Has anything ever flooded the airwaves of football conversations as much as the Peyton questions over the last few months?  Everyone is asking the questions about whether or not Peyton will ever play football again.  If so, will he be back with the Indianapolis Colts next season?  If not the Colts, then who?  Washington?  Miami?  Arizona?  Denver?  N.Y. Jets?  And if not the Colts, is it Jim Irsay’s fault, Peyton’s fault or Peyton’s agent’s fault? 

These questions have all been asked, analyzed, prophesized, prognosticated, and so many other really big adjectives and adverbs that my head may very well explode if another expert comes out with the guaranteed solution. 

The answer to all of these questions is so obvious, but I have yet to hear anyone put it in simple terms.  Why?  Because the simple answer will take less than five minutes to analyze.  How can the top story of the first quarter of 2012 be over in five minutes?  No, we’ve got to spend at least twenty to thirty minutes every day on every sports talk show across America.  Of course, the only way to do that is to come up with a dozen possible answers, get “experts” for each of the proposed answers, and then get “experts” to refute what the first round of “experts” said. 

Every day for the past two months we’ve seen breaking news stories by the people in the know (so it must be true!) about what is absolutely going to happen, only to be followed up within thirty minutes with statements about how ridiculous that idea was and full denial by all parties of ever having said anything like that. 

So what are we mere fans supposed to do?  You know, those of us who are the ignorant masses in the minds of the experts.  Those of us who sit by our radios or watch the cable sports news shows with baited breath every day, waiting to get our marching orders of what we’re supposed to be thinking and saying around the water coolers at work every day.  (Okay, maybe the water cooler analogy went a bit too far, but you get the point!)

 Here is my suggestion.  Turn off the radio and televisions for five minutes and think about this for yourself.  C’mon, I’ll do it with you.  Go ahead, I’ll wait for you…….. 

Okay, is everything turned off?  Good!  Now let’s make this simple.  We’ll look at the initial question first, since the incorrect answer would end the conversation immediately.  

Will Peyton Manning ever play football again?  The answer is “of course he will”!  Look, unless you’ve been living in a cave somewhere for the past six months, you’ve seen the progression of Peyton’s condition.  He’s been on track for his rehabilitation and has recovered from the neck surgery.  Although a lot of experts have been saying that he should quit, since we’re talking about the neck, they have completely ignored the fact that the neck surgery itself was successful and should not be a reason for a football career to end. 

The determining factor at this point is whether or not the nerves in the damaged area have begun to regenerate, since they have a direct impact on the arm-strength of his throwing arm.  This leads to the reason for the answer to the next question. 

Will Peyton be back with the Indianapolis Colts next season?  The answer to that is “of course he won’t”.  Look, I realize that half of you out there just did a double take at your computer (or I-pad, cell phone, or whatever other device this blog comes across) and I understand that.  After all, Peyton has been a permanent fixture on the Colts team since he was drafted fourteen years ago.  But please remember what happened when he did join the team.  He instantly became the starting quarterback and was thrown into the fire immediately.  The team was horrible his first year and he made a lot of rookie mistakes, but they stuck with him and continued to build the team around him.  He ended up becoming one of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of the game.  Why?  Because he was a General on the field.  He could walk up to the line of scrimmage and instantly see the weaknesses in the defense that was lined up against him, call an audible and make a big play.  And he still can do that!

This season, the Colts were once again horrible, and although most people would not openly admit it, probably would have been 6-10 or 7-9 at the very best even if Peyton had played.  It is time to blow this team up and start all over again.  Fortunately for them, the one college quarterback that everyone believes will be the next Peyton Manning or John Elway is going to be drafted by the Colts with the number one pick.  If the team is going to be completely rebuilt, why not turn the keys over to Andrew Luck this year?  Why keep him on the bench for three to five years behind an aging Peyton? 

As for the last set of questions, we can lump them all together as follows – Where will Peyton be playing next season?  The answer to that is also very simple…”wherever he wants to play!”  This is the part of this storyline that has driven me nuts over the last two months.  You’ve got the “warm weather” crowd saying that it will be Miami or Arizona, the “Guaranteed Super Bowl” crowd saying San Francisco or N.Y. Jets, the “he doesn’t want to compete against his brother” crowd (the dumbest train of thought I’ve ever heard) saying anywhere but New York or Washington, and on and on and on! 

The bottom line is boring, so no one wants to go there.  Allow me!  Peyton is still Peyton and the majority of the teams in the league WILL do what they need to do to get him.  That is why I said that the answer to the question of ‘where’ is “WHEREVER HE WANTS TO PLAY”.  If Peyton wants to play two or three more years on a quest to finish with a Super Bowl victory, he will find a way to make a team like San Francisco, Arizona or the Jets arrange to bring him in, regardless of what their respective management teams are currently saying.  If he wants to go the Favre route of playing until you can’t do it any more, he can go with Miami or Washington and hope he survives the next few years of being pounded. 

Wow, that really was boring, wasn’t it.  Not once did I allude to Jim Irsay being a jerk (which I don’t think he is) or Peyton’s agent causing trouble or any kind of he said-she said BS.  I just looked at the facts.  (What a concept!) 

Look, my personal opinion is that Peyton still has five years left in him, with at least three of them being top notch.  If his arm strength does not get back to what it was, he will still be a top ten quarterback in this league because he is still a top three General on the field.  This is not disputable!  My suggestion is to go to a team that is already a playoff contender that has a solid offensive line and decent receivers.  He can take it from there and make them a legitimate Super Bowl contender, even if he can’t throw the ball sixty yards any more. 

I’ll let the rest of the experts decide which teams fit that bill!