Colts Boldly Volunteer to Test "Quitters Never Win" Hypothesis

Marcellus: Night of the fight, you might feel a slight sting. That's pride fuckin' with you. Fuck pride! Pride only hurts, it never helps. You fight through that shit. 'Cause a year from now, when you kicking it in the Caribbean, you gonna say to yourself, "Marcellus Wallace was right."

Marcellus Wallace, Pulp Fiction, telling Butch to take a dive in round 5 of the fight.

via content7.flixster.com


The Colts played the Jets strong for most of 3 quarters, then took a dive. And, Marcellus was right, even as a spectator, my pride was stung. I can only imagine what it felt like for the players. Jim Caldwell and Bill Polian have voluntarily put a giant monkey on their backs and on that of the Colts. It will be chittering loudly in their ear throughout the playoffs, and if they don't win the Super Bowl this year, they will have broken Curtis Painter's psyche for nothing.

I don't know that the extra quarter of rest that Manning and the rest of the starters will add to the next 3 weeks of rest were worth the trade.  Presumably Polian and Caldwell  (and Shake-n-Bake) know better than me, and I hope they do, but last night's game was horribly disappointing. The Colts were playing solidly and had a small lead through most of three quarters when coach Caldwell benched Manning and most of the rest of the starters. Backup quarterback Curtis Painter was placed in a horrible situation where the pressure of 23 consecutive regular season wins and a 14-0 season was abruptly placed on his shoulders in front of a very unhappy crowd. He crumbled. He went 3 and out. He fumbled a ball into the end zone for a Jets touchdown. He threw an interception. And then I turned off the game.

Maybe taking the next 3 weeks off will leave the Colts fresh as daisies and sharp as knives cutting through the playoffs like warm butter. I sure hope so. But, the decision to quit on the regular season just added more pressure to those playoff games.  Quitters never win, I've been told. Hopefully the Colts can prove that old adage wrong.