Thank you for your thoughts for my welfare. It’s tough, but I survived the retirements of Potsie, Brett Keisel, Hines Ward, and perhaps the toughest of all, Troy, so I know I can get through this : )

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I met him at a bar at UT when he was still in school. He was a jerk. I didn’t know who he was until my buddy I was visiting told me.

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Peter King used to have a good section in his MMQB article that would detail good work done by players that people don’t know a lot about. Showed how a lot of these guys, even the lower round picks, give back to their communities.

Thanks for the thoughts about my son. He’s a hell of a kid, and we’ll get him to where he needs to be.

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Thanks for the kind words, Rebecca. My wife and I are a great team (if I may be so bold to say). Unfortunately, the family doesn’t really support the way that one would think. My mom is wonderful to us, but lives in Okinawa, so she only gets to see us sparingly.

With Manning, and some other players in the league, I get the feeling that we think they’re great, humble, wonderful for the league because we’re always told that they are. My NFL disease began right before the 2004 draft that saw the Manning family pull what they did for Eli. As a burgeoning addict, I couldn’t believe that one family could have the moxie to pull something like that. It’s different when a player choses not to go play for the team that drafted them, and go on to something else (like Bo Jackson). I have nothing ill to say of Eli. I think that he has been a pretty stand up guy. It’s just always bothered me to watch Peyton’s antics on the field when receivers drop a pass or fumble the ball. I remember him basically calling out his teammates for playoff losses when he’s the one throwing the interceptions. You can read in his body language when he’s trying to take the blame for a loss, but it’s just not believable. Ben, Palmer, Brees, Rivers, guys like that I actually believe that they feel bad for their poor play (well, not always Ben! ;)). BUT, he sure has that “Yea, I just did that” attitude about him after a big win. Peyton has just always come off as a big phony, but the media loves him for his pedigree and his talents, so he’s always trumped up to be some sort of heroic legend that I just don’t think that he is.

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Thanks to flight line for the nice comments. God bless you and your family. I join Rebecca in wishing you strength and support in caring for your child.

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Well, it would seem the Manning family has worked quite hard for it to stay in the past. I don’t think it would have ever come out if it weren’t for the new lawsuit…

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Even in this day of 24/7 sports coverage, it’s amazing how little we know about even high profile players.

I knew nothing of the Peyton Manning story before the Wednesday after the Super Bowl. How is that?

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Really interesting thoughts on Manning. He has carefully crafted (either with or without advice) an appealing, “aw, shucks” image in recent years, and it’s odd to watch it all unraveling. It just goes to show that how we think we can “know” players when we don’t even know the depths of our own hearts would be amusing if it didn’t have some unfortunate consequences.

And bless you and your special needs child. There is nothing more challenging in life than raising a special needs child, and it can really be draining. I hope you have a good support group (meaning family, friends, social services if necessary) around you. Stay strong!

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In regards to your two cents:

Totally agree on the Manning situation. How does everyone seem to forget that his entire family has tried to strong arm their way to greatness? They forced the Chargers into a trade on draft day because they didn’t want Eli out there (granted it worked out great for the Giants, and the Chargers didn’t get a bad deal either). All Peyton does is in his best interests: costing the team more in cap space this year for him to come back, shamelessly plug his business ventures on the Superbowl field (hugged Papa John, plugged Budweiser, for which he owns distributors in Louisiana), won’t retire. Now, I thought it was in bade taste for the sideline reporter to ask him if he was retiring. That was definitely a Jim Nantz/trophy stage question. Let him go out on the stage with all eyes on him with the trophy in his hand versus in relative anonymity on the sideline. BUT, he couldn’t even do it then. Instead, he repeated his plug for Budweiser and repeated much of what he said to the sideline reporter. Some people I was talking to after the game was giving him props for being so classy and team first. I asked them if they realized he likely wanted to let things stew so that we would talk about him more, then he can have a great big press conference all to himself about it, and the whole thing can be all about Peyton’s greatness. Peyton is a great QB, no doubt. He also seems to be the most selfish and arrogant player that I can think of. How many times has he called out his teammates after losses? Quite a few. Now, all of the story is coming out about his college years. I do say that some leeway is usually required when speaking of one’s youthful exploits, but this seems like much more than that. We simply cannot brush Dr. Nauright off as the recipient of some mooning gone afoul. It is obvious that there is something very dark hiding in this particular closet, else why would Peyton settle out of court? If he knew he was 100% innocent, and could provide witnesses to verify that, he certainly has the resources have taken the matter to court and have his name cleared. While I do acknowledge that a settlement gets it swept under the rug much more quickly, I’m not settling if I know I didn’t do anything.

I always thought that Dungy is looked at through different lenses that many others. Yes, he was a good coach. No, I don’t think he was great. He did build 2 Superbowl winning teams. Yes, Gruden won in Tampa with Dungy’s team. BUT, Gruden did what Dungy didn’t do: win. I do place a boulder-sized grain of salt next to Gruden’t Superbowl win because it was against the Raiders team that he coached the year before. It shouldn’t too difficult to beat the team you know everything about.

I haven’t read the article on Porter yet, but I will. As a parent of a special needs child, the average person has no idea the difficulties we have. Even with his resources that dwarf mine by tens of millions, it is still no easy task.

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