Peyton Manning spent most of his career in the spotlight carefully avoiding giving any
spicy quotes to the press.
But early in his career, he let his feelings get the best of him after being pushed too
far by one man: his own kicker.
Wait, his what now?
1998 was a season of big changes for the Indianapolis Colts.
They were being run by a new GM, and led by a new head coach, who brought in a new QB
coach, to work with the starting quarterback they'd just picked #1 in the draft.
Polian also acquired some extra competition at kicker, bringing in Mike Vanderjagt from
the CFL.
He wound up unseating Cary Blanchard, who'd made the Pro Bowl for the Colts in 1996 and
left as the team's all-time leader in field goal percentage.
Blanchard was pretty salty about getting dumped for a dude who'd never played in the NFL,
but Vanderjagt was like "hey, kicking is kicking, dude."
1998 was also a season of sameness in one big area: the team's record.
3-13 in '97, 3-13 in '98.
Some of that was Peyton struggling as a rookie.
But Vanderjagt wound up being something of a bright spot, finishing sixth in the NFL
in field goal percentage and first in field goals made from 50+ yards.
And both Peyton and the team's win-loss record got WAY better the next season, with
the Colts winning their division for the first time since 1987.
The magic didn't last in the playoffs as the Colts dropped a close game at home in
the Divisional Round, but the pieces were there and the future seemed bright.
Vanderjagt got a big payday the next season, and he wasn't shy about noting that he was
getting paid like the best kicker in the league because, well, that's exactly what he was.
The Colts proved the '99 turnaround wasn't a fluke and went back to the playoffs, but
they blew a 14 point lead against Miami and then, with a chance to win in overtime, Vanderjagt
did this.
"No good!"
He took that pretty hard!
After a very crappy 2001 best remembered for this legendary moment in press conference
melting down Playoffs?
Don't talk about playoffs!
You kidding me?
ownership put the team in Tony Dungy's hands.
The '02 Colts were kind of uneven in no small part because Vanderjagt was struggling.
But he finished the season strong, and Indy did enough to snag a Wild Card spot.
Good news: they didn't lose another close, winnable playoff game.
Bad news: they got pummeled and suffered the worst postseason loss in franchise history.
I want to stop for a second here and bring in my friend and colleague Jon Bois.
That's me.
Jon, I'm going to give you the combined statistics of an NFL quarterback in his first
three career playoff games.
Ok.
And I want you, based on those statistics, to try to guess which quarterback this is.
Let's do it!
Are you ready?
Mhmm!
1 touchdown 2 interceptions
48 percent pass completion rate 186 passing yards per game
And an 0-3 record.
Jim Kelly?
Jon, this quarterback is Peyton Manning.
(laughing) He's bad!
But that was a really good guess, and you're a really good friend, so thank you for trying.
Alright.
Bye, guys!
I did that experiment because I want you to understand what Peyton's football reputation
was, at least in some circles, in early 2003 - an extremely talented quarterback who just
could not get it done in the playoffs.
So let's take those numbers, mix them with the terrible taste of losing by six touchdowns,
add the security of getting a big contract, and you get Mike Vanderjagt saying this on
Canadian TV a few weeks later.
"All week before the Jets game I'm like, '(No.) 18, we're going to handle it, me and
you we're going to win this game.'
And he's like, 'Yeah, yeah, OK.'"
"And I'm like, 'Peyton, show some enthusiasm, you're the quarterback and we need to win
this game.'
I just don't see it from him.''
"We need somebody who is going to get in people's faces and yell and scream."
"Coach Dungy, he's just a mild-mannered guy.
He doesn't get too excited, he doesn't get too down and I don't think that works either."
"I'm not a real big Colts fan right now, unfortunately, I just don't see us getting
better."
This...is some wild stuff for any NFL player to say about his head coach and franchise
quarterback.
It is especially so coming from a kicker, even a very good kicker.
Vanderjagt quickly apologized in a public statement.
Now, all of this was happening while Peyton was in Hawaii for the Pro Bowl.
He didn't say much about it for the first couple of days, insisting he'd deal with
the situation when he got back home.
And then, in the middle of the Pro Bowl - like, during the game on the sidelines - he did
the opposite of that.
"Here we are, I'm out at my third Pro Bow, we're talking about our idiot kicker,
who got liquored up and ran his mouth off, so.
What has the sports world come to when we're talking about idiot kickers?
He has ruined kickers for life.
Akers and Vinatieri, these guys are great guys, and they've been getting killed all
week 'cause our idiot ran his mouth.
If he is still a teammate, we'll deal with it, you know, that remains to be seen.
But the sad thing is, Lynn, he's a good kicker.
He's a good kicker.
But he's an idiot."
Peyton wound up apologizing too, and Dungy said they'd handle things internally going
forward.
Both players seemed like they just wanted to move on.
But that was not how this was gonna work.
The 2003 Colts opened the regular season against the Browns, ended at the last second with
a game winning field goal by Vanderjagt.
Manning said everything was great, and Vanderjagt insisted his status as a team member was solid.
Indianapolis kept winning, starting the season 6-1 when this ESPN: The Magazine cover came
out.
Yeah, that does indeed say BUTT.
The story inside said, well, kind of a lot.
It highlighted how much the "liquored up" part of Peyton's response really bugged
Vanderjagt - so much so that his family briefly considered suing Manning for slander.
Again, this is a lot of butt chatter.
It presented Vanderjagt as the kicker who didn't think of himself as just a kicker
and who teammates treated as something of a leader.
But the boldest claim this story offered was the central one: what if Vanderjagt's public
comments had woken up the Colts and actually helped them become a better team?
Manning was only quoted once in this story, and he was basically like "this isn't
a big deal, y'all media types are just bored."
Which is a very Peyton Manning approach!
What made this story so big at the time was that, after a lifetime of giving measured
comments and avoiding giving opponents bulletin board material, Peyton kind of snapped in
Hawaii.
It turned out Vanderjagt was NOT happy with this story, insisting he was misled by the
author regarding what the article would be about.
Dungy said the same thing, and Peyton was...not available for comment.
Though nobody claimed anything about the story was false.
Indy just kept winning in the meantime.
Peyton had one of his most productive years, and Vanderjagt finished the season perfect
- no missed extra points or field goals.
They both kept up that level of play in the postseason, as the Colts beat the Broncos
and the Chiefs to advance to the AFC Championship Game.
The weather sucked, Peyton struggled, and the Pats won, but this was still progress.
Manning went back to Hawaii for the Pro Bowl, and this time Vanderjagt got to go with him.
Did the media use this as an excuse to talk about what happened a year earlier?
Buddy, you KNOW they did.
Things were pretty calm throughout the '04 season - if you were talking about the Colts,
you were likely focused on the historic numbers Peyton was putting up.
Indianapolis opened the playoffs with a win over Denver to set up a rematch with New England.
I should point out that the Patriots had home field for this game in part because Vanderjagt
missed a 48 yard game-tying attempt when these two played each other in Week 1.
Anyways, Mike Vanderjagt felt like talking again, specifically about how the Patriots
weren't as good as they used to be and were "ripe for the picking."
Pats safety Rodney Harrison jumped all over that, reminding the world that this was the
same dude who had run his mouth about Peyton Manning and Tony Dungy.
Vanderjagt backed up his trash talk by accounting for every point the Colts scored.
By that I mean one field goal in a 20-3 loss, and he did not stick around to chat with the
press afterwards.
For Manning, the public boogeyman had shifted from "Peyton can't win in the playoffs"
to "Peyton can't beat Tom Brady."
But that changed in the 2005 season, when the Colts handled the Patriots in Foxboro.
Things got even better in the playoffs when Indianapolis got a bye, home-field advantage
guaranteed, and no New England to worry about after the Broncos knocked off the Pats.
And with time running out at home against the Steelers, all they needed was Mike Vanderjagt
to deliver to keep them alive and force overtime.
He gave them one of the worst misses of his career, and the idiot kicker label got trotted
out again, though this time in a very different context.
A few days later, Vanderjagt wound up on Letterman, attempting the exact same kick that had killed
the Colts' Super Bowl dreams.
And while he spoke in Manning's defense, this TV appearance didn't sit well with
some people in the organization.
So that became, weirdly, the last field goal attempt Mike Vanderjagt made in a Colts uniform.
His contract expired, and Indianapolis decided to sign his counterpart from New England,
Adam Vinatieri.
One of the first phone calls he got?
From Peyton Manning, naturally.
True to form, Vanderjagt didn't stay totally quiet about the organization on his way out
either.
But leaving the Colts didn't end the questions about the time the "idiot kicker" got
liquored up and trashed Peyton on TV.
The Colts traveled to Dallas that season, and in the week before the game, Peyton got
asked about Vanderjagt.
He did what you'd expect: offered praise and compliments to an opponent, because that's
what Peyton Manning usually does.
Vanderjagt declined to comment, though he'd already said he was looking forward to proving
some in Indianapolis wrong.
The Cowboys won, but Vanderjagt missed both of his field goal attempts that day, and about
a week later, he was cut.
Peyton Manning went on to win his first Super Bowl, with plenty of media pointing out how
clutch and non-troublesome Indy's new kicker was along the way.
And that was it for Mike Vanderjagt's career in the NFL, even though he was the career
leader in field goal percentage at the time.
Years later, he wouldn't say Manning's comments in 2003 had kept him from continuing
his career.
But he certainly wasn't pleased, and the drinking accusations still bugged him.
Looking back, it seems like what Mike Vanderjagt wanted was to be seen as more than a kicker,
to be respected as an equal.
He believed his accomplishments and devotion to winning merited that.
But the diamond earring and the magazine cover and the perfect season didn't change the
fact that the league has a hierarchy, and franchise quarterbacks from one of the NFL's
biggest families are damn near at the top of it.
Peyton Manning probably didn't think a few harsh words at a Pro Bowl would stick to Mike
Vanderjagt for years, but they did, stamped to every moment in which Vanderjagt stumbled
like an embarrassing tattoo.
Thanks for watching this episode of Beef History.
If you want to see another example of teammates clashing, only it goes way, way worse than
this, check out TO vs. Donovan McNabb.
If you're worried Beef History is bad for your soul, well, go watch Rewinder instead
and stay blessed!
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