Irsay on last days of Manning era in Indy: 'Things had gotten really, really bad'

Everyone can agree that the decision by the Indianapolis Colts to part ways with franchise cornerstone Peyton Manning at the end of the 2011 season, paving the way for Indy to draft Stanford QB Andrew Luck, turned out to be a clean, win-win situation that worked out for all parties.

That doesn't mean the choice to say, "So long" to Manning was easy. So says Colts owner Jim Irsay himself.

In a compelling look back at the owner's dilemma back in 2011, NFL.com's Michael Silver released quotes from an interview this past August with Irsay — before the Colts owner was banned for six games by the NFL and fined $500,000 after a suspicion of DUI arrest in March. In September, Irsay pleaded guilty to OWI and was sentenced to one year of probation.

Irsay's first official day back at work was Friday, highlighted by a very odd tweet. But Silver's story reflects on the turmoil surrounding the final days as a Colt for Manning, arguably the franchise and who many insiders considered a pseudo coach and GM wrapped in one.

What jumps out is how surprisingly toxic the power struggles within the organization had become at the time between pro-Peyton and Irsay forces, with the Colts owner acknowledging to Silver: "Things had gotten really, really bad."

In circling back to the beginning of the end, Irsay recalls that following a frustrating end to the 2010 season (Colts were 10-6, but lost in AFC Wild Card game at home against the New York Jets), the team was gearing up for another veteran-led run in hopes of a Super Bowl, pushing the team's salary cap to the limit in the process.

But all hopes were trashed as their Pro Bowl QB Manning saw his career threatened with two procedures on his neck and spine, in the same offseason he had inked a five-year, $90 million contract with the club. After never before missing a game, now Manning was on the shelf for the season.

"But what people really forget is that we really loaded up for the 2011 season, we stressed our salary cap, we kept a lot of veterans and that sort of thing, and we really thought we were going to make that run. And we knew that even if we did make the run in 2011, that we would have some real tough decisions to make going forward after that.

"But when Peyton got hurt, obviously, and then things just came apart, it was something where a lot of people didn't realize the type of salary-cap stress that we had and how we had to go in this other direction."

However, according to Silver, Manning had not yet given up on a 2011 comeback or his Colts legacy, even going so far as to push team officials to conduct unsanctioned workouts in hopes of getting on the field in Week 17 — with the No. 1 overall pick still up for grabs.

Irsay told Silver he finally had to tell Manning he would not see the field in Week 17, or for all purposes ever again as a Colt after Indy secured the top draft pick and league's worst record by losing 19-13 to Jacksonville.

"When I walked out of the locker room in Jacksonville, after (then-Jags running back Maurice) Jones-Drew stretched for that first down on third-and-4 by the length of a football — because if he didn't get it, we might have come back to win that game and picked No. 2, and things would have been different — I was emotional," Irsay said. "And when I got on the team bus after being in the locker room, I just broke down in tears in front of my daughters. Because just the emotion of saying, 'That era's ended.' And I knew in my heart that it was over.

"It was such a deep time of really giving great thought to what had to be done . . . and it was really, really hard. It was so hard because no one wants to say the party's over. No one wants to have to be that person. And at the same time, this new era that's dawned has been incredible."

Irsay added: "It worked out like Peyton and I both hoped, and how everyone hoped."