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The Indianapolis Colts fired their head coach today. Within a few hours, they named Jeff Saturday the replacement, who was Manning's center for a long time. He replaces Frank Reich as interim head coach.
He and the quarterback used to argue often, as competitors do. They routinely got into discussions on the sidelines. One of those arguments got fairly heated and nearly resulted in a mid-game fight between teammates in 2006, the year they went to the Super Bowl.
Manning yelled at his center:
“Hey! Quit calling the f**king plays, alright? ... We’ll run the f**king ball!... When we call pass plays, block!"
The conversation went on for much more than that, but much of it was expletives or unintelligible yelling. Manning didn't realize that his verbal assault on Saturday would be picked up by microphones because he forgot he was mic'd up. Manning later admitted:
"I was totally outmatched. You know, size, strength, you name it."
Saturday added that the scuffle, which lasted a little while on the sidelines, went away as soon as it was over:
"The minute it was done, it's done for both of us."
The two reconciled instantly and continued to play well for the rest of the game and the rest of their careers together. But the newest head coach of the Colts will never forget his near-fight with a Hall of Fame quarterback.
Why did the Colts hire Jeff Saturday?
Following a poor showing Sunday against the New England Patriots, something had to change. If the playoffs were expected and a new quarterback was brought in, a 3-5-1 record through nine weeks won't cut it.
Unfortunately, that spelled the end for Reich, who had coached since 2018 following his Super Bowl win as offensive coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Colts turned to their former center, who was not a member of the team prior. In fact, he wasn't a member of any team. He made the switch from being an NFL analyst with ESPN to taking over as interim head coach.
Very few head coaches have made such a transition, and even fewer have done so with the lack of NFL coaching experience that Saturday has. However, he's been a big part of the team for a long time, and they're repaying that with a huge opportunity.
