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Every legend has an ending. Even Tom Brady will one day.
Now we know how the Philip Rivers era ends in Indianapolis. It wasn’t an era so much as a cameo, but the last glimpse was in the playoffs, with 309 yards and two touchdown passes. There are worse ways to go.
It brings to mind other notable last games in the state of Indiana, and how exits can come in many flavors.
◗ Reggie Miller’s closing-night fountain of youth
May 19, 2005. Retirement beckoned, but not without a final splash—scoring 27 points in a valiant losing effort against Detroit in Game 6 of the NBA playoffs. The 9,182nd and last field goal of his career? A 3-pointer, of course, only this Boom Baby was not a game-winner.
When Miller left the court with 15.7 seconds left, Detroit Coach Larry Brown called timeout to allow more minutes for ovation. Even the Pistons applauded. The same Pistons who precisely six months earlier had joined the Pacers in madness with the brawl in the Palace. “I wish I would have had more timeouts,” Brown said.
◗ The melancholy farewell of Gene Keady
March 10, 2005. There would be no stubborn last stand at the Big Ten tournament. Iowa rolled over Purdue in Chicago’s United Center, winning by 19 points—the sixth consecutive Boilermaker loss in a 7-21 record that was the worst in West Lafayette since 1953.
Keady had been eased out the door in his 25th season, with Matt Painter the coach-in-waiting. Most people understood, but still, it was poignant to see such a relentless winner and competitor as Keady admit at the end, “The magic things we had all those years didn’t work anymore.”
◗ The last game nobody saw coming
Jan. 12, 2019. Andrew Luck passed for 203 yards and a touchdown, but the Colts were no match in this second-round playoff for a rising star named Patrick Mahomes. By the way, he’ll be the one on the Super Bowl telecast next week. The Kansas City Chiefs rolled 31-13 in the snow at Arrowhead Stadium.
“Was not expecting it to end today,” Frank Reich said afterward. He meant the season, not his quarterback’s career. But both did.
◗ The last game everyone saw coming
Jan. 3, 2009. Tony Dungy was clearly pondering retirement, but maybe there could be one more rousing playoff sprint, with a surging Colts team that had won nine in a row and not lost since October. But the 12-4 overall record was good for only a wild card, so they had to visit the San Diego Chargers, a division winner with an 8-8 record. Indianapolis lost in overtime 23-17, when 5-foot-6 backup running back Darren Sproles piled up 326 total yards.
“We’ll pray about it,” Dungy said of his decision, but everyone could tell the rest of his life was calling.
◗ The final bow that lasted 10 seconds too long
Jan. 8, 2011. Peyton Manning had done it again: another game-winning drive to a field goal that gave the Colts a 16-14 lead over the New York Jets, with only 57 seconds left in a playoff game at Lucas Oil Stadium. Bring on the next round! Except the Jets used those 57 seconds to counter punch and deliver a knockout field goal as time ran out.
Manning had a good day—18-for-26, one touchdown—although pass-mate Reggie Wayne seemed a tad annoyed at getting only one ball thrown his direction. “I shouldn’t have even showed up,” he said afterward.
“It would have been a fun run,” Manning predicted of the playoffs. But there would be more, right? Wrong. Not in Indianapolis, anyway. The next pass he threw was as a Denver Bronco.
◗ The unfortunate postscript of Adam Vinatieri
Dec. 1, 2019. Nobody beats time forever. Vinatieri hit the wall in 2019, which should really just be a forgotten P.S. in a brilliant Hall-of-Fame career. His last field-goal attempt was blocked—his third failed try of the day—and a Tennessee Titan named Tye Smith returned it 63 yards for a touchdown, to clinch a 31-17 Colts loss.
The day Vinatieri kicked his first NFL field goal, Smith was 3 years old.
◗ The gloomy goodbye
March 17, 2000. The days before the 2000 NCAA Tournament had blown up in the face of the Indiana Hoosiers, when Sports Illustrated detailed charges of Bob Knight once choking former player Neil Reidin practice.
Game day was no joyride, either. No. Pepperdine, seeded 11th, opened with a 24-8 lead and steamrolled the sixth-seeded Hoosiers 77-57. IU’s leading scorer, A.J. Guyton, didn’t have a field goal. Second-leading scorer Kirk Haston was gone with a knee injury two minutes into the game.
It was natural to blame the media feeding frenzy, but in fact, a baffling tournament malaise had gripped Knight’s program. In seven years, the Hoosiers had gone 2-7 in March, losing by an average of more than 15 points a game. Six months later, Knight was fired in an ugly divorce.
◗ He was happy at Butler, but …
March 21, 2013. By the spring of ’13, Brad Stevens was so hot on the coaching job circuit, his resume seemed to have been microwaved. He kept repeating how he was happy with the Bulldogs and wasn’t going anywhere, except into the second round of the NCAA Tournament against Marquette.
That game was the kind of tight squeeze Butler had grown famous for surviving: the cuddly Cinderella who turned fierce at crunch time. Not this night. The Golden Eagles came from eight points down at halftime and won 74-72 in Lexington, with the Bulldogs unable to get much going on their last possession. Stevens mentioned afterward how the Butler replay that gets shown in March is invariably the two-point loss to Duke in the 2010 national championship game. “So we’ve been here before; we’ve lived it, and we’ll move on.”
And he meant move on. One day that summer, the Boston Celtics called.
◗ The epic moment that came out of a bowl
Jan. 1, 1979. The wind-chill factor was minus 6 degrees when Houston and Notre Dame met in a half-empty, frosted-over Cotton Bowl. By the third quarter, Houston led 34-12, and Irish quarterback Joe Montana was in the locker room with the effects of hypothermia, covered in blankets and sipping chicken soup.
Are there any Notre Dame fans who don’t know what happened next? A warmed-up Montana returned and led a rally that produced 23 points in eight minutes. Montana’s final Irish pass was an eight-yard touchdown to Kris Haines as time expired, to win it 35-34. In the huddle, Montana had asked Haines if he thought he could get open. Haines nodded yes. Montana smiled and said, “Let’s do it.”
He had thrown four interceptions, but as was so often with Montana, it’s what happened last that counted. The Chicken Soup Game, his Irish farewell, would forever be a pillar of his Notre Dame aura.
Every legend has an ending. Even Tom Brady will one day.•
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Lopresti is a lifelong resident of Richmond and a graduate of Ball State University. He was a columnist for USA Today and Gannett newspapers for 31 years; he covered 34 Final Fours, 30 Super Bowls, 32 World Series and 16 Olympics. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at mjl5853@aol.com.
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That’s a wonderful piece, Mike, as usual. Thanks so much.
Sometime when you are looking for something historical like this to write about, how about tracking the eventual career of the legendary coach Marvin Wood who led the Milan 1954 high school basketball team to the IHSAA State Championship?