys deserved much better from teams that they played such big parts in during their careers.  One wanted to come home to manage and the other just wanted to end his career in the same uniform.  Where is the loyalty?  But it has lead me to an interesting personal place, I'm still a Cubs fan but not a Colts fan.  So you might ask, "where is my loyalty"?  In the case of Peyton Manning, with him.  I was ready to embrace whatever team was lucky enough to land Manning after he was released by the Colts.  So now I'm a Bronco fan.  My greatest hope for this NFL season is that the Colts go 0 - 16 and that the Broncos win the Super Bowl and that when Peyton throws a record breaking pass to win the game the televisions cameras cut to a live feed of a broken Jim Irsay with his face in his hands finally looking up to the camera and mouthing the words, "what did I do".

     As for the Cubs we'll see where I'm at when Ryno gets his first major league manager's gig.