Report: Peyton Manning had second surgery on his knee
last month

The more I read on this subject, the more I get the feeling the Colts have flat out lied to the fans and the media. Michael Lombardi, the former personnel head for the Oakland Raiders, does a column for The National Football Post. He's a knowledgeable guy with friends and contacts throughout the NFL. His column dated for today reveals from very serious information on Peyton Manning's surgery and recovery:

Apparently Manning had to go through another procedure on his knee to clean things out after having his bursa sac removed last month. What is the most concerning is not the second operation (which the Colts are denying), but that they cannot control the swelling in Manning’s knee and any physical movement causes MORE swelling. Once he returns to the game, gets hit, has to place a load on the knee, and drive the ball, there can be swelling. All I know is that there is MUCH more here than meets the eye. Manning has the trainer come over to HIS home for rehab and is rarely seen. Now, I have been with some big-time quarterbacks in my career like Joe Montana and Rich Gannon and never have they rehabbed from home. I thought this was not an issue and that Manning would be back.

Unless Lombardi is lying, or his sources are full of it, the Colts have been fibbing to fans and media about Peyton Manning's recovery. A second procedure is a pretty big friggin' deal, even if it was to clean up some minor stuff in the knee. Even if the knee is fine, and has no structural damage, it's pretty damn important to tell your fans (who are bought tickets to the opening of their public funded stadium at $160 bucks a pop).

The more you read into this, with players and coaches getting quoted as saying they'd like Peyton back for the opener, but... the more I get the sense the Colts are softening the fanbase up to the prospect that Jim Sorgi will start Week One against the Chicago Bears. We're hearing players saying things like "We'd like to have him back, but he just needs to not miss any playoff games."

Ugh.

Again, there is also encouraging news, like Peyton leading the offense through a walk through yesterday. But if Peyton did indeed have a second "routine procedure," then all this stuff Bill Polian has fed to us about everything being fine and right on schedule is complete and utter bullsh*t.

I certainly hope I'm wrong. I hope Lombardi is wrong and he is totally full of it. But, from the looks of it, Lombardi looks credible, and the Colts are not credible when it comes to reporting injury updates. They are also just flat our BAD at rehabbing their players and getting them ready to play. They screwed it up for Bob Sanders in 2006, Marvin Harrison in 2007, and now maybe Peyton Manning in 2008.

Again, I hope this is false. It just doesn't seem false, and Bill Polian and the Colts crappy PR department might have a lot of explaining to do.

Add to del.icio.us

Digg this

Post to Furl

Add to reddit

Add to myYahoo!