Posted: 10:54 AM Mar 7, 2012

INDIANAPOLIS - Future Hall-of-Fame quarterback Peyton Manning will not be an Indianapolis Colt this coming NFL season. At a news conference this morning, Manning appeared with team owner Jim Irsay.

The two men said they had long discussions on how they could move forward with Manning still with the franchise, but that there were just too many questions that couldn't be answered, and that led them to the decision to part ways.

"It's a difficult day here of shared pain between Peyton, myself, the fans, everyone. I think in that vein as well, the 18 jersey will never be worn again by a Colt on the field." said Irsay. "We always kept trying to come back to the circumstances that were before us. And we tried to put each other in each others shoes, and tried to realize what the situation was for the franchise, what it was for Peyton, and in the end those circumstances were too difficult to overcome."

Peyton Manning said he always wanted to remain a Colt. "Well, I don't want to retire. And no, I don't feel like I have anything to prove. Nobody loves their job more than I do. And nobody loves playing quarterback more than I do. And I still want to play. But there's no other team I ever wanted to play for. This is... nobody's had it better than I have playing for the Indianapolis Colts these 14 years. I can't say how thankful and how fortunate to have played here, but I love playing quarterback."

The 35-year-old Manning will become a free agent, and there is expected be interest from a half-dozen or so NFL clubs, provided he's healthy. Manning is coming off a series of operations to his neck and missed all of last season.

Indianapolis needed to cut him this week to avoid paying him a $28 million bonus. The Colts are widely expected to begin moving on by taking Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck with the No. 1 overall pick in April's draft.

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