Archie Manning seemed to make a pretty definitive statement on whether his son Peyton Manning and future number one draft pick Andrew Luck could play together, believing that it wouldn't work out if the two were on the same team.
"I don't think it'd necessarily be great for either one," he said then. "I think Andrew's the type of mature player . . . he can walk right in. I mean, these other three or four guys that are playing this year, (if) they can walk in and contribute, Andrew can, too."
Only a day later, Archie appears to have changed his tone.
"I'm sure they could," Archie Manning said in a phone interview Wednesday. "Andrew is a great young man and we've enjoyed getting to know him. He and Peyton have a friendship, and I'm one of the few people out there that's not really concerned about this deal. All good people respect each other and I'm sure this will all shake out."
It did seem rather odd that Archie would believe that his son couldn't get along with his potential heir apparent. Peyton has never come out and publicly supported Luck, but the two quarterbacks have ties going back years.
There could be some issues in place. Archie believes that his son will want to play next year, as will Luck. Clearly, they can't do that as starters if they're both on the same team. Also, Manning probably wasn't happy with his dad's comments as they would cause public issues he'd rather not deal with, regardless of his feelings on the matter. It's a situation that we might be talking about over and over until Draft Day 2012.
(HT Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk)
If you want to discuss the idea of Luck and Manning playing together, go to Stampede Blue.