I can not remember another time that two marquee franchise players have both been mishandled like I see with Peyton Manning and Albert Pujols. Both players are championship caliber, elite, best at what they do players and here we are talking about both players reaching the end of their contracts. If I'm a fan of the Colts or Cardinals I am outraged. Who should be more upset?
After the Super Bowl loss to the Saints, all the talk coming out of Indy was "Peyton is the best" "Peyton should be the highest paid player" blah blah blah. Here we are over a year later and he's sitting their with the franchise tag on him. I don't care about labor talks cause thats just an excuse. There are no possible scenarios in the CBA that the Colts are going to come away not paying him. Peyton Manning will always be a Colt. I do believe part of his struggles last year could be traced to not having a contract, so if Indy wants their franchise back you gotta pay the man.
As bad as the Colts look in this, its the Cardinals who really mishandled the situation. Unlike Manning, Pujols would definitely leave for another team. What makes it worse for St. Louis he could easily go to the division rival Cubs and terrorize you for the rest of his career. Pujols has been the best player in the game for a while now and deserves to be paid like it. This issue will linger throughout the season and put a burden on his teammates but Pujols will continue to perform at a high level. The Cardinals should be looking big picture, he is in his prime now and would be able to finish his career in St. Louis. The value of a player is always based on what someone else will pay him, and I don't know if the Cardinals are ready for a bidding war over the games best player.
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