George Allen, a famous football genius who died almost 20 years ago, once famously said, "The future is now." For someone such as myself, whose limited mind forces me to "stick to the basics" every day, those words are among the lyrics to my personal heart song. I know I lean too heavily on the lessons we glean from sports, but, for me, athletics has always been one of my life's biggest classrooms. I adore what I still learn and the old truths I hold dear.

I have memorized, for instance, that "The more you practice the luckier you'll get" and, "You may meet an opponent who is bigger, faster and stronger, but, if you'll try with all your might, there is no way any one will ever be 'better' than you are!"

That kind of stuff fires my soul. It is my bedrock. So imagine how my emotions flared on Sunday afternoon when the Indianapolis Colts, in the worst way imaginable, lost the first game this season after 14 straight wins this fall. That the Jets won, 29-15, doesn't matter to me - I'm only a casual pro football fan - but that a cowardly coach named Jim Caldwell pulled his best players midway through the third quarter to "save" them for the impending playoffs flew directly in my face.

My goodness! What a sickening affront to any man or woman who ever admonished a child, "Be the best you can be." Sports may well be the classroom, but life is the game. There are no "gimmees," no "mulligans," a putt that will be called good if "it's in the leather." No, in life the rules are hard but fair, and, in a larger view, if you don't win, then you are – bingo! - a loser.

The Indianapolis Colts, on the very brink of "running the table," are suddenly "a loser" this week. They were riding a string that started the year before - 23 victories - but last Sunday the mighty Colts became the first team with a 14-1 record to ever leave a playing field under a blanket of steady boos and profane slurs.

One of many irate fans, one who paid his money for a ticket and watched the debacle in the freezing Indiana snow, tried to slough if off, saying "This team didn't lose it, the coach did." Sadly, that same fan must have never been told, "There are no asterisks on a championship trophy."

To be more specific, Indianapolis was up only 9-3 at the half, and then ahead 18-15 in Sunday's twilight, when the now-embattled Caldwell, who obviously has no concept for the ageless plea, "Win something today," pulled Peyton Manning and jerked other chagrined key players. The coach lamely claimed he wanted to "be ready" for the NFL playoffs that will begin after the Colts play at Buffalo this Sunday in the regular-season finale.

Caldwell, in his first year (and hopefully his last), subbed inexperienced players for his winners. The cost of stupidity is grave. The down-trodden Manning was so visibly crushed he wouldn't even remove his helmet. Meanwhile, the late Vince Lombardi was probably rolling over in his coffin. He's the one who said, "If winning isn't everything, why do they keep score?"

What Caldwell shamefully did was deny Manning, the best player in the NFL, and his scrappy teammates the chance to join four other teams in NFL Valhalla; the 1934 Chicago Bears (13-0), the 1942 Chicago Bears (11-0), the 1972 Miami Dolphins (14-0) and the 2007 New England Patriots (16-0). How would you like that on your resume?

Yes, Peyton, who is perhaps the most tireless worker in the NFL, became the fourth man in pro football history to pass for over 50,000 yards earlier in Sunday’s game, but only his grandchildren will ever talk about that. You see, the way it is with warriors is that they revel only in their victories when they gather; only lesser men speak of the Purple Hearts. Don’t ever forget, “Great games are won by teams, not individuals.” What was it the great Olympian Jesse Owens said? "Awards become corroded, friends gather no dust."

Much to his credit, the ever-loyal Manning refused to question Caldwell's stupendous blunder after the game, but others around the league who watched a fourth quarter so miserable it made you want to cry could only wonder what might have happened, at another time in space, if the bumbling Caldwell had tried the same stunt with Brett Farve (68,692 yards passing), Dan Marino (61,361) or John Elway (51,475) at the switch. Lord have mercy, you talk about a sideline ratta-tat-tat!

If you were to let your child out of the car some morning at elementary school and say, “It’s okay to miss a question or two on the spelling test, you’ll still get an A,” that comes close to child abuse in my opinion. Instead you say, “Make a 100 today!” It has often been said of Lombardi, “Not only did Coach Lombardi demand excellence, he expected it.”

Listen, pilgrim, are you going to visit a doctor when you are sick who dares to tell you, “Two out of 10 of my patients die, but, overall, I think I’m pretty good?” Are you kidding me! That’s when you switch physicians … forget cancer, a strep throat left unattended will kill a strong man, too.

Years ago I can vividly remember sitting in the coaches’ locker room with Johnny Majors after a Tennessee practice and if just one soul even dared to start, “Shoulda, woulda, coulda,” ole John would go nuts.

If anyone in the room even suggested overlooking the present opponent in order to focus on the far-bigger game that was to follow, John would leap to his feet, sputter just so, and shout from childhood memory the Bible verse, Matthew 6:34, “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof!”

I’ve seen him doing it 50 times. I memorized the words as well as the meaning years ago. John’s other timeless saying was, “Things are never as good as you think they are … but they are never as bad, either!” Still, his signature classic was the verse from The Gospel of Matthew.

Indianapolis Colts’ coach Jim Caldwell should get that verse tattooed on his chest. If he doesn’t, a thoroughbred named Peyton should soon ask to be traded because a Manning knows better than most, “The future is now.”

royexum@aol.com