Kravitz: I'm rooting for Peyton Manning (and you should too)

I was surprised Sunday early evening. Just two tweets on how Peyton Manning should still be in Indianapolis. Just one e-mail on how Manning should have been retained, how he would have taken the Colts to another Super Bowl. (Although it was a good one, a writer comparing Jim Irsay with Boston Red Sox owner Harry Frazee, who gave away Babe Ruth.)

I was surprised.

Because ... you get it.

Not all of you, mind you. Some are still convinced the Colts could have kept the old gang together – Manning and Robert Mathis and Reggie Wayne and the rest – and continued the glory era here in Indy.

But most of you get it.

Give yourselves a hand.

And give Manning a hand, a giant attaboy for playing flawlessly Sunday in the AFC championship game victory over the New England Patriots.

It is almost impossible to understand how far back he's come after four neck surgeries. Unless you were there at the beginning, when he could barely throw a football 10 yards to his old University of Tennessee friend Todd Helton, you can't fully comprehend just how hard Manning worked to return to his previous form. There was a time, not so long ago, when Manning was coming to terms with the possibility his career was finished.

But Manning being Manning, he worked through it, wrote one of the great comeback stories of all time. The nerve regenerated. The arm strength came back – for the most part anyway. And now he's one Super Bowl victory away from being remembered, forever, as one of the five greatest quarterbacks ever to play the game – right there with Joe Montana, Tom Brady, John Elway and Johnny Unitas.

You mean he wouldn't be the Greatest of All Time?

We can debate this until your tongues fatigue. This GOAT stuff is nothing more than a media construction, a bar-room debate we all have. There are a lot of Indy locals who believe Manning already is the GOAT, and there's certainly an argument to be made. I'm just one who believes that if all things are equal, Super Bowl victories are the tie-breakers. Montana had four. Brady has three. Elway has two. Unitas had one (and two pre-Super Bowl NFL championships).

Manning is on the doorstep.

And I'm happy as I can be for him.

Are you happy? Or is there a little discomfort, like watching an ex-wife remarrying a suave, good-looking millionaire?

On a certain level, it feels like Manning should be doing this here in Indianapolis. But it couldn't have happened. There's no way to twist the cap numbers around. The Colts would not have been able to retain Mathis and Wayne (and maybe Dwight Freeney) and would have been forced to rebuild with several aging players such as Jeff Saturday and others.

The only way it could have worked – and this was a long-shot calculation the Colts weren't ready to consider – was to trade the rights to Andrew Luck for the entire draft of, say, the Cleveland Browns. Then have an enormously successful draft, hit on just about every pick, and hope the young players could help catapult Manning to the Super Bowl.

Like I say, a long shot.

And a dumb move.

When March rolled around in 2012, nobody really knew what Manning had left in his golden right arm. He has been very specific in talking about his comeback. Consider the timeline. In March, when the Colts had to make a decision, he was not yet throwing like an NFL quarterback. How do you invest a hefty portion of your salary cap in a 30-something quarterback coming off four neck surgeries who may or may not be ready to play at a high level again? How do you do that with Luck waiting in the wings, poised to give you another 10-to-15 years of elite quarterbacking?

In my business, you root for the story, and in some cases, you root for people. That's why I'm going to watch the Super Bowl Feb. 2 and have a sincere rooting interest, for a change. I want to watch Manning make Richard Sherman shut up for a change.

During the interim period between the time the Colts 2012 season ended and the time they let him go, Manning and I talked and emailed quite often. I was struck by how peaceful he sounded, even though he knew he was on the cusp of either retiring or leaving Indianapolis. I remember very specifically telling him, "You're not going to win a Super Bowl here. You can win a Super Bowl if you join the right team."

Manning painfully acknowledged that might be true, but he wanted desperately to remain home, to stay with the team who drafted him. He is a big student of football history, and knows how rare it is, even for the greatest players, to remain in the same spot for the entirety of a career.

That's why this is such a happy story, even for those of us in Indy.

Because Manning, the most admirable athlete I've ever known, is getting what he deserves – a chance to win a second Super Bowl, a chance to reconfirm his greatness both in the regular season and in the postseason.

And here in Indianapolis?

Bold prediction: Luck will have the Colts in the Super Bowl sometime in the next five years, maybe sooner than that.

In the meantime, don your old No. 18 jersey on Feb. 2. Root for Manning the way you rooted for Manning all those years in Indianapolis. I root for stories and I root for people, and come Super Bowl Sunday, I'll be right there with you, hoping against hope that Manning gets to finish this story the way it should be finished.

I remember when the Broncos beat the Packers in the Super Bowl, and Denver owner Pat Bowlen boomed, "This one's for John (Elway)."

This time, I want to see confetti falling (along with snow) and Bowlen yelling, "This one's for Peyton."

Lord knows, nobody deserves it more.

Bob Kravitz is a columnist for The Indianapolis Star. Call him at (317) 444-6643 or email bob.kravitz@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter: @BKravitz.