NFL: Super Bowl XLIV-Indianapolis Colts Media Day

As some of us continue to recover from the devastating heartbreak that was Super Bowl XLIV, we Colts fans finally have good news to help lift our spirits as we continue to work towards the 2010 season.

The most important free agent not named Gary Brackett, has officially been pimp-slapped with a first round tender.  While this is great news and all but guarantees Bethea will be wearing a Colts uniform for at least one more season, he’s still not untouchable.  Another team could pull a real dick move and offer him some insane contract, thereby forcing the Colts to decline any type of offer that would match outbid the opposing team.  If that were to happen and the Colts decided to match the insane contract, you can kiss Gary Brackett goodbye.  There’s no way both of those guys are going to get major contracts this season, thus the first round tender.

The likelihood of something like this happen is closer to none, but it’s still possible.

What we can decipher from the type of tender the Colts placed on Bethea is that the Colts, like many of us fans, believe Bethea is a valuable asset to this defense — which is an extreme understatement in my opinion.  Bethea to me is the glue that holds the entire defense together.  He’s not a very vocal person, and he’s not a captain, but he shows up for work everyday and does his job quite well.  What more can you ask for in a guy?  Bethea represents the Colts organization just as much as any other player on the team, so it’s great to see that he’s staying in Indy first off, and secondly, he’s finally getting paid what he’s worth, at least for this season.

As for some perspective into why they tendered Bethea instead of just offering him a contract, well that’s simple really; the Colts are working on locking Brackett up for now, Bethea comes next season.  If they had to juggle two major contracts in the same offseason it’d just be too much to deal with and something would get screwed up.  This is clearly the best route to take to ensure that these key players stay with the Colts.