According to Adam Shefter's Twitter page, Peyton Manning had neck surgery in Chicago to relieve pain as a result of a pinched nerve. The Colts are saying the surgery was not serious, but they said roughly the same thing about Peyton's knee surgery in 2008.
And, um, yeah, that surgery was pretty serious.
Having that knee surgery in July 2008, as opposed to May, cost the Colts the AFC South that season and a home playoff game. So, no offense to the Colts, but I don't believe them when they say neck surgery for THE franchise player in the NFL is not serious.
Obviously, we hope Peyton recovers quickly and completely. Cue the snarky, BS comments from the usual cadre of douchebags about how Peyton also had his forehead worked on, or something "witty" like that.
[UPDATE]: Believe it or not, Mike Florio makes a good point:
In other words, Manning has had an injury that the Colts claim really isn't an injury, in order to prevent an accusation that they were covering up his injury.
Really, if the thing has never affected him "on or off the field," why in the hell was did they cut him open? And why did they announce it to the world when they have no requirement to say anything about injuries until the Wednesday before Week One of the 2010 season?
Here's why. If this news had leaked without the Colts getting in front of it, the obvious reaction (by pains in the ass like me) would have been that the Colts had failed to disclose the injury.
And just because the Colts say it never affected Manning doesn't mean they're telling the truth.
The Colts are a team not on the level when it comes to truthfully reporting injuries. That's fairly obvious. The only injury I recall Peyton getting listed for in 2009 was a glute injury, and last I checked a man's butt is pretty fair down from his neck. If Peyton Manning had neck pain as a result of an injury, it should have been reported during the season. That is the whole point behind the injury report! The Colts likely did not report it because they felt it presented a competitive advantage to the opponent.
Now, the injury is out in the open because it requires surgery to fix.
Ugh!
I really, really, really, really, really, REALLY hate how the Colts conduct their business with injuries. It almost always comes back to smack them in the face and make them look like schmucks. They cannot play this "We're a class organization that plays by the rules" card one minute and then pull this crap the next.