Peyton Manning Rumors: Cooper Manning Tells Us What We Already Know

Peyton Manning's older brother, Cooper, reportedly said on Monday that Peyton is "determined" to play next season. Of course, he also mentioned that Peyton's return to the field depends on nerve regeneration of his neck, which is unpredictable.

Tell us something we didn't know.

After Cooper talked to Albert Breer of NFL.com on Monday, there's been a lot of commotion...and I'm not entirely sure why. Yes, the Indianapolis Colts' star quarterback is determined to play. And, yes, that means nothing unless his neck, which has undergone three surgeries in the past two years, improves. Is this really news?

Nobody has every questioned Peyton's desire. If he's relatively healthy next season, you can bet he will play. But it all depends on his health, which is, honestly, completely out of his control.

Said Cooper, via NFL.com:

"

What I do know is Peyton is going to do every single thing a human being can possibly do to get ready to play again. Where, when and how he'll play, that's all up in the air. But as far as his body goes, Peyton's smart, he'll know what to do. Anyone predicting what will happen now going forward is just wasting their breath. But he is working as hard as anyone can work to get out there again.

"

Well, I'm glad that "where, when and how he'll play" is "up in the air." That was revealing. This just points out how bad Manning Mania has become. We're searching for every little bit of evidence regarding which way Peyton will lean without asking ourselves, does this information even mean anything?

Nothing Cooper said has changed any of my thinking—that is, Peyton will play if he's healthy enough. Right now, he's obviously not. When he is healthy, then we can start talking about "where, when and how he'll play."

It's only natural to wonder what's going to happen to an 11-time All-Star, but the way things are going, we didn't need the Peyton-Jim Irsay fiasco for there to be drama in Indianapolis. We've created it ourselves.