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Colts GM addresses problematic off-the-field season

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Colts management took to the podium at the NFL Scouting Combine Thursday.

Normally, free agency and the draft are the main subjects, and even though they did address them in generalities, it was Deflate Gate and the team’s recent off-the-field issues that took up most of their time.

The Colts have had a handful of problems – some arrests, some citations, and unexcused absences.

Coach Pagano says he just has to do a better job of telling his players what it means to wear the Horseshoe and to always remember you’re playing for the name on the back of the jersey.

General Manager Ryan Grigson also addressed the topic.

“You can’t have your whole roster littered with guys who have off-the-field stuff,” said Grigson. “But you also, at the same time, have to have football players that know how to play and produce and know how to play this game. So it’s a difficult balancing act but it’s my job to see to it.”

“Again, we apologize even to our fans and our loyal people here in Indy,” Grigson added. “We have guys that go off the reservation and make mistakes but we have roughly 63 guys, including the practice squad and so forth and guys that are on IR walking around. They all have free will. They could be model citizens one day and they do something silly. We’re all human, we make mistakes, and it’s hard to have such a definitive model to where you never give someone a second chance. I think that kind of goes against the whole mantra of what our coach talks about, what our organization speaks on and what we try to portray as a society. Everyone deserves a second chance, maybe not fifth and sixes.”

Grigson also admitted he brought the deflated football issue to the NFL before the AFC Championship game.

“We notified the league about our concerns,” he said. “We went into the game, we had some issues but we are going to do what we can and that’s to participate with the league and the investigation and wait until the Wells report comes out. We really have no other recourse than to wait until that investigation comes out.”