Enough from the Talking Heads About the Colts Resting Their Starters

As you all know already, the New York Jets beat the Indianapolis Colts this past Sunday after Colts head coach Jim Caldwell pulled his starters with only a slim lead.

Now it seems that everyone with a television camera or a column or blog is talking about how the Colts shouldn't have done that. 

You hear things like they they should have gone for 16-0 or they've changed the competitiveness of the league, and even it was unsporting of them.

First off, I kind of wanted there to be two 18-0 teams in the Super Bowl because then we would finally have a 19-0 team and the '72 Dolphins could finally shut the hell up.

Secondly, though, I have absolutely no problem with Caldwell sitting his players.  They have home field sewn up, why risk an injury to Peyton Manning (or another star), especially after we saw how well his back-up did.

Also, had Manning stayed in and gotten hurt in a game that meant nothing to the Colt then all of these talking heads would be saying what an idiot Caldwell was for not sitting Manning with the lead in a meaningless game.

Now for people like Jerome Bettis over at Si.com (how and why he is allowed to write a column is beyond my comprehension) calling the Colts unsporting and allowing the Jets (who are in the Wild Card hunt) to have what kind of amounted to a free win.

The Colts shouldn't risk injury to their players to help others get into the playoffs.  Again, I go back to these talking heads would have destroyed the Colts for allowing stars to play if they would have been injured.

Sure, you want your guys to be ready for the playoffs and have some sort of momentum but that doesn't guarantee anything, just ask the 18-1 New England Patriots. 

Besides, the Colts racked up 14 straight wins after sitting most of their stars through the preseason, so sitting them for a half in week 16 and 17 probably won't affect them too much.

As for those other teams complaining about the Jets win, well you should have won more games.  I'm looking at you Miami.  How dare you beat the Pats, but lose to the lowly Bills.  Just for that you don't deserve to be in the playoffs.

Now to all the teams (not just the Colts) who can't improve or drop their playoff position this weekend.

Don't do anything stupid.  Sure you want to win but if your quarterback is taking a beating, regardless of how close the game is, give him the hook.

With the exception of the Arizona Cardinals, I don't think too many of the playoff teams would fair well with their backup QBs taking the snaps.