Two years ago, the New England Patriots were two and a half minutes away from the NFL’s first ever 19-0 season. This year, the New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts were both three games away. Now, the hopes of a team going undefeated have faded yet again, this time with an even worse taste in the mouth of fans.

Colts fans have been irate for the past two days since the team basically decided that the long term health of their team was more important that a record. GM Bill Polian and coach Jim Caldwell decided to sit QB Peyton Manning and a number of other starters, and much to the anger of the Colt fans, the team fell for the first time in 2009.

The Colts have sat players in the past, but at the same time, it’s never come at a point where the team was undefeated with just two games left in the season. It has always come after the team had lost at least one game. Now fans are demanding a refund for having to watch preseason players play in a late-December game.

That’s the risk you take when you buy a ticket.

There’s always a chance that the best players may not play, but yes, fans today do have a reason to be upset with the Colts and their GM and coach deciding to take away history before it was decided like it should have been. History doesn’t come every day, and players like Manning and others can be hurt any day, any play.

The Colts fans deserved better, and it was a shame to see what could have been history taken out of their hands. Sure it will all be forgotten if the Colts raise the Lombardi Trophy on the first Sunday of February. But if they don’t, then isn’t it about time that teams realize that sitting players isn’t all it’s cracked up to be?