Peyton Manning possibly out for the season.

What kind of joke was this? It had to be some kind of rumor…right? Wrong.

To my surprise and disgust, Peyton Manning will most likely not be play in the 2011-2012 NFL season.

I’m not going to lie, my first reaction was,“I need to find a new team, pronto.” As if being a die-heart Cubs fan wasn’t enough, I now had to deal with the sting of being a Colts fan.

Talk about a low blow.

By the time Sept. 11 finally rolled around I had seriously considered setting my Peyton Manning jersey on fire at least 13 times. However, I realized, once a Colts fan, always a Colts fan, and if my team was going down, well by George I was going down with them.

 At 11:53 a.m., seven minutes before game time. I sat down on the couch, grabbed the remote and changed the channel to CBS. Yep, I was going through with this.

Somehow, deep down inside I managed to convince myself the Colts were in fact going to beat the Houston Texans. By the end of the first quarter the Texans had managed to score 17 points, leaving the Colts hopeless.

Half time rolls around and the score is 34-0, there is no point in even watching this game anymore. Then all of a sudden, the Colts score a touchdown (hard to believe I know).

That’s when I realized my team may not be a complete failure. After putting two and two together, I came to the conclusion that the Colts are practically a brand new team.

I honestly believe if they work hard enough and quit saying they can’t do it without Manning, they will have the potential to win a few games. To start off, the Colts need to tighten up their offense; it lacks confidence, appears extremely weak and has some major holes, leaving their quarterback to defend for himself.

Speaking of the quarterback, Collins has the ability to be a good quarterback, but he is trying too hard to be Manning. That would explain the numerous over throws, interceptions and fumbles throughout the game.

On another note, the Colts defense just needs to step back and regroup. Their defense was built for speed, not to stop a run. Unfortunately that doesn’t seem to be working for them; until they find a balance between the two, the defense will continually have problems throughout the season.

By the end of the season, I feel the Colts will finally be playing to their full potential, winning a few games here and there. Then by the time Manning returns, the team will be looking for redemption, coming back as a stronger, highly driven team, putting them in the position to be next year’s Superbowl champions.