Stanford v California

Superbowl XLVI – How Andrew Luck Impacts Indy’s Future

Superbowl XLVI -  How Andrew Luck Impacts Indy’s Future

Well it’s January and there are four teams left in the NFL playoffs and Superbowl XLVI is just around the corner.  Big things are happening in the City of Indianapolis including the firing of almost everyone that matters in the Indianapolis Colts front office.  Say bye bye to Bill Polian and son, and also to Coach Caldwell, because Colts owner Jim Irsay and newly acquired GM Ryan Grigson are determined to rebuild the Colts with the future addition of the projected 2012 number one draft pick, Stanford’s Andrew Luck.  There now is only one guy who stands in Luck’s way of becoming the starting quarterback of the future…  And that is Peyton Manning.

Peyton Manning’s future will be decided in March when his contract bonus is scheduled to kick in.  It seems that Irsay and the Colts have already made their decision for the future with the recent firing of Coach Caldwell.  Usually the coaches underneath the head coach get whacked shortly after the firing of a head coach so there will certainly be more changes to the Indianapolis Colts coaching staff in the days and weeks to come. Luck is destined to be great and has been scouted as the least likely to flop quarterback coming out of college since Hall of Famer John Elway was drafted by the Baltimore Colts over two decades ago in 1983.

This was supposed to be the year Manning and his Indianapolis Colts played the Superbowl on their home turf.  And it amazes me how things have unfolded since the announcement of Manning’s season ending neck injury.  Over the course of the 2011 NFL season the Indianapolis Colts and their future #1 draft pick Andrew Luck, have been the most talked about scenario in football.

Superbowl XLVI and Lucas Oil Stadium are a result of the legacy Peyton Manning brought to the Indianapolis Colts and the City of Indianapolis.  The city was desperate for someone to take the place of Reggie Miller and the struggling Indiana Pacers, after a wonderful era in the NBA’s history that could be credited with putting the City of Indianapolis on the map. Just ask New York Knicks or  Indiana Pacers fans about the games back then.  A time when watching the Indiana Pacers was simply amazing.

Economically, sporting events such as Superbowl XLVI and the NBA playoffs bring a lot of money into the city and in return, helps promote Indianapolis for future conventions and events such as the NFL combine and the NCAA tournament.  So for those of you who don’t really care about sports, you should because sporting events have a huge impact on our local economy and can potentially put your city on the world’s stage.  This can impact our society and provide local economies with the opportunity to engage with people from all over the world.  This time it’s the City of Indianapolis who will benefit from such an event. 

Despite what happens with the Indianapolis Colts moving forward, one thing is for certain, none of this would have been possible without the addition of the number one overall pick in the NFL Draft back in 1998, Peyton Manning.  The future could literally be a matter of Luck for the City of Indianapolis.