All that being said I feel that it can all be summed up with this statement. It was a business decision.

Excuse me while I dust off my Bert Jones number 7 jersey from the not so glorious days of the Baltimore Colts.

I got around to writing this after:

1. Watched the whole game with the sound on in a full house sports bar in Indianapolis with Colts fans. Everybody called for their check after the Painter fumble. Me and my friends (some rational, most not rational fans) stayed til the end and all of agreed putting back ups in was a bad idea unless they had a two TD lead.

2. Read the politician and all his citizens who want their money back after the loss (singular this year).

3. Listened to the black lash on sports radio from Colt fans for two straight days and read the transcript from Polian's radio show. Not to mention the angry comments from friends over 48 hours after the game was over.

Maybe I felt sorry for Polian (the best GM record-wise this decade) and I took it out on the spoiled fans. I know not all of them are and every fan base has the irrational some. But I have also seen everything Colts since I moved here in 1992 (I've been to a dozen games up until Manning's second year in the league because they finally sold games out).

So as an observer I came up with this spoiled fan base and Patriots envy conclusion. I have literally heard everything I wrote about come from the mouths of a lot of Colts fans. I'm glad that you can see how irrational some fans are but they are still there. I hope rational fans will continue to disagree with a decision like this but also I hope they will disagree with the irrational bunch, call them out when they are, and cheer louder than the boos with perspective in mind. Especially days before the new year and we've all been reflected on the past decade.

Glad you're a Colt, not a Dolt. It's a breathe of fresh air since Sunday afternoon to the politician calling for a refund to fans to Polian's radio show and every reaction in between.

Love the site, always have. But this one gets my blood going, maybe its because I'm a Colts fan, maybe its because I disagree with the decision.

I think you're living under the assumption that 1) resting your starters increases (or guarantees) your chance to reach the Super Bowl and that 2) the fans were booing the team.

This city has had the luxury of winning…a lot. Enough that we've rested our starters in the final game or final two games of the regular season more than a few times and every resulting time our offense has come out flat in the playoffs. Whether this is causal is impossible to determine, but there is correlation whether its just or unjust. Our offense clearly relies on game-speed timing and honestly, after watching every snap of Colts football over the last decade, our timing isn't where it should be. And I'm sure you'd call me a cocky tiny-brained dolts fan for saying that about a 14-0 team, but I guarantee you not one person feels as good as we should, given our record, that we'll reach the Super Bowl. Contrary to popular belief, resting our starters does not guarantee a Super Bowl run (we know that better than anyone).

This is where the booing comes in. I really hope you watched the game instead of just hearing snippets on SportsCenter, etc, such that your generalized view of the boo's was constructed by the reality of the game rather than the media's sensationalized take on them. The original question one asks themselves is: "How does a 14-0 team boo their players?"

The obvious answer is because their greedy. And I won't blame you for coming to this conclusion (unless of course you write a lengthy article on the topic). It's ease coupled with human nature wants us to see things in black and white. Being an anti-Colts fan, I argue you want to see the Colts fans appear greedy, therefore, its far easier for you to reject the opposite. Now this doesn't prove anything. It just provides rationale into why this view becomes popular outside of Colts fanaticism, and furthermore you are able to persuade with your logic this view to the hopefully thousands that read Jerod's site.

But the Colts fans, in my opinion, where absolutely not booing the players. If felt they did, I'd be right on your bandwagon, but after watching them for so long, and really being engaged into that game, it was clear that the Colts fans were showing their disapproval of the decision. Not the players, the decision.

Our starters were out there. We had the lead. Peyton was out there. Colts fans didn't boo.
Our starters were out there. We had the lead. Painter was out there. Colts fans booed.

Everything being equal, you could either argue Colts fans booed Painter or the decision, not the players.

It's that decision that we've become very familiar with and at least correlates to poor opening playoff performance.

And everything becomes relative, you know that. We're 14-0 with our remaining schedule showing two lowly teams, wouldn't you at least itch to go after history? At least to give your team the chance to be remembered as one of the greatest teams of all time? If they went undefeated, it may virtually grant Peyton Manning the legacy of the best QB of all time (assuming that would instantly grant him his 4th MVP, a perfect season, a 2nd Super Bowl, as he should leave the game being the best statistically). That's what we envy. To just throw a chance at that away seems borderline irresponsible, doesn't it? I know Caldwell says its wasn't one of his goals to go undefeated at the start of the season, but I'd argue, who's is? No coach, especially no rookie coach, is going to say our original goal was to go undefeated. But can't you adjust your goals given the circumstances? And of course Peyton Manning isn't going to raise hell. Colts fans more or less are doing it for him. Peyton and the rest of the guys are class acts and aren't going to T.O. this place when they know they need to re-focus for the all-important Super Bowl Run.

We hate Randy Moss because he's a Patriot.
We don't go follow the Pacers anymore because they lost that luster that Reggie and Mark and Rik built so many years ago.
No one rational in Indy thinks Belichick cheats after every win, cmon KVB, stop generalizing the city.

There are many more things I'd like to make quick reference to, but they'd require lengthening this comment even more as I doubt anyone has made it this far.

Good stuff, thanks for getting my blood temp up this morning. Keep up the good work on the site guys.

Tyler

Even with the lucky seasons we had under "Captain Comeback:", there is no comparison to Peyton Manning, and Colts fans take that for granted?

Should we call ol' Jeff George back in lieu of how much our Colts' "suck"?

Perhaps then my idiotic stupid fellow colts fans may understand.

Here is how we show our ignorance Colts fans:(one of many ways)

You hoot and holler and throw around the f-bomb like its proper and wonder why we get called idiots….

How about you present stats to your arguments instead of "F you KVB…."

I disagreed with the decision as much as the next, but for God's sake Indy, show some class, like the players and coaches you have been cursing do.