That's what I thought, but I still don't see how you get Chris Ballard from BDB ?

That kid was ready to go day 1. I remember watching the ball leave his hands against the Rams (was it the vikings?) in the first few plays and I think we all already knew. That motherfucker was different off the rip.

Hindsight is 2020. Should have kept Manning. I do believe they made the right decision at the time to go for Luck. I can't blame Irsay pulling the trigger like he did to make that move. If Luck was really who he sold himself to be, he would have been under center this year and this team would have been fucking scary.

It is what it is.

"Big Dick Ballard"

When I read the title, I wasn't sure which Ballard this was. Vic Ballard was about ten years ago, wasn't he?

o


Though his NFL career was brief, Vick Ballard has a permanent place in Colts lore.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgOcvZw3m8w

o

I feel like I don't even need to click it to know what that is.

This is kind of a crazy discussion. The decision to pick Luck was the only rational decision to make at that time, and Manning endorsed it himself. There was no certainty at the time that Manning would even return due to his neck problems. Even Denver, who won the multi-team sweepstakes to sign Manning after he was cut, had enough leverage in their negotiations to include a "neck clause" into their contract which would have voided their contractual guarantees after the first year, so Manning's neck issue was a serious, real world issue and not just an excuse to move on to Luck.

https://www.denverpost.com/2012/03/2...jury-clause-2/

I mean, can you imagine the blowback if we had traded the #1 pick and Manning never returned, or returned and then had to retire shortly thereafter?

It was an unquestionably difficult and unfair situation for everyone involved, and there was no easy way to navigate through it. However, I thought everyone (the Colts, Manning and Irsay) handled it about as well as could reasonably be expected, and I think the decision the Colts made was pretty clearly the right one at the time. I'm sure Manning had some hard feelings though to my knowledge he's never said that.