Is there any wonder there’s no team loyalty left in professional sports?
Hell, the Indianapolis Colts got rid of Peyton Manning. This, despite all he did not just for the team but for the city as well. Therefore, one can hardly blame baseball’s Albert Pujols for ignoring loyalty to the St. Louis Cardinals to sign with the team that offered him the most money.
Think also of basketball’s Chicago Bulls getting rid of Michael Jordan, or football’s Green Bay Packers getting rid of Brett Favre. …
In this case, despite his emotional tributes, the owner of the Colts made clear during his farewell to Peyton that professional sports is all business. Accordingly, here are the factors that I suspect led him to this decision:
- Peyton missed all of last season due to a series of neck surgeries.
- Doctors may have given him a clean bill of health but he’s now a relatively old 36.
- Not releasing him would mean having to pay him a $28-million bonus.
- Releasing him would mean being able to draft a top quarterback (Andrew Luck of Stanford) and begin rebuilding under him this year.
The bottom line, though, is that any owner would rather have a younger player for less than half the price … loyalty be damned. But it’s worth highlighting that Peyton gave the Colts 14 years of service during which he raised the team’s market value by over $200 million, got the city to build it a new stadium, and took it to the Super Bowl twice (winning it all in 2007).
This in part is why that farewell press conference was so surreal. Because Peyton made clear his determination to continue playing, which conjured up images of a thoroughbred racehorse bucking against being retired to a stud farm. Indeed, nothing indicates how impressive he remains quite like the Denver Broncos being first in line to solicit his services. Which of course betrays just how little loyalty the Broncos have to its over-hyped quarterback Tim “tebowing” Tebow.
