The Colts have nothing to do with this. Their stadium and the fact Indy is landlocked also has nothing to do with it. You're just throwing crap at the wall because a guy used his leverage to avoid playing for what, at the time, was a disaster of a franchise. Listen to yourself. You're arguing he had no leverage, while criticizing the fact he leveraged his way out of San Diego. It's apparent you just don't like the Mannings.
The Colts are only relevant to this discussion because Peyton was a much better and more accomplished individual player than Eli. However, he did not have Eli's leverage, as his did not have a millionaire All-Pro brother already in the League. Peyton provided that much cache to the name. Plus I didn't argue Eli had no leverage. I said Elway and Bo had different leverage (better, IMO), as they could garner comparable compensation for their athletic abilities from a different professional sport. By comparison, Manning had his last name.
Imagine the number one overall pick prioritizing the weather over the ineptitude displayed for decades in that organization. "it's okay we suck and never make the playoffs, and are an afterthought in California behind the Raiders and Niners, but as long as the sun is shining, I'd love to play for the Chargers!"
The weather? That's dumb. Really, really dumb. There were tens of millions of dollars on the line for Eli with his career, and you think he should shut up and settle because of the weather? Cheese and rice go somewhere and be quiet.
I only mentioned weather once and it was really intended to be a loose reference to
Jerry McGuire ("I'll either surf or ski."). Did you really have to disagree with it four times? Anyway, the Chargers were not exactly inept for decades. Free agency and Bobby Ross made them respectable in the early 90s, culminating in a Super Bowl appearance by the middle of the decade, and by the time Manning was drafted, Shottenheimer was bringing them back again. Ebbs and flows are wont to happen with most teams in the Free Agency Era.
The number one overall pick has leverage. The number overall pick who has a millionaire father, and a millionaire brother already in the league, has leverage. Something tells me Eli would have been able to (financially) do nothing but train and watch film for the year he would have sat. I just don't think he was deciding between the NFL or a marketing specialist role at Coca-Cola, but it's cute of you to pretend like those were his options.
Being the #1 pick is irrelevant. Elway and Jackson were #1 overall picks as well. The rest is addressed above...
I'm not taking any of this personally. I find it really strange how quickly people bend down and lick the boots of the owners. The billionaire owners churn through athletes as if they were cattle. We shouldn't even have a draft, players should go directly into free agency, and we should have relegation and promotion with salary caps.
Anytime the athletes who give up their bodies and brains to provide us with entertainment get the opportunity to, within the rules, do what is best for them and their career/lives they should do it.
Let's simplify this...
Exactly what rule did Manning break?
I'll wait.
That's a weird pivot. I'm not sure where any owners' boots were licked, unless you are referring to the draft, a method used by nearly, if not, all major sports leagues. It is how the system has worked for nearly 85 years and agreed to by the union. I actually agree with the second part of this, to a point, but that is where free agency come in.
Finally, I thought it'd be clear that,
"the rules of the draft game," would be understood as a figure of speech, i.e. the unwritten rule playing for the team that drafts you, at least initially. Evidently not. C'est la vie, because I didn't say Eli broke a rule per se. I said I thought it was wrong for him to weasel out of San Diego. Again, just my opinion.
