The Court of Public Opinion will now hear the case of Caldwell-Polians vs. the Indianapolis Colts.
Vice chairman Bill Polian, general manager Chris Polian and head coach Jim Caldwell have accused the Colts of wrongly firing them after a 2-14 season. They claim this firing is one of the largest overreactions in sports history.
The Colts have maintained that the loss of one playerâ€"Peyton Manningâ€"shouldn't see a 10-6 team the year before finish with only two wins the next. They believe that the drastic drop-off in play from the team is proof that there were organizational and coaching issues in place that Manning had been able to cover up with his excellent play in the past.
We'll hear the Plaintiff's arguments first.
Plaintiff
I'd like to start by quoting a brief paragraph from Sports Illustrated I feel accurately summarizes the tenure of Mr. Bill Polian:
Under Polian, the Manning-led Colts went 141-67, with 11 seasons of 10-plus wins, from '98 through 2010. That regular season success led to 11 playoff berths, two Super Bowl appearances and a victory in Super Bowl XLI over the Bears.
Doug Benc/Getty Images
Mr. Polian selected such mainstays as Edgerrin James, Reggie Wayne, Ryan Diem, Dwight Freeney, Dallas Clark, Robert Mathis, Bob Sanders (bless his oft-injured soul), Joseph Addai and Pierre Garcon. He laid the framework for a team that won a Super Bowl and went to another.
He made the Colts relevant (for the purposes of keeping this argument short, we're going to just go ahead and lump in Chris Polian with his father).
And as for Mr. Caldwell, well, this was a disappointing season, there's no question about that. But in his first two years with the team, the Colts were 24-8 including a trip to the Super Bowl in 2009.
Surely he deserved the chance to right the ship and steer the Colts back toward success in 2012. Surely a coach who takes his team to the Super Bowl his very first year deserves better than being fired in only his third season.
We rest our case.
Defendant
That was a nice list of players you described, Mr. Plaintiff. Here's the problemâ€"you only listed two players from 2005 to 2010. In six straight drafts, the Colts organization largely failed to replenish this Colts team with solid players to support such stars as Mr. Manning, Mr. Wayne or Mr. Freeney.
I'll submit this Bleacher Report article from Ryan Day as evidence that the Colts have drafted extremely poorly for six straight years.
Until this season, of course, that hasn't been an issueâ€"Peyton Manning has done well to mask any blemishes this team has on its roster. And as incredible as Mr. Manning is, surely one player shouldn't be worth eight wins a season, should they be?
In 2008, one of the finest quarterbacks the game has ever seen, Tom Brady, was lost for the season to a knee injury. How did the Patriots respond?
Though they missed the playoffs, backup quarterback Matt Cassel still led the team to an 11-5 record.
Why?
Because he was a viable backupâ€"something the Colts obviously didn't have in Curtis Painterâ€"and the rest of New England's roster was obviously solid enough to sustain the loss of Brady, something our roster was unable to do.
Joe Robbins/Getty Images
The job of the Polians was to ensure that our roster was strong enough to sustain the loss of any one player. They failed to do so.
Our franchise suddenly became an embarrassment, to the point that the new NFL Magazine named the injured Peyton Manning the league MVP. The implication: Manning is the franchise, and the Coltsâ€"from top to bottomâ€"pretty much suck without him.
That's unacceptable.
As for Mr. Caldwell, consider the following: From 2009 to 2010, the Colts dropped from 14 wins to 10. From 2010 to 2011, the Colts dropped from 10 wins to two.
Again, that is unacceptable, and it begs the question: Was Caldwell simply a figurehead while it was Mr. Manning who was the actual cause for success? Was there an inherent benefit in the coaching style of Mr. Caldwell, or was he just the beneficiary of Manning's leadership and abilities on the field?
You shouldn't even consider those questions about your head coach. The fact that Mr. Caldwell couldn't lead the Colts to a record better than 2-14 made our doubts about his abilities as a coach too great to ignore.
The Court of Public Opinion rests its case.
Verdict
The court rules in favor of the Defendant, the Indianapolis Colts.
Clearly, this past season was an indication of organizational failures to consistently develop and maintain a competitive roster. As incredible as Manning is, no organization should fall as hard and fast as the Colts did without him this year.
Who would you have ruled in favor of?
Who would you have ruled in favor of?
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The Polians and Jim Caldwell
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The Indianapolis Colts
I mean, Curtis Painter was the backup plan? Really, guys?
As for Caldwell, his team opened the year by losing 13 straight games, and the 2-14 mark is the worst in Indianapolis since 1991. Though the roster obviously has glaring holes, no team should look as wretched as these Colts did for much of the season, and the blame for that rests on the head coach's shoulders.
The Indianapolis Colts are vindicated for firing Bill and Chris Polian and Jim Caldwell.
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