Peyton Manning Saves The Playoffs

Jan. 2, 2009: Peyton Manning wins his third NFL MVP award.

Jan. 3, 2009: The 12-4 Indianapolis Colts lose to the 8-8 San Diego Chargers in the opening round of the playoffs, liberating millions of football fans from what would have been weeks of "Manning-Manning Superbowl" talk.

You know I'm right. A Colts loss is a service to the NFL and its fans. Unless you're a Colts fan, there was nothing good to come out of a Colts win.

Why? Because the Colts are a bore.

The Colts are not one of the great stories in the NFL this year.

They are not coming off a 1-15 season.

They do not have a rookie quarterback/head coach combo.

They did not squeak into the playoffs on the last game of the year.

They were not playing their first home playoff game in more than 60 years.

They are not trying to repeat as Super Bowl champions.

The Colts are just the Colts. Manning, Tony Dungy, Marvin Harrison, it is all very familiar, and we know what to expect. They win 12-plus regular-season games and play gatekeeper in the AFC playoff ladder.

Booo-ring.

Unfortunately, the guys that get paid to hype up the games have to find something to plug.

Don't tell me you hadn't already heard it. There are at least 50 articles on Bleacher Report alone that make reference to a Super Bowl between the Colts and the New York Giants, or a "Manning Bowl," if you will (please don't).

With every playoff win for these two teams, the rumblings would get louder, more prominent, more legitimate, starting with a win over the Chargers.

Heaven help us if they had made it to their respective conference championship games.

Luckily, Manning and the Colts shuffled out of the playoffs early this year, freeing up fans to follow the truly intriguing storylines this season.

Let me also say that I have no personal vendetta or issues against Manning and the Colts.

This just happens to be one of the most interesting postseasons in recent memory, and the Colts made it stale and uninteresting.

With all due respect and apologies to Colts fans, the postseason is better off without your team.

A "Manning-Manning Superbowl" storyline would have preceded all else, and left other deserving storylines in the dust, because let's face it—the Mannings are a likable bunch, which makes them marketable.

The NFL loves things that are marketable.

Kerry Collins and Kurt Warner are not that marketable. They don't make hundreds of millions of dollars a year in endorsements, but they do represent a great storyline.

The trend of aging quarterbacks taking over for the young guys and having a resurgence is a great one, and will actually get some air time now that there is only one Manning left in play.

The Falcons are out of the playoffs now, but in their defeat, the Cardinals, seen as a one-and-done team, arise as an equally intriguing story. How deep can they go?

Will the once-lowly Dolphins, led by once-maligned quarterback Chad Pennington, lead his new team to the promised land, as neither he nor Brett Favre could with the Jets?

Will the sixth-seeded Baltimore Ravens punch their way through the playoffs with physical play and the last remaining rookie quarterback/head coach combo?

Will the Eagles make an impact after getting into the playoffs on a prayer and a Jerry Jones implosion job? After years upon years of sports with no championships, could Philadelphia see two within a few months of each other?

Are the Titans a legitimate threat after limping into the top seed in the AFC?

Will we have a Manning-Manning Super Bowl?

The answer to that, at least, is no.