Before we get into the typical business of me writing articles justifying that the Colt should fire Bill Polian and his moron kids followed by you writing comments indicating that I don't know what I'm talking about, I sincerely hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I spent mine with my wife and her parents. We had dinner at 7:00 p.m., and I ate so much that I woke up this morning and I'm still stuffed.
I even got a Happy Turkey Day tweet from Robert Mathis after I wished him one:
thanx bro....same to you and be blessed
Hope you had an enjoyable holiday wherever you are.
Now, back to business: Bill Polian, Chris Polian, and whoever else is named 'Polian' working for the Colts should be fired at season's end. We wrote an article explaining and advocating our 'Fire Polian!' position over a month ago. Yesterday, Indianapolis Star columnist and noted 'rat' Bob Kravitz has joined in on the fun. He wrote this in his column yesterday, which focused on the ridiculous decision to keep Curtis Painter as the starting quarterback and how that decision indicates that the Colts front office is content to lose out the rest of the season:
With Bill [Polian] in particular, it's all about being "vindicated." It's all about being able to say he was right. Which is why Jim Irsay has to use the chance to draft Andrew Luck as a springboard to clear the decks, jettison the front office and the coach and start over.
Regardless of what you think of Bob or his past work, this year he's been on fire. His article on the 'toxic' Chris Polian was excellent, and it is telling that former Colts employees approached him and wanted to get the real story out there. His most recent article, published yesterday, mirrors an article I posted on SB Nation Indiana yesterday as well.
Here's a quick excerpt from the article which, like Kravitz's, focuses on the Colts opting to keep Painter as the starter as a sign that the club is intentionally tanking the rest of the 2011 regular season:
By changing nothing, the Colts look to be guaranteeing little change in the win-loss column. This is either a concerted effort to lose and gain the rights to Andrew Luck (hence the phrase 'Suck for Luck'), or the Colts leadership is truly THAT stupid.
It will be interesting to see who else will jump on the 'Fire The Polians!' bandwagon now that we have been told Painter will remain the starter. I'll admit that while not a 'smoking gun-type' confession (such as a tape recording that has an audible Bill Polian telling his sons the plan is to tank the season and make everyone's life miserable because that's just how ole Bill gets his jollies these days), the choice to keep Painter, along with Jim Caldwell's laughable explanation for the decision, certainly make things appear as if the Colts are now actively trying to lose.
Here's Caldwell on Wednesday, explaining the Painter decision:
"Curtis hasn't played a lot of football for us; I think he's got to be given a good, clear opportunity," Caldwell said. "There are a lot of things that happen during the course of a game that haven't always been his fault. I need to do a better job of helping him do what he does . . . and get it a little more tailored to his strengths. I didn't feel he's had a good opportunity to do that yet. . . . He's developing."
Kravitz had a pretty funny, and devastating, retort to Caldwell's nonsense:
Do we look that stupid?
That is a direct insult to the intelligence of every person who has watched a single down of Colts football this season.
He's developing.
Right. And Cairo is one heck of a tourist destination right now.
In fairness, Painter played well enough in his first two starts, throwing for 281 yards against Tampa Bay and 277 against Kansas City. Since then, though, he has been abjectly awful.
He has had quarterback ratings of 79.0, 38.1, 50.6, 41.9 and 40.1, throwing one touchdown pass and seven interceptions.
His team's offense, which ranks 30th in the league in points, 31st in total offense and 30th in net passing yards per game, has scored 17, seven, 10, seven and three points during that span.
Curtis Painter hasn't thrown a meaningful touchdown in a meaningful, non-garbage-time-situation, since the second quarter against the Chiefs way back on October 9th. Since then, the Colts have been blown out by the Saints, Falcons, and Titans.
I know some of you are still wavering on this subject, or you are still steadfast in your Polian loyalty despite the mountains of evidence that say this front office regime just isn't that good anymore. Some of you might just be scared of change, and that with change will come losing.
To those people, I kindly point to the win-lose column and then to the rest of the schedule.
This team is probably going to go 0-16. And while you think that, on the surface, things have remained consistent, the reality is there has been significant change within the Colts, and very little of it has been good. Kravitz's Chris Polian article documented that.
If you are still on the fence, let me ask you this: Would Peyton Manning's opinion on this matter change your mind? If you knew that Peyton was livid with the Polians, had little faith in them, and was secretly hoping Jim Irsay would can their sorry butts, would that alter your opinion?
I'm curious because I have heard grumblings from the Manning Camp regarding Bill, Chris, and the Polian Clan. Also, look at the sorry state of this franchise! Even if Peyton were healthy, do you honestly think, at 35+ years old, that he wants to play out his career with this sad excuse for a roster, which could be without Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark, Gary Brackett, and Robert Mathis next year?
Peyton is about winning championships, not maybe making the playoffs and losing in the first round, or quarterbacking a team that hasn't won a game without him. I get the sense (and this is just me speculating based on what I'm hearing) that Peyton won't want to play for this franchise next year as long as the Polians are around.