EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Why was Reggie Wayne crying during the national anthem before his Indianapolis Colts turned MetLife Stadium into a fourth-quarter ghost town of gray empty seats Monday night in a not-as-close-as-it-sounds 40-24 demolition of the Giants?
“The life expectancy is three and a half years, and it’s been 14 years for me,” he said, referring to his N.F.L. career. “I’m just blessed to be out there. An old wise guy told me you shouldn’t hold back your tears.”
A younger wise guy later said of Wayne’s 40-yard catch and sprint for a third-quarter touchdown, “The old man’s still got some legs left in him.”
That, at least, was Andrew Luck, momentarily and atypically cracking wise on the 35-year-old Wayne, whose career was blessed by a decade-long partnership with Peyton Manning, endured a year of 2-14 misery when Manning was injured, and resumed consecration when Luck just happened to be on the draft board.
Fate smiled on the Colts as it has few other franchises in such a condensed period.
“I go to work every day just happy to have Andrew as a teammate, just as I was to have Peyton as a teammate,” Wayne said. He said he was blessed again, twice actually, so we better understood why it was enough to drive a man to tears.
He is blessed. The franchise is blessed, including the combustible Jim Irsay, at least as an N.F.L. owner, if not as a troubled man with the ability to leave headline making to his players. They are all blessed to have lucked into Luck in what was as opportune a superstar transition game as possible in the timing-is-everything industry of professional sports.
Yes, the Colts did make the prudent call in the 2012 draft, choosing Luck over the chronically limping Robert Griffin III, who went second to Washington, when it was not as obvious a decision as it would be now. But consider what their draft options would have been had Manning’s neck injury occurred one year later, when E. J. Manuel was the only quarterback taken in the first round (No. 16 by the Buffalo Bills) and the next one was Geno Smith, selected by the Jets in the second round (No. 39 over all, more on that momentarily).
In that case, Tim Tebow might have gotten another shot in Denver, Indianapolis would most likely still be Peyton’s place and Monday night could have been another one of those brotherly Manning matchups with Eli and the fading Giants.
We admire and extol the smart professional sports organizations but often underplay or ignore the element of chance in much of their success. The San Antonio Spurs have certainly earned widespread respect as a model N.B.A. franchise, but what if David Robinson had not missed all but six games of a 20-62 season in 1996-97 and the Spurs had not stumbled upon the first pick and Tim Duncan in the ensuing draft?
Who was the first choice the next season? The immortal Michael Olowokandi to Donald Sterling’s Los Angeles Clippers. Olowokandi went on to average 8.3 points and 6.8 rebounds over a nine-year career.
Shouldn’t the Spurs’ path to five titles be the wishful thinking of John Idzik, the Jets’ beleaguered general manager, or his possible successor after this disastrous season? The last thing the 1-8 Jets need is to rally around their lame-duck coach, Rex Ryan, as they did last year. A run for respectability would diminish the odds of landing Oregon’s Marcus Mariota or Florida State’s Jameis Winston, underclassmen projected, if available, to go in the top five picks of next year’s draft.
That’s how arbitrary this all can be, and that is why Luck and luck are as much a tandem in the Colts’ continued good fortune as any of the nine receivers with whom he shared 25 completions for 354 yards and four touchdowns against an injury-riddled Giants’ secondary that — among other problems — is wasting another year of Eli Manning’s prime. It was the seventh straight game Luck had thrown for over 300 yards and, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, the fifth straight time he had surpassed 350 on the road.
Far from Griffin, Luck has not missed any of his team’s 51 games, has the league’s most passing yards and touchdown throws this season and has repeatedly shown the ability to make big plays late, from behind. He hasn’t won a Super Bowl, as Seattle’s Russell Wilson has. But he is 25. Time is on his side, though the Colts’ defense raised a few doubts while surrendering 522 yards and six touchdown passes to Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers last week.
“We ask a lot of him,” Matt Hasselbeck, the Colts’ reserve quarterback, said of Luck. “He’s obviously a young player but playing like a mature guy.”
But not always.
Giants Replay: Week 9
CreditChang W. Lee/The New York Times
“He gave us all a heart attack with his underhand throw,” Hasselbeck said, referring to a third-quarter flip of a throwaway under pressure while virtually parallel to the ground. Spared an interception or a grounding penalty, Luck threw a touchdown pass to Wayne two plays later.
Luck’s timing often is that good, as shown when tight end Coby Fleener appeared to have fumbled after a sideline catch in front of Giants Coach Tom Coughlin early in the second quarter.
Before Coughlin could get his replay flag thrown, Luck was having the ball snapped and hitting Fleener on a 32-yard gallop to the end zone on the other side of the field.
Luck seems disinclined to publicly act impressed with himself, later confessing: “I don’t think I played very well. There were some plays that I messed up.”
He finished his postgame interview with: “I appreciate it, y’all. Safe travels.” He apologized — “excuse me, sorry” — when he bumped into a reporter in the locker room.
As bearded attractions go, Luck does not quite measure up to, say, basketball’s James Harden, nor does the hirsute look quite go with the Stanford-bred demeanor as the humble Manning heir. He is almost a little dull. But with a helmet strapped on, stepping back in the pocket with the ball, who really cares?