A very selfish view of Peyton Manning's release

Earlier this week on Tony Kornheiser's radio show, the great Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan said, "If you're 25 years old, you essentially know nothing else in your football fandom other than Peyton Manning taking his team to the playoffs every single year."

I'm 25 years old. I know a lot about football now, but my knowledge and love of the game began with watching Peyton Manning play for the Indianapolis Colts.

I realize my profession asks me to evaluate teams and athletes in an objective light, but that's nearly impossible for most. All of us in the media have biases for or against players and organizations. I can't be impartial about No. 18. I just can't.

To this point, I haven't brought myself to watch Wednesday's press conference. I heard Manning was emotional, even tearful. I won't shed tears for him, but the whole business is saddening.

Make no mistake, folks, sports is a business. There's very little sentimentality involved, and this situation makes me wish for a lot of things.

I wish the Colts hadn't been so bad this year. A record of 4-12 or 5-11 would've secured Indianapolis a pick anywhere from fourth to seventh in this year's draft. That may have been high enough to get a top-flight player that could have helped Manning in his final two or three years.

I wish Andrew Luck had left Stanford last spring. Luck is as complete a quarterback prospect as we've seen in recent years, so much so that scouts are now trying to fabricate reasons why a team shouldn't take him No. 1 overall. The Colts had to take him with the first pick, even if Manning was healthy. Robert Griffin III is a lot easier to pass on than Luck.

I wish Jim Irsay hadn't agreed to the $28 million roster bonus. As soon as it was ruled Manning wouldn't be able to play this season, the March 8 deadline became the fork in the road. No one means more to one franchise than Manning means to the Colts, and it's hard for me to imagine giving him $28 million just for being on the team, even if he was healthy.

I wish Bill Polian had had a little more luck. To build a successful franchise, you need to be shrewd and lucky. Polian made some great draft picks over his time in Indy (Manning, Reggie Wayne, Edgerrin James, Marvin Harrison and Dwight Freeney to name a few), but most of them didn't pan out. Through Manning, Polian built an outstanding offense, but he couldn't do the same on defense. How many more titles could the Colts have won with a stifling defense? We'll never know.

I wish Alex Smith has completed more passes in the NFC Championship and the 49ers had gone on to beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl. As much as I enjoyed seeing the Giants beat New England again, I don't need anyone even considering an argument that Eli Manning could end up with a better career than Peyton.

I wish Peyton Manning would retire. Necks are really hard to repair or replace.

If any of my wishes had come true, we'd probably still be talking about Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning. He's going to sign with another team soon, unfortunately. I don't care if it's Miami, Washington, Seattle or Arizona. It'll all be too weird for me.

I'm 25 years old. I essentially don't know anything else in my football fandom other than Peyton Manning leading the Colts to the playoffs every year. I don't want to know anything else.