Colts' Irsay on life after Manning: We want Super Bowl rings, not stats

The Indianapolis Colts plan to welcome former quarterback Peyton Manning, undeniably the greatest player in franchise history, back to town on Sunday with an official ceremony. 

Not all the talk surrounding Manning is positive, however. In an interview with USA TODAY, Colts owner Jim Irsay took some thinly veiled shots at Manning's failure to win more than one Super Bowl during his lengthy tenure with the Colts. 

“We’ve changed our model a little bit, because we wanted more than one of these,” Irsay said, motioning to his Super Bowl ring.  “[Tom] Brady never had consistent numbers, but he has three of these.  Pittsburgh had two, the Giants had two, Baltimore had two and we had one. That leaves you frustrated."

“You make the playoffs 11 times, and you’re out in the first round seven out of 11 times. You love to have the 'Star Wars' numbers from Peyton and Marvin [Harrison] and Reggie [Wayne]. Mostly, you love [winning Super Bowls].”

Manning did earn a reputation for choking in the playoffs while with the Colts, and the team really should have emerged from the '00s decade with more than one championship, but it's silly for Irsay to suggest Manning chased personal statistics over team wins. It was clear Manning's sole focus was on winning the big games -- he just failed to get it done more often than not.

Then again, perhaps Irsay didn't intend for his words to sound as they do. He could simply be suggesting that Manning's large salary left the Colts hamstrung, and that Andrew Luck's relatively cheap rookie deal frees up more money for the team to spend on a supporting cast.