I don’t know if it’s fundamentally wrong for the Indianapolis Colts to throw a game with playoff implications, but that’s exactly what they did. They threw that game. In the middle of the third quarter of their game with the Jets yesterday, the Colts became that guy in your fantasy football league that never sets his lineup. Jim Caldwell threw that game, and in doing so threw the AFC playoff picture completely off kilter, but that shouldn’t be the topic of discussion.
What should be is this: how the hell do the Colts get away with this? That’s what Colts fans wanted to know as they booed their team off their own field Sunday, and then chided Colts GM Bill Polian on his own call-in show. And the company line of “We just want to win the Super Bowl” is bunk. Does throwing away a perfect season give you a Super Bowl ring? It does not.
It doesn’t matter why Colts coach Jim Caldwell threw that game away; the fact of the matter is that he did it. They knowingly tanked a regular season NFL game. It doesn’t matter why they did it, or that they stood to gain little from winning. The league should investigate the organization, and then fine them. And then move them back to Baltimore.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has complained about the need to make some of these end-of-season games more meaningful. Here’s an idea: DON’T LET TEAMS PISS AWAY GAMES AT THEIR OWN DISCRETION. Fine teams for pulling healthy players off the field in the middle of games. I’m serious. Make it hurt the teams as much as it hurts the fans. The fans, after all, seem to be the only ones that still find these games meaningful.
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I understand both sides of the argument. I understand why all the Colts fans are pissed off because I would be to if I were them. However, I can’t say that I agree with the charge that they “threw” the game against the Jets. They put in lesser players, but those guys were still playing hard in an attempt to win the game. They’re simply not as good as the starting players. They’ve earned the right to rest their key players because they’ve performed better than everyone else for the past 14 games. If Peyton Manning had his knee rolled up on and was forced to miss the playoffs, everyone would have been 100 times more pissed that they lost their chance at a Super Bowl ring because Manning was playing in a meaningless game. Not sure what call I would have made if I were Indy’s coach, but I can’t fault what he decided to do.
If, if, if. Not that I really give a shit about Peyton & friends but the Dolts management better pray they do win the Superbowl. Another playoff flameout and it’ll get ugly up there…or ugly as it can be in that desolate place.
Fuck that. The Colts earned the right to do whatever the hell they wanted in their last couple of games by going 14-0. Do I think it’s shitty that they laid down against the Jets in a way that hurt other teams’ playoff chances? Absolutely. Do I think the league should get involved? Absolutely not. Houston, Jacksonville and Tennessee all got two shots at the Colts. Baltimore and Denver each got their own bite at the apple. The Jets were lucky to be in the position they were in, but any one of those teams could have changed things in a big way by beating the Colts. Forcing a team to play their starters makes about at much sense as making it against the rules to kneel on the football to run out the clock.
Shitty Dad Dungy has proven that this practice does not work and Peyton has never missed a game. PLAY YO’ FUCKING PLAYERS. Now we might have to watch the Sancise in the postseason when he clearly does not belong. That is the true injustice.
I agree with Zack. I was thoroughly disgusted with the Colts’ decision, but they earned that right. Where would you draw the line? Would you do it in baseball when they rest players? How about an NBA team tanking games to improve their draft pick? There would be no way to govern the resting of players.
If the Pats in ’07 had decided to rest players against the Giants, you think they should’ve been fined? How in the hell would that work. Sorry Pats, you’re 18-0, are about to play a game which is meaningless for you, but we’re fining you unless you play your starters the whole game? No way in hell. Like it or not a team has the right to employ whatever strategy they deem appropriate.
I see your point Punte, sure the jets might now make the play-offs because they got to play the Colts JV and another team might miss out because of it, but fuck’em for not winning more games. Plus, the Jets beating the Colts made a Steeler play-off appearance less likely and that is a good thing.
I completely agree. They threw this game. This is no different than point shaving in basketball, except you can still win those basketball games. The team should have to forfeit it’s first draft pick and pay a $1 million fine. Resting starters is one thing, throwing a game opens a whole new door.
Play your studs…after all the Colts have been down the one seed flameout before. Resting them doesn’t guarantee a championship. Presumably the Colts won’t start them against Buffalo so you’ll have a long time for them to get rusty before the divisonal game. Bad move in my opinion.
How great would it be if Peyton Manning got hurt on his first play against Buffalo next week? Jim Caldwell and Bill Polian would be chased by an angry mob of fat humps with tater grease on their fingers.
@Samer well what would happen if Peyton blew out his knee in the divisional round? Last year Brady had his knee blown out 6 minutes into the season. Should the Pats have rested Brady all year for the playoffs?
its just a slap in the face to all those fucking fat humps. i enjoy it, but if it happened to my team i would be on a homocidal rampage.
I understand why they did it, just like I would understand why they did it if it was because Caldwell was into a guido for a couple of dimes and said guido needed a serious dawg to hit. But regardless, throwing a game is wrong no matter the reason.
The team did not try to win the game. Goodell should fine the shit out of Irsay, Polian and Caldwell.
You’re starting to piss away this blog with angry rants about every goddamn stupid thing that rubs the morons on sports talk radio the wrong way. Where are the fucking squirrels on water-skis and bears trying competitive rowing posts? There’s no fun around here anymore.
I’m going to laugh next year when the Chargers are 14-0 and leave their starters in for the whole game in Week 15 and Phillip Rivers gets a collapsed lung on a sack from Elvis Dumerville of the 4-12 Broncos.
P.S. Teams who tank in the NBA for a better draft pick don’t always have things work out for them. Just ask the Celtics about Tim Duncan and the Bucks about Yi Jianlian.
P.P.S. Bring back Amber. She actually had jokes and didn’t have the opposite opinion of reason on every single topic.
@jally Do you really think they threw the game and weren’t just resting their starters? What possible desire could they have to lose that game? Maybe they didn’t care about winning it, but I’m sure they didn’t prefer to lose it. That’s just stupid.
I mean gally. WTFever.
/done hijacking the comments section.
I agree with Punte – it was a disgrace to the game to throw away history like that, and when people disgrace the NFL people get fined. Pulling players when there’s no chance of affecting the win/loss outcome of the game is legitimate, but there was the complete possibility of winning the game with Peyton in. If resting players was the gameplan then why play them in the first place?
Resting players is not the same as throwing away a game. Does it screw up the AFC wild card race a little more? Yes. Does it fuck over the Colts fans in attendance. Absolutely. But the Colts have rested players before, so they should have seen this coming. If I’m a Colts fan, do you think I’m going to a home game when they have the #1 seed locked up? Hell no, and neither should anyone else. Maybe shit will change when nobody shows up to a home game for a 14-0 team that has nothing to play for.
Bottom line though is they screwed the fans pretty hard, and they owe them an apology. However, you can’t fine a team for doing what they think is best for the future of their team.
By the way, resting players in the regular season is BULLSHIT in the first place when you have a FUCKING FIRST ROUND BYE. You will have 2 whole weeks from your last season game to your first playoff game AT HOME. I will never ever understand why you would just completely pull all of your starters in the season when they’ll get all the rest they need. Plus, when you have a chance at 16-0, there is actually a legitimate reason to keep the starters in the game.
Sorry, this got pretty long. You don’t have to read it if you don’t want.
They did exactly what I would do with my players if I was a coach in that situation. Play them a half so they don’t forget how to play football and then take them out to reduce the chance of injury. And I know that injuries happen 6 minutes into the season. You have to take that chance when you’re playing for something (resting Tom Brady until the playoffs doesn’t work considering they didn’t make the playoffs without them, duh). But when you’ve got things locked up, the less they play, the smaller the risk of injury, but you have to counter that with not resting them too much that they forget the speed of the game.
And guess what? A bunch more teams are going to do it this week. This isn’t the first time it’s happened and it won’t be the last. So to fine the Colts for this instance would be ridiculous.
This isn’t the first time the Colts have done this. In 07 the Colts could have played their starters against the Titans. A Colts win, and the Browns make the playoffs. Colts lose, Titans make the playoffs. The Colts pulled their starters and the Titans won, and the Browns got frozen out.
Here’s the deal: if you want teams like the Colts (because the Colts aren’t the only team that does this, just the most egregious example), then win games. The Colts get to sit starters for 2-3 games a season because they lock up their playoff seeding early, and rarely have to win to the wire. Push them, and they’ll keep playing.
Best compromise I can come up with: mandate that healthy starters have to play a minimum of 3 quarters.
Of course, everyone will be up in arms as soon as a top flight starter gets a season ending injury in the 3rd quarter of a meaningless game.
I’d say it’s a lot less about saving their players for the playoffs, it was clearly about getting the Jets in to do Indy’s dirty-work against the Chargers. The Jets were the only team since the first month of the season actually being able to stand up against the Chargers and it is obvious that they didn’t want to risk being smashed by the Chargers again. Clearly, San Diego, with their huge WRs, where almost every pass is either a catch or pass interference, was not the team the Dolts would have wanted to face. I don’t care too much about the Chargers but I do admit it should be them beating the crap out of New Orleans, right now.