Indianapolis is My Home

27
Jul

Colts Sign Two New Quarterbacks

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Indianapolis Colts, Indy Pro Athletes

That headline isn’t something you’d expect to read these days, but with the recent news of Peyton Manning’s surgery on his knee, it makes sense.

With Peyton being out for an unknown amount of time, Sorgi will be stepping up, but who will back him up if needed?

Gray, who played collegiately at Florida A&M, spent 2002-2007 as a backup quarterback with Jacksonville, throwing for 1,252 yards, 12 touchdowns and five interceptions. He became an unrestricted free agent following this past season and signed in March with the Houston Texans, who released him in June.

Lorenzen, who played collegiately at Kentucky, played in four games in three seasons with the Giants, throwing for 28 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions.

Jaren Lorenzen and Quinn Gray will be working out with the team because Dungy likes building on what he’s already seen with these two players instead of starting fresh with a rookie with no NFL experience.

I’m not expecting either one of them to see much action if any, but I’d like for Lorenzen to get some time being from the University of Kentucky. I think it’s also cool that he played under Peyton’s brother Eli with the New York Giants.

26
Jun

Pacers Trade Jermaine O’Neal to Toronto Raptors for T.J. Ford and Rasho Nesterovic

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Indiana Pacers, Indy Pro Athletes, News, Sports

Nothing has been really confirmed at this point and won’t be until July 1st and players pass their physicals. From what I’ve heard from a variety of people though, the ongoing health of T.J. Ford seems questionable to me. I also think we should be able to get a lot better than this for Jermaine O’Neal.

The Toronto Raptors have agreed in principle to acquire forward Jermaine O’Neal from the Indiana Pacers for point guard T.J. Ford, center Rasho Nesterovic, the 17th pick in the draft and a player to be named, Yahoo reported Wednesday.

In fact, I think I’d be trying to ditch some other players before Jermaine, even if I couldn’t get much out of them. We need some fresh players and fresh faces, perhaps more importantly and absence of some of the players we’ve been seeing a little too much of in the newspaper and courtrooms for things other than basketball stats.

Yahoo: Pacers to deal Jermaine O’Neal to Raptors - Yahoo! News

20
Jun

Indianapolis Colts Fan Fest TONIGHT!

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Concerts, Downtown, Indianapolis Colts, Indy Pro Athletes, Local Musicians, Things To Do in Indy

If you want to meet some Colts players and cheerleaders and get their autographs you’ll want to be at the Indianapolis Colts FanFest event tonight. Jon McLaughlin will be performing as well. Great opportunity to hear him perform for free.

Here are the details:

The Colts Fan Fest will be in Indianapolis, Indiana on Friday, June 20th.

Location:
Downtown American Legion Mall
700 North Pennsylvania Street
Indianapolis, IN 46206
5:30pm - 7:30pm
Autograph session with Colts Players, Cheerleaders and Blue
7:30pm
Free Jon McLaughlin Concert

Fan Fest Elements include:
-Make It Personal with Colts players
-Meet Colts Cheerleaders
-FREE community concert by Jon McLaughlin
-Visit Blue the official team mascot
-"Colts City" inflatables
-Bring a new or gently used children’s book for "Books for Youth"
-Register for the Colts Kids Club
-Register to win tickets to a Colts pre-season game
-Pick-up free Colts giveaways
-Check out the re-designed Colts In Motion

Special notes:
The Colts would like to encourage all fans to arrive early.  The line for player and cheerleader autographs may be cut off at any time to ensure the players schedule remains on time.  Inclement weather or traffic may cause late arrival or early departure.  All Fan Fests will take place rain or shine.  Team practice schedule and meeting times may cause players to arrive late or depart early. Colts player names will not be announced prior to the arrival in each city.  Fans will be allowed one autograph per person, however, fans may get back in line for additional autographs.  All Colts Fan Fest times are local.

Stay tuned to www.Colts.com/FanFest for an up-to-date listing of locations.

06
Jun

What’s the Big Deal About 5,405?

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Indianapolis Colts, Indy Pro Athletes

Unless I gave you some more context you probably wouldn’t have a clue as to the significance of that number. However, if I told you it involved the Indianapolis Colts and Peyton Manning you might get closer to the meaning.

And he said that’s particularly true when it comes to the part of his body that has thrown 5,405 regular-season passes over the last decade.

It’s challenging to start worrying about this stat compared to the other ones, but we all want to keep Peyton as healthy and as involved as we can. There’s got to be a way to balance it though and that’s what the coaches and trainers are all working on this season.

For more information on how and some insight into how recent off-season workouts have been going checkout this story on Colts.com.

AN ISSUE OF PRESERVATION

20
May

Indianapolis Wins Bid for Super Bowl 2012

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Business Entrepreneurs, Downtown, Indianapolis Colts, Indy Pro Athletes, Lucas Oil Stadium, News, Special Events

Great news for the city! Congratulations to everyone that participated and help secure this deal into reality. Can’t wait to see this thing come to the city and hopefully be a part of it in some way.

Indianapolis officials had gone to great lengths to secure the 25,000 hotel rooms required by league bid specifications. They also hammered home the city’s strengths, including downtown connectivity and history of hosting big events, from the 1987 Pan Am Games to the Indianapolis 500 and NCAA men’s basketball Final Fours.

Indianapolis also came up with $25 million in corporate and individual support to fund various Super Bowl operations, including event hosting, transportation and building a practice facility. NFL sources said Indianapolis has more money secured to host the 2012 Super Bowl than either Phoenix or Houston.

I still think that working as hard to get back and keep events like the F1 should also have the same importance.

What do you think?

Indianapolis lands Super Bowl

19
May

Tomorrow Is the Big Day - Super Bowl 2012?

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Downtown, Indianapolis Colts, Indy Pro Athletes, Lucas Oil Stadium

Tomorrow is the big day, the NFL owners should decide where the Super Bowl will be taking place in 2012. According to the IBJ, Indianapolis is leading as the "frontrunner".

"There’s a thought that Indianapolis and Jim Irsay have done everything they need to host a Super Bowl," said Marc Ganis, president of Chicago-based consulting firm Sportcorp Ltd., which counts several NFL teams as clients. "You can never predict what these 32 owners will decide, but some think Indianapolis is in a solid position."

The Indianapolis promoters have added an interesting idea to build the equivalent of an "Olympic village" downtown to provide an epicenter of activity for visitors to participate in without having to have tickets to game itself.

20
Jan

Is Dungy Done?

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Indianapolis Colts, Indy Pro Athletes, News, People, RCA Dome, Sports

This is not happy news to even hint at but we’re all waiting to hear from Tony Dungy on Monday if he’ll be back for another season with the team. Irsay has already announced that upon his decision to leave, assistant coach Jim Cardwell will become head coach on Dungy’s departure.

We were talking this past week about the possibility of Dungy retiring from the Colts again. I can understand his desire to move on and focus on other things. The thoughts we all shared though was that his position as head coach of an NFL team that’s doing very well affords him the ability to make even more changes in the community for the good don’t you think?

I don’t think it bodes well that his kids have already enrolled in schools in the Tampa area. I’ll bet he could walk right back in the door of the Bucs and get a head coaching job back.

Sad day. Sad, sad day.

Photo Credit

15
Jan

Over for the Colts - Here’s to Next Year

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Indianapolis Colts, Indy Pro Athletes, News, Sports

I’m sad, but not too shocked. Let down, but not surprised. I’m amazed that our defense barely showed up for the game. We just didn’t play well at all. I don’t want to say we didn’t prepare, I’m sure Tony and Peyton wouldn’t let that happen, but we sure didn’t show up for yesterday’s game.

The San Diego Charger’s two star players LaDanian Tomlinson and Philip Rivers were both out for the 4th quarter and they still beat us. We let them march it down the field and score a touchdown.

I will say I think Norv Turner is a big cry-baby. He marched out onto the field on almost every call that went against his team. I will give him credit, the one he had a right to be upset about was the pass interference call with Reggie Wayne in the second half I believe. Didn’t see anything on that one.

If we’ve won the game I was going to try and get a movement going for thousands of Indianapolis Colts fans to mail Norv a box a Kleenex. Can’t really do that since we’re the losers.

Anthony Gonzalez had an amazing play tight-roping the sideline to run down for a touchdown. Great job!

I’m stuck between a rock and hard place now, it’s going to be good football hopefully. I really like Brett Farve, but I’m rooting big time for Eli Manning to have a good showing. I really like LaDaniana Tomlinson, but Philip Rivers appears to be a big jerk. I can’t stand the Patriots, but they’ve got a great team working together now and Belichick is a cheating but brilliant coach. I’d love to see the Patriots go down, but I’d also give serious credit to them if they can pull out everything and win it all. After all, if that were the case the last team to beat them will still have been the Indianapolis Colts in the 2007 AFC Championship Game.

Photo Source: Lucas Oil

08
Jan

Bob Sanders wins Defensive Player award - Yahoo! News

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Awards & Recognition, Indianapolis Colts, Indy Pro Athletes, Sports

"Over 75% of the earth is covered by water. Bob Sanders covers the rest." - Unknown

A big congratulations to Bob Sanders of the Indianapolis Colts. He won the Defensive Player of the Year Award by a landslide! Of 50 votes possible, consisting of a variety of media personnel that cover the NFL, Sanders won 31 of the votes.

Here’s the full breakdown on votes:

1. Bob Sanders, Indianapolis Colts (31 votes)
2. Patrick Kerney, Seattle Seahawks (4 votes)
3. Albert Haynesworth, Tennessee Titans (4 votes) [And face stomper!]
4. Antonio Cromartie, San Diego Chargers (3 votes)
5. Mike Vrabel, New England Patriots (2 votes)
6. DeMarcus Ware, Dallas Cowboys (2 votes)
7. Ronde Barber, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1 vote)
8. James Harrison, Pittsburgh Steelers (1 vote)
9. Patrick Willis, San Francisco 49′ers (1 vote)
10. Mario Williams, Houston Texans (1 vote)

Read the rest of this entry »

30
Dec

Final Regular Season Game in the RCA Dome

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Business, Indianapolis Colts, Indy Pro Athletes, People, RCA Dome, Sports

Last week my son and I got to enjoy the Colts vs. Texans home game. My wife purchased the tickets as a birthday gift for my son and they were great! While we were at the game they were making announcements about this week’s game being the last regular season game in the RCA Dome.

I was thinking then that it would be great to be able to get tickets for the game and be able to be there for the last home game in the dome. At the time I didn’t think about it too much because of the unlikelihood of me actually getting tickets.

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