If you find the pursuit of Peyton Manning exasperating, a full week after he was cut by the Colts, it could be worse.
You could be one of the teams trying to sign him to a contract.
A league source tells PFT that some of the suitors for his services are tiring of the process. As the source put it, at least two of the remaining teams in the chase are getting “worn out,” but they are putting up with it because the prize continues to be, well, getting Peyton Manning.
And while Peyton’s financial expectations always have been regarded as a secondary matter about which there would not be much debate once he knows where he wants to play, we’re told that money is a bigger factor than previously believed.
As a source with extensive experience negotiating NFL contracts pointed out Tuesday night (or was it Wednesday morning?), the fact that the pool of potential suitors shrunk from 12 to two or three and then grew to six as of Monday could be interpreted as a sign that, once the financial offers started to come in from teams like the Broncos, Cardinals, and Dolphins, the numbers weren’t where they needed to be -- so more teams needed to be brought to the party.
For now, the list of candidates is back to four. At some point by Friday at 4:00 p.m. ET, the Cardinals have to decide whether to pay Kevin Kolb another $7 million. And the Dolphins soon may have to see their current Plan B holding up a Brown jersey.
If/when one or more of the remaining teams decide to walk away, that will make it even harder to get the kind of financial package that Peyton wants from those that remain in the running.