The Peyton Manning era with the Indianapolis Colts appears set to end as the NFL team was expected to cut the 11-time Pro Bowl quarterback yesterday, according to multiple reports.
The end of their 14-year relationship, which produced a Super Bowl championship, was widely expected since Indianapolis faced a deadline this week of paying a US$28 million bonus to Manning, who missed the entire season last year with a neck injury.
Sources close to the team said the announcement would be made at a news conference in Indianapolis with both Manning and Colts owner Jim Irsay in attendance, according to ESPN, which first reported the news on Tuesday.
The decision to pass on the bonus and not pick up the four remaining years on Manning’s contract would make the four-time league Most Valuable Player a free agent.
Manning, who turns 36 later this month, had his third neck surgery in 19 months, to fuse two vertebrae, in September.
Doctors have cleared him to resume his career and Manning has returned to training as nerves in his neck have regenerated.
Manning has broken all of Indianapolis’ career records for a quarterback and had never missed a start before last season.
He led Indianapolis to the playoffs 11 times and won two AFC championships and was named Super Bowl MVP in the Colts’ victory over the Chicago Bears in 2007.
Indianapolis finished with the league’s worst record last season and have since endured a tumultuous offseason that has already claimed the jobs of vice chairman Bill Polian, general manager Chris Polian and head coach Jim Caldwell.
The Colts, who posted a 2-14 record in Manning’s absence, have the No. 1 overall pick in next month’s draft, where Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck is widely pegged as the top choice.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but