Could Colts pass on perfection again?

Do the Indianapolis Colts really want to put their snow boots on this December undefeated with a game or two remaining? I mean, do they really?

Well, I sure hope they do, for the sole reason of not having to listen the jawboning of 1972 Dolphins running back Mercury Morris about why his team will always be the greatest thing since the golf club. The more Rogaine commercials he appears in, and the less ESPN news coverage, the better.  

But one thing is for sure: If the Colts do have this desire to test their player-management relations again this winter, it’s plausible that they will. Really, it’s probably more likely that they will roll through the majority of the season once again.

That same Manning-to-Wayne connection and everything else that goes along with the firepower that owned the NFL’s regular season for the last decade is back, for better or worse.  

And, after losing a Super Bowl, so is their will, which is probably scarier. The special-teams game, specifically the return aspect and arguably the most pressing issue heading into the offseason, was addressed at last weekend’s NFL Draft.  

If you’re a Colts fan and your team makes it to late November or December with the division, home-field advantage throughout the playoffs and everything else but their flight to Super Bowl XLV locked up — fear for the worst.

Colts president Bill Polian has had no trouble making the cocky, almost obnoxious move of shunning football immortality when it has been at the doorstep of Capitol Avenue.  

In fact, he’s done it multiple times. There was the fiasco of pulling the starters last year against the eventual AFC runner-up New York Jets in the home finale on Dec. 27.

And, although rarely publicized, there was 2005, when a couple of the 13-0 Colts’ key defensive starters did not play against the Chargers because they were banged-up and were resting for the playoffs.  

Twice the football gods have tried to make company in a town once home to the basketball gods, and twice Polian has shunned them for a shot — key word — at a championship.  

“If you’re a professional, you recognize that what happens in this game is in the here and now, not the past,” Polian said. “You focus on the future, you focus on the task at hand. That’s what you are required to do, that’s what successful teams do.”

I’m not arguing or challenging that point, but why, then, has Polian not lived up to it? If it’s about “the now,” then why look ahead toward the Super Bowl?  

Peyton Manning has started every game of his illustrious, Hall-of-Fame career. In the years the Colts took the last couple of games off, Manning and the offensive line’s rust in the playoffs has been the dominant topic of conversation.  

With that, I’ll take my chance on No. 18 playing a few more games — or at least until the contest is locked up in Indianapolis’ favor.  

There’s no doubt the Super Bowl XLI MVP wants it if the opportunity comes knocking again, as do the majority of his teammates.

“Who wouldn’t?” Colts receiver Reggie Wayne said after Polian and coach Jim Caldwell pulled the starters on Dec. 27. “I mean . . . who wouldn’t? Doesn’t everybody want to be a part of history? Not a season goes by that you don’t hear about the ’72 Dolphins.”

Amen. If Scrooge rains on the Colts’ Christmas parade this time, it might be the Colts’ resting and Super Bowl woes that NFL fans will hear about every season from here to eternity.  

“We are followers of our head coach and the people in the organization to lead us and give us direction,”  Manning said. “Our job is to take instructions from our superiors and follow those instructions.”

The Colts’ way — the right and honorable way — has perhaps been taken to the extreme. Keeping the mouth shut and the ears open is what has made the Colts so successful, but is it also what has held them back from one, or maybe two, more world championships?  

Although it would never happen, maybe it’s in the best interest of the Colts to just tank, say, the non-conference game against the Philadelphia Eagles on Nov. 7, pending a zero in the loss column. Save the pain, save the energy, save the chance at the ultimate prize the organization so often speaks of without having to worry about the undefeated season.

“There’s no hangover, there’s no carryover, it’s a brand new season,” Polian said.
Riddle me this: Brand new season, same situation?