The Indianapolis Colts are a professional football team in the National Football League. The team has been in existence since 1953, where they were known as the Baltimore Colts. While they were in Baltimore the team managed to find a lot of success. Their first successes came before the existence of the Super Bowl. In those times they called it the NFL Championship. The Colts managed to win 3 NFL Championships in just 11 years between 1958 and 1968. In 1970 the team managed to win the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history. That Super Bowl victory would be a big point in the franchise. Unfortunately the team was not able to find that sort of Super Bowl success for more than 35 years. The team did continue to win their division, taking the championship 4 times in the AFC East during the 70’s, but they did not win another Super Bowl until 2006. The team has been led for the last several years by Peyton Manning. There are not enough good things to say about Peyton Manning. He was drafted and then immediately stepped in as the starting quarterback for the Colts in his first season. He had mixed results according to his standard. After his rookie season he managed to start firing on all cylinders. The Colts featured a squad of Peyton Manning, Marshall Faulk and Marvin Harrison. After a short time the team swapped out Edgerrin James for Faulk, but the team continued to have success. Peyton Manning really made all of the difference for this team, changing them from a bottom feeding team to a perennial contender. The simple addition of Manning made the Colts one of the most feared teams in the NFL. Despite Manning’s ability to win games during the regular season and put up eye-popping numbers, many people still had much to say about where Manning fit in among the great quarterbacks. There were many people that were quick to point out that he had not yet won a championship. These people refused to take into account the fact that the Colts had a less than reliable defense for the majority of the years that Manning had played to that point. Instead they decided to leave the blame on Manning’s shoulders. Despite the unfair pressure, Manning continued to step up and led the team to a Super Bowl victory in 2006. To illustrate the effect that Manning has had on the franchise we can look at the success of the team since his arrival. Manning joined the team in 1998. He made the playoffs in 1999. Since making the playoffs in 1999 he has only missed the playoffs one time in his entire career. Previous to Manning’s arrival the team had made the playoffs 13 times in their history. Since Manning has joined the team they have made the playoffs 10 times and they are a favorite to make the playoffs again in 2010. Peyton Manning will go down as the greatest player to have ever played for the Colts’ franchise.
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