If you are an Indianapolis Colts fan, short of Peyton Manning being hurt, the Dwight Freeney news is about as problematic of an issue as you can have.

Will Freeney be able play?

At this point, whether or not he plays is almost irrelevant. They may be able to shoot him up and get 60 minutes out of him. With the extended Registered Sex Offender Show... I mean THE WHO Super Bowl half-time concert, that's about four hours. Either way, there just isn't any way that Dwight Freeney will be able to wreak havoc in the Saints backfield.

At 6'-1" 268 lbs, Dwight Freeney is a small man by NFL lineman standards and his game is speed and quickness. There is no way that he can be a force having a torn ligament in his ankle.

Freeney's absence or limited presence will be missed more than if he had gotten hurt in the game. If there was some way to not have let the news become public that would have helped, but that's not an easy thing to do in the NFL, in fact you are required to disclose these things (although we know that doesn't always happen.)

Knowing that Freeney will not be there or not the same force that he would otherwise be means the Saints will be able to game plan accordingly. Whereas with a healthy Dwight Freeney the Colts would have to choose who to double, Freeney or Robert Mathis, now the choice is made simple and the game plan can be tailored that way, whether Freeney plays or not.

If there was any chance that there was going to be any resistance from the Colts defense that has now all but gone away. You can write it in stone, the Colts will at least have to put up 30 points to win this one. Assuming there is no monsoon in Sought Florida on Sunday, the game will be tantamount to a track meet.

Peyton Manning single handedly took the Colts on his shoulders last week against the statistically the best defense in football and took over the game. At one point in the second half, Tom Moore even stopped sending in plays and just let Manning call it on them on the field. If the Colts are going to win this game he will have to have a repeat performance.

Peyton Manning does already have a Super Bowl win, but by his standards he did not have a great game. In Super Bowl XLI he was 25/38 for 247-yards with 1TD and 1 INT with a QB rating of 81.8. For those of you who point to his 9-8 playoff record and point out that it's not exactly Tom Brady-like, to be fair four of the eight losses were his first four games and he certainly didn't have the surrounding cast that he has now at that point.

If there was any possible way that Peyton Manning could have more pressure on him in this game than he already had, the Freeney injury put it over the top. A well played game by Peyton Manning culminating in a win for the Colts win this Sunday will quite even Manning's staunchest detractors and cement his place as perhaps the greatest quarterback to ever play the game. - Michael Gross

Michael, in conjunction with a prominent sports agency runs a strength, conditioning and agility program that many agents send their "to-be-drafted" athletes, prior to being drafted. Many pro athletes have also used the facilities for rehabilitation after injury. Over 120 professional athletes including current MLB and NFL ball players have attended his institution during the past 4 years.

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