After a few discussions with people in the office this little conspiracy theory just popped up in my head.

What if the Colts release Manning today merely to avoid the required $28M bonus payment due to him on Friday. It’s my understanding that would make him a free agent and available to sign for any team he wanted to (that will afford him).

But, what if Peyton still wants to be a Colt and remain loyal to Indianapolis and the city and retire with the team he helped make great. He’s been tremendous for this city and fans of the Colts. What if, instead, he resigns with the Colts with a new contract that works in some kind of give and take for the $28M he just “lost”, but stays with the team in a fashion that works for him, Irsay, the Colts, the city and even Andrew Luck?

What do you think? Possibility? Or am I just Positively Dreaming?!

Here’s a 90 second video produced by Matt Dial of the Indy Star from pre-game ceremonies to wrap-up after the big game.

Indianapolis Super Bowl Village from Paul D'Andrea on Vimeo.

Hat tip to @cjtheisen for sharing the link to this video on Facebook.

That’s not the case for Brian Alano who invested over three years and 30,000 pieces to build a replica of the home of the Indianapolis Colts.

I would hate to see Peyton wearing any other jersey if he’s not wearing a Colts jersey, but I’d also hate for him to leave his football career be retiring from the sideline and injured list instead of going out as an active player after another decade of taking snaps as our quarterback.

With the recent hires of Chuck Pagano as head coach, Bruce Arians as offensive coordinator and Keith Butler as the new defensive coordinator, I’m very excited about the coaching experience and strengths these three are bringing to the big, blue horseshoe.

The question still remains, will the Colts keep Peyton? Will they draft Andrew Luck? We’ve been known to NOT do what everyone else expected (at least under Polian… remember Edgerrin over Ricky and Peyton over Leaf?). What if the Colts traded the 1st round draft pick for a flurry of additional picks and were still able to pick up Robert Griffin III instead.

If Peyton is healthy and Irsay picks up the tab for him and Luck. How much does that leave for keeping the rest of the team that’s usually required to protect those expensive quarterbacks, or give them targets to throw to or hand-off? Just lots of questions abound.

I just don’t see Peyton coming back. I sure would like for him to still be a part of the Colts organization. I have no idea how that would work but he’s an asset to a team no matter what role he’s in on the field, on the sideline or in the booth.

Photo Credit: Jason Lavengood

The football spirit is in top gear in the city of Indianapolis now. The Super Bowl Village and NFL Experience are officially open and coming around the 1st turn.

First if you’re visiting from out-of-town, WELCOME TO INDIANAPOLIS! Make yourself at home, unless that means sitting on the couch in your underwear, in that case, put some clothes on and come on out to the party.

Check-out that photo! Is that not the best! What better way to tie some of what Indianapolis is known for in with the NFL and the Super Bowl? A car for each team featuring their logo, colors and motif all rockin’ the Indy Car look of speed and craftsmanship.

As I made my way downtown to the City Market this morning I could already feel the energy surrounding the events that are going to be happening over the next week and a half in this wonderful city. As I left the City Market I noticed Monument Circle wasn’t completely blocked off so I headed that direction. I got a little bit of a view of the 30′ XLVI Roman numerals sitting on the Circle facing down Meridian. I also noticed there were a number of the Indy Food Trucks lined up on the northwest quadrant already serving some great food. There will be different rotations of food trucks each day in different shifts. What a great idea and option for football fans walking around the city.

The city is getting some positive press about how everything is going so far. Many people are already saying Indianapolis is going to be a great host city here, here and that we’ll be ready for anything. I’ll be interested in hearing this guy eat some of his words and hopefully issue an apology after the big game, but most of the commenters on his post have already set him straight on some of his inaccurate facts.

The Social Media Command Center has already been helpful to me as they answered my food truck question earlier this afternoon. My son has been begging me to take him to the food trucks, so I wanted to make sure they’d be around next Wednesday when our family will be heading downtown.

If you’re on Facebook or Twitter it’s almost a constant stream of all the fun people are having. If you’re curious, just follow some of these hashtags on Twitter: #SuperBowl46, #SuperBowl, #XLVI, #SuperBowlIndy, #Social46, #SuperIndy, #SB46, #SB2012, #SBVillage, #Super46.

Or you can of course follow some of these great friends and tweeps: @SuperBowl2012, @AroundIndy, @cjtheisen, @seppichdaily, @mooshinindy, @BgKahuna, @ChuckGose, @PeteThePlanner, @roundpeg, @NaptownBuzz and plenty more if you just watch those hashtags and tweets by everyone else.

I headed over to the Rock-Cola Cafe today for lunch to congratulate them, well more accurately to just fill my stomach with some more of their great food. Feel bad for my really close friends at Papa Roux (@PapaRoux) for not making it to the final two sandwiches, but love the support and excitement he’s been bringing to the city and the east side for all of this.

We’ll be seeing you around town I’m sure. Hit us up in the comments and let us know what you think of your experiences so far in the city. Whether your from here, or visiting from out-of-town. Let’s hear it!

“Because Indianapolis is centrally located and there are a lot of people within a day’s drive, we think we could extend the season to have more weekend tournaments during the spring and fall months,” Arnold said.  “Indianapolis is definitely a market we want to be in if we can find the right partner. We’re going to have a Midwest facility, and Indianapolis is our No. 1 choice.”

My son’s favorite sport is baseball, so having a world-class organization open a quality facility like ones they already operate in Maryland and South Carolina would be terrific.

With all of the other sports that have strong support and involvement in the Indianapolis area, adding amateur baseball at the youth, high school and college level would be a great addition to the community.

What do you think? Where would you put it in the area?

There’s more to May than just the 500 and there’s more to Speedway, Indiana than just a race every may.

What many people may not realize outside of the city is that there’s more to Speedway than just a racetrack. Of course the town is tied to the race, but it’s a great little city inside The Circle City for the other 11 months of the year as well.

Here’s a very nicely done video about the city of Speedway, Indiana and the history behind it and it’s neighbors.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’ve been hearing quite a bit lately about the “Butler Way”. Initially it was regarding how Butler students handle themselves after a win or loss as compared to perhaps another university. I’m not sure we can accurately stereotype on either side of the coin, but then again, why should we even try.

I read a story today though about how the Butler University players handled themselves and their teammates in the locker room after the game. This article is the example of the “Butler Way” that I’m interested in hearing more about.

The story of Butler, the one that’s captured underdog hearts for two consecutive NCAA tournaments, was always about a group finding a way to be better than its individual parts. The Bulldogs were a family, they said. They were a brotherhood, they reminded. They believed they could reach back-to-back NCAA title games when there was no logical reason to think such a thing was possible.

This is what all kinds of teams say, of course. And it’s easy to be a family when the shots are falling and victories are piling up and you’re shocking the world night after night. It’s another when you take the grandest stage in college basketball and proceed to experience a failure of historic proportions.

How did you handle the loss? Did you just blame others for the loss? Did you take responsibility? Or did you put all that behind you and just be a teammate and a fan? That’s the “Butler way”. I’d encourage everyone to make it the “<your name here> Way”.

Source: Butler Goes Down Its Way

Photo Source: Butler University website

Photo Credit: Colts.com Fan Cam

As you can kind of see from all the little smiley faces on the photo, you can zoom in and find yourself in the stands and then tag the photo that you were there.

I think this is a very cool idea. I’ve seen similar events, like BlogIndiana, where a large group photo is taken and then shared on Facebook, then attendees are encouraged to tag themselves in the photos. With the functions of Facebook, this allows the photo, and ultimately the event, to be widely promoted on the network. The same can be true of the Colts organization sharing this photo. Hopefully they’ll be doing this for all future games.

Colts owner Jim Irsay has been getting some media attention lately with his activity on Twitter. Also at the Titans game, they gave away a Toyota Prius and $4000 cash to one of his Twitter followers after they correctly guessed the number of footballs that were stuffed into the Prius, a promotion that some may consider genius. Others may think the sometimes incoherent ramblings by Irsay on Twitter are reminiscent of those of Paula Abdul on American Idol’s judging panel. I on the other hand think both individuals are just unique human beings and I enjoy hearing what they have to say most of the time.