Exactly when did Peyton Manning's neck problems begin? His former coach, Tony Dungy, believes he has the answer.
As noted by Sports Illustrated's Peter King on Monday, Dungy made an astute observation on Saturday night's NBC telecast, tracing the origin of the Indianapolis Colts quarterback's current neck injury all the way back to an Oct. 22, 2006 game against the Washington Redskins.
Dungy recalled a first-half hit delivered by Andre Carter and Phillip Daniels in which Manning's neck was wrenched and his helmet ripped off. When Manning got up off the turf, he stretched his neck and shook his right arm for a second, "as if trying to get the feeling back in it," King noted.
"Earlier in the game," Dungy told King, "I'm outraged that there was a flag for roughing the passer on Dwight Freeney for just grazing the quarterback's helmet. So I'm yelling at the ref (Scott Green), 'Where's the flag?!? Where's the flag?!?' And I don't yell much, but I did then. So I didn't notice Peyton calling timeout and being shaken up. Peyton came to the sideline and said to (backup) Jim Sorgi, 'Jim, start warming up.' As the timeout went on, he said to us, 'I can stay in, but we need to run the ball here.' "
The issue became a non-issue for the rest of the game.
"We sort of forgot about it at halftime, and Peyton seemed fine," Dungy said. "He lit it up in the second half. He was on fire (throwing for 244 yards and three touchdowns). But that's the year we started cutting back on his throws at practice. I'm not putting two plus two together. I just figure he's getting older, and he needs some time off -- he's made enough throws.
"But now, as I look back on it, there's no doubt in my mind that this was the start of his neck problems."
Manning's neck injury has caused major problems for the Colts, who were blown out 34-7 by the Houston Texans on Sunday with Kerry Collins as their starting quarterback. Now that Manning has missed his first start in ages, there seems to be a murky timetable as to when he can return.