Colts Collapse

It is too long after the fact for me to write a fresh entry about the epic failure the Indianapolis Colts subjected their fans to on Sunday. Rather than try to contain my disappointment (as a fan) in order to write something remotely neutral (as an observant blogger), I will simply point you to my favorite analysis so far. Obviously, the author is not a neutral party, but his commentary puts my thoughts on paper very nicely, and the intelligent comments his readers have left are a great supplement to the original post. Nine times out of ten, I would say that I support the Colts' management and the decisions of the organization's leadership, but this case demonstrates why I still prefer college sports to professional ones: college teams don't lose sight of opportunities to make history.

Perhaps because each unique college team has a fleeting window of opportunity (3 or 4 years with each player usually) to be successful, they are willing to take more risks. Perhaps school presidents and athletics directors give more on-field decision-making power to the coaches and players than NFL team owners and GMs do. Perhaps colleges are not in the sports business to make money (but we all know that isn't true, or else the BCS would not exist...I digress). Regardless, more often than not, when a college team is faced with an opportunity to be the absolute best it can be and better than any other team ever in history, the college team takes a leap of faith and goes for it. No guts, no glory.

I'm sad that the otherwise-impeccable Colts organization failed to maintain its own integrity by lowering its standards to those of every other team, rather than aspiring to its own goals and working to achieve more than has ever been achieved by another team. We will never know for sure if the Colts would have gone all the way and written that history, but we now know for sure that they won't.