Eleven Warriors

No confidence in Manning?

It's been a little over a day since the news hit and many of us are still wondering why Quinn Pitcock did decide to retire from the Colts.

After notifying the Colts of his intention not to report for the start of camp, Monday's speculation was that he had lost his desire to play football.

After his agent officially notified the team of his retirement in vague terms, he was unavailable for comment and the Indy press still have no idea why he walked away. Phil Wilson of the Indianapolis Star's would only venture the following:

Until I hear differently, the only speculative guess I will make is that Pitcock made some money and decided to go a different path with his life.

Quinn appeared to be a pretty bright guy, having considered Duke as a destination in high school -- he even listed working with computers as a hobby (which is pretty much like finding a four-leaf clover in a media guide). Maybe he earned just enough to buy equity in a company like Cuil or PowerSet and has this master plan (okay, scratch Cuil). Or maybe he just wanted to be able to walk pain-free when he was 40.

If that's the plan, he doesn't exactly have to be Warren Buffet, but he'll have to be smart with his money. He probably earned in the $300-$400k range his rookie season and he did secure a $436,500 signing bonus, but Colts president Bill Polian said the team plans to try to recover two-thirds of that bonus. That leaves about $500k when it's all said and done. Not chump change by any stretch, but not exactly enough money to set you up for life these days, either.

Whatever the reason, we have to respect it. How many of us have hated a job we've held? As to his future -- is it too early to start the Pitcock for graduate assistant campaign?

The Big Ten has decided not to renew the contract of referee and family guy star Cleveland Brown Steve Pamon. After his crew blew big calls in back-to-back games, including the non-fumble that was in the Illinois game, Rivals uncovered some unsavory tidbits from his past and the writing was pretty much on the wall. His blown call against the Buckeyes ultimately didn't matter -- but maybe the added swagger of being undefeated heading into the MNC is worth at least a Spitler finger-tip on the ball?

More nuggets are starting to filter out from the Big Ten media days last week including this tale of Tressel deftly side-stepping a question about the '08 election while in an elevator with fans. (Note that this is not an invitation to discuss said election on this blog -- unless you're advocating for a Whig party candidate, that is.)

WhatIfSports has simulated every 2008 matchup 100 times to "deterministically evaluate all teams to come up with the best possible ranking of how every team compares to every other team" and their computers seem to love the Buckeyes. Means nothing of course, but I'll take that 48.9 PF/GM and 7.6 PA/GM anytime. Georgia, Oklahoma, LSU (their code must be missing the PerrillouxMeltDown routine) and USC round out the top five.