JAGT'ING OFF: Peace is at hand- Indianapolis Colts Peyton Manning and Mike Vanderjagt settled their little intramural feud the other day. It all started last week when Vanderjagt, the team's kicker, went on a Canadian television talk show and ripped both Manning and coach Tony Dungy as "soft" and questioned their will to win. This led to explosions from NFL players who castigated Vanderjagt for "not knowing his place," and from Manning himself, who likened his team's kicker to a "batboy." NFL pundits piled on, led by ESPN's odious Sean Salisbury referring to kickers as "disposable" since they generally avoid contact and spend most of each game on the sidelines. Salisbury, for his part, should know as well as anyone about spending games on the sidelines, as he played the rather "disposable' position of third-string quarterback for most of his NFL career.
Yes, Vanderjagt was out of line in using the media to say things about his teammates that he wouldn't say to their faces. And it was funny to see the usually mild-mannered Manning rant about the kicker, accusing him of being "liquored up" at the time of the interview. But in defense of the belaguered place-kicker, it's hard to deny that there's some truth to what Vanderjagt said: as a certain ex-Colts coach would say, Peyton Manning hasn't done diddly-poo in clutch games throughout his career, whether in college or the pros. And more importantly, this disrespect being shown to kickers is nothing short of offensive- do these players and commentators forget that championships have been won and lost on the strength of who a team's kicker is, from Adam Vinatieri to Scott Norwood to (gulp) Gary Anderson?
Apparently someone agrees with me, as on Tuesday (the same day as the Manning-Vanderjagt truce) the Denver Broncos re-signed kicker Jason Elam to a 5-year, $9 million contract.