If Indianapolis Colts teammates Peyton Manning and Mike Vanderjagt want to insult each other again during Pro Bowl week, they can do it to each other's faces this time.
It's not likely, however: A year after the Colts' quarterback and kicker traded barbs in interviews from Toronto to Honolulu, both players are on coach Tony Dungy's AFC team for tomorrow's game.
The All-Pros both were key forces in the Colts' most successful season since moving to Indiana in 1984, and their differences have long been resolved. Manning, the NFL's co-MVP along with Tennessee's Steve McNair, is in his fourth Pro Bowl, while Vanderjagt got his first trip to Hawaii after a perfect season on field goals and extra points.
"Those guys are professionals, and that's over," Dungy said of the feud. "It's just great that they both got rewarded with a trip to this game, because I don't think there's anybody more deserving."
Though everyone involved with the feud now rolls his eyes when the subject is broached, it's almost hard to believe Vanderjagt's future with Indianapolis seemed to be in jeopardy at this time last year.
During an interview with a Canadian sports cable network shortly after a blowout playoff loss, Vanderjagt criticized Manning and Dungy for not showing enough emotion and leadership. He even said he didn't think the Colts could get much better with the two men in charge.
Manning didn't have much to say about the criticism during the week before the Pro Bowl, but he ripped Vanderjagt on national television, saying he couldn't believe he was wasting time talking about "our idiot kicker who got liquored up and ran his mouth off."
After a few awkward phone calls in the following days and weeks, the players reached detente -- and they both played the best football of their careers in the Colts' run to the AFC South title and a trip to the conference title game.
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