Zak Keefer

zak.keefer@indystar.com

He went back to his first meeting with Jim Irsay, the day 18 years ago he looked his future team owner in the eye and told him, “I’ll win for you.” He laughed, thinking about his first three nights in Indianapolis after the 1998 NFL draft, spent at the now-defunct Signature Inn on West 38th Street. He mentioned his first-ever throw in an Indianapolis Colts uniform, a short slant over the middle that Marvin Harrison turned into a 48-yard touchdown. This NFL is easy, Peyton Manning told himself that day.

He just never treated it like it was.

On Friday, 11 days after Manning announced his retirement in Denver from the NFL after 18 spectacular seasons, the first 14 of which were spent in Indianapolis, Irsay and the Colts franchise honored the greatest player to ever wear the horseshoe. The statue is coming, outside of Lucas Oil Stadium, and the number is now forever retired. Irsay made it clear: No Colt will ever wear No. 18 again.

For Manning, it wasn’t as much goodbye – like it was four years ago after that emotional divorce – as it was a celebration. He smiled from start to finish. He laughed. He joked. Most of all, he reminisced.

“It was my honor and privilege to play for this organization for 14 years,” Manning said. “I’ll always be a Colt.”

He looked back on the city he arrived in 18 years ago and the transformation that followed, the football renaissance he piloted. The city’s former mayor, Greg Ballard, was on hand. The city’s current mayor, Joe Hogsett, was on hand. So was Colts coach Chuck Pagano, General Manager Ryan Grigson, Irsay’s three daughters and nearly the entire Colts’ organization. It spoke to Manning’s immeasurable impact. This was a special day for a special player.

“I just can’t say enough to what he’s meant to this franchise, this city, this state,” Irsay said. “You just run out of words thinking about how much No. 18 means to us."

Manning went back to 1998 and his first impressions of the city he molded from a hoops-and-racing hotbed to proud football town.

“It was basketball, basketball, basketball, and it was car racing, car racing, car racing,” Manning said of Indianapolis. “Football was probably in that third priority. That’s simply no longer the case. This is a football town, and it’s as good a football town as any.”

Indeed. It all started with No. 18.

And this was Irsay’s chance to say thank you.

In appreciation of Peyton Manning

“It was always strange watching 18 out there without the horseshoe on his helmet,” Irsay said of Manning’s four seasons in Denver, the last of which culminated in a Super Bowl triumph last month. “I think I speak for all Colts fans when I say, ‘He’s ours.’ ”

Manning touched on so many of the moments and people that made his 14 years in Indianapolis memorable. He remembered coming in on his off days as a rookie and throwing out routes to an equipment manager. He remembered Colts fans packing the old RCA Dome in their jerseys — and how loud it got in there. He remembered calling the team headquarters (297-COLT) and hoping he’d get put on hold so he could hear radio highlights from play-by-play man Bob Lamey.

He remembered Tony Dungy’s calm in the 2006 AFC title game, when the Colts were trailing New England 21-6 in the second quarter. “We’re fine,” Dungy told him. “We are fine.” He remembered the celebration in Indianapolis a few hours later after he won the biggest game of his life.

He remembered the Monday night miracle in Tampa Bay in 2003 — the Colts overcame a 21-point deficit with 5 minutes left to win in overtime — and the emails he received the next morning from friends who’d gone to bed, thinking the Colts had lost. “Better luck next week,” they wrote.

He remembered arguing with Jeff Saturday and Tarik Glenn on the sideline, and “watching (Robert) Mathis and (Dwight) Freeney speed up the field and Bob Sanders torpedo a guy in the back” and how much fun it was to play football with Harrison and Reggie Wayne and Edgerrin James and Brandon Stokely and Dallas Clark.

“Such a special group,” Manning said. “And everybody knew how special it was.”

It was his first trip back to the Colts’ West 56th Street facility in four years. And it couldn’t have been more different than that tearful, painful goodbye Manning was forced to give in 2012, the day after he was cut by the only franchise he’d ever known. That day, Manning made it all of nine words before his voice began to crack. On Friday his words slowed only twice — when he spoke of his affection for Colts’ fans and his former teammates. He wore a Colts’ pin on his suit, met with the quarterback who took his job, Andrew Luck, and smiled for a photo. He said “Thank you” more times than he could count.

There will never be another Peyton Manning

He said he doesn’t know what comes next. Broadcasting? Coaching? Front office? Ownership? (What we do know: He’s not running for president. Yes, he was asked about it Friday.) He said he plans on enjoying retirement. He’s going to watch his brother, Eli, play more often. He’s going to spend a few more Saturdays in Knoxville, Tenn., cheering on his Tennessee Volunteers.

And as for that first Sunday without football — how will he feel when it truly hits him there are no games left to play?

“I can’t tell you the exact answer, but I have a feeling I’ll be OK,” he said. “I did not get shorted, football-wise, in my 25 years (going back to high school). I have no regrets because I worked so hard and prepared so hard. You cannot say I was shorted.”

No. You can’t. He’ll leave the game he poured himself into for 18 NFL seasons with the most passing yards and touchdowns in history, and as the only quarterback in history to win 200 games. He’ll leave on top, a Super Bowl champion once again, his imprint on this city and state unquestioned and unrivaled.

Now he leaves it with a proper and fitting farewell from the franchise he forever changed.

Call IndyStar reporter Zak Keefer at (317) 444-6134. Follow him on Twitter: @zkeefer.