I heard yesterday that there was a little dust-up between Indianapolis Star writer Phil Wilson and the P.R. people for the Colts. He documented the the whole here on his blog, and, per usual, it sounds like the Colts P.R. department has now morphed from the regretful business of schilling for the ogres in charge of the front office to now participating in the useless and senseless disinformation campaign that is orchestrated by Bill Polian and his less-than-accomplished son, Chris.
You can go to Wilson's blog and read about the whole thing.
While I'm sure a few narrow-minded folks will screech, 'Who cares?' when it comes to how the Colts treat hard-working truth-seekers like Wilson, the reality is many fans DO CARE that the team acts this way. I firmly believe that because when I talk to them about this kind of treatment, nine times out of ten they are shocked that it is going on.
And, seriously, if you personally are a-okay that the Colts treat people this way, if you have no problem with a team (who plays in a publicly funded stadium) treating good people as if they are bums off the street, in my opinion there's just something wrong with you.
I'm not buddy-buddy with Wilson, but I respect his work and, overall, I think he's very unappreciated by fans of the team. If Colts P.R. people are acting this way to Wilson (who is one of the most unintimidating people I've ever met... which is a compliment, Phil), it kind of makes you stop and wonder why the hell a fan like me even bothers caring about this team.
Seriously, what's next? Chris Polian gonna punch a grandmother? Bill Polian gonna eat a live baby at halftime of the Texans game? WTF guys! Can you at least TRY not be world class, Grade A assh*les!
Anyway, Wilson's dust-up with the Colts had to do some comment Bill Polian's made on a SiriusXM Satellite Radio's NFL shows yesterday. No doubt wilson was irked because Polian has refused to talk to local media for years and (oddly) blames THEM for the fan reaction after the Colts threw Week Sixteen against the New York Jets in 2009.
The subjects covered in Polian's chat with SiriusXM included whether the Colts would trade their first round pick, and whether Jim Caldwell would return next year as head coach.
Bill Polian talking to Adam Schein and Rich Gannon on SiriusXM NFL Radio Tuesday:
I can’t imagine that there are players that we could afford under the salary cap that would come in and help our team, veteran players that would be available in such a trade. And if you traded it for picks, which you probably would be wise to do, those picks would be very high picks, the highest picks perhaps, in a lot of future years, which means that they wouldn’t be on the team in the short run.
Somehow or other, that theory, people have asked me about that, but it doesn’t hold water with me. I don’t know what you get out of it. If you’re assuming that you trade one of the top three picks in the draft for a bunch of second- and third-rounders in that same draft, I don’t buy that one at all.
Polian also said the fate of Jim Caldwell was in the hands of owner Jim Irsay:
He’s the owner and he hires and fires, and I wouldn’t presume to speak for him.
And the comment Polian made that were the 'spark' that ignited the dust-up between Wilson and Colts P.R. was this:
[Peyton] is improving, he can throw the ball with good velocity for about 30 to 35 throws in a limited area, 25 to 30 yards. That’s a lot better, almost 100 percent better, than he was in September before he underwent this surgery.
Again, read Wilson's blog to get the details, but the gist of it is Wilson asked follow-up questions of Jim Caldwell regarding these comments by Polian. Caldwell and Wilson had a discussion over the comments. Then, a Colts P.R. rep stepped in and seemingly acted like a jerk.
The positive here is, from Polian's own mouth, that Peyton is getting healthy. The negative is, once again, the Colts treating good people like dog poop. I know some of you feel I harp on this too much, but the reason I bring it up is because I personally do not like seeing quality people treated poorly for no reason whatsoever. It's especially distasteful when it's being done by a company (in this case, the Colts) that gets a HUGE financial break in terms of where they conduct their business (in this case, Lucas Oil Stadium).