Colts Polian not carbon copy of his father - Ingles

If Chris Polian runs the Indianaplois Colts as well as his father has all these years, we won't really notice there has been a changing of the guard atop the team's organizational chart.

If Polian the Younger follows the blueprint established by Bill Polian, if he sticks by the same core philosophies and beliefs, Chris' Colts will look and play a whole lot like Bill's Colts.

Which is what the new man in charge, Chris Polian, largely plans to do. He may not be his father, but he's his father's son. And his father merely ranks as the greatest front-office football architect who ever lived.

"I think you've got to be yourself," Chris Polian, the Colts' general manager, said after the Tuesday morning practice. "You can't be somebody you aren't. You always try to learn and grow from your own mistakes and watching things. One of the things (team owner) Mr. (Jim) Irsay told me was, 'Do it how you want to do it, but learn the good and the bad from what you've been around.'

"But the system and the process is always going to be rooted in the same foundation. It'll be tweaked on a year-to-year basis, but we'll always understand the wheel is round and we're not going to re-invent the wheel."

Doesn't that make sense? Smart people know when change is needed, but more, they know when it's not needed. Chris Polian is not in any rush to put his unique imprint on this organization, at least not in the near term.
He has made some subtle adjustments, done some front-office and coaching-staff tweaking, and that will continue as circumstances change from year to year. He hasn't made any loud or audacious changes, not at this early juncture.

They're the same old Colts -- and that's a good thing.

Still maintaining the same draft structure and philosophy that has served them so well this past decade.

Still signing and keeping their own free agents.

Still resisting the temptation to take the plunge into big-dollar free agency. (Jamaal Anderson, Tommie Harris and Ernie Sims are all low-risk, low-budget pick-ups.)

Still doing all the things that produced two Super Bowl appearances, one Super Bowl title, seven straight 12-plus win seasons and an injury-marred 10-win season last year.

I asked him Tuesday what he has taken from his father, who is now the team's vice chairman.

He talked about believing in the process -- a general team-building process -- that worked so well for his father in Buffalo, then Carolina, then here.

"The one thing you want out of the process is to lend you perspective and patience -- which this business doesn't lend itself to necessarily," he said. "Being process-oriented also helps you remove the emotion sometimes, which is vitally important. Then if you build into that process the right checks and balances, different opinions, people playing devil's advocate, that should help you make the right decisions."

I also asked him if, and how, he will be different than his father.

He had no interest in answering that one.

Already, though, there is a sense this will be a somewhat kinder, gentler franchise under Chris Polian -- although it's still early, and I haven't written anything yet to enrage him. It's no secret, Bill Polian had absolutely no use for the media, and especially the local media. But with Chris so far, the team has been more media-friendly and less contentious.

That's not a reflection of Craig Kelley, the longtime media relations man who was reassigned this year; he was simply doing what he was told by a demanding and often difficult boss. It's just to say that the new media-relations staff, which has been very accommodating, has been blessed to work for a Polian who seems to have a more enlightened and modern view of the media's role.

What does that mean for fans who care only about wins and losses?

Absolutely nothing.

But it rates as an early sign that as much as it will be business as usual with the Colts, there will be some changes.

In many ways, the Bill-to-Chris transition is not very different than the Tony Dungy-to-Jim Caldwell change. The third-year coach is more similar to Dungy than he is different, and he's more than happy to embrace those similarities.

"Chris is his own man," Caldwell said. "He has his own personality, the way he deals with issues. Obviously there are lots of similarities (to Bill), but it's akin to what happened with Tony and I. We have the same system, the same core beliefs in what we do, but there are little things that are different."

Chris Polian is coming along at a particularly challenging moment in the franchise's history. The window of opportunity truly is closing on this team. Quarterback Peyton Manning just signed a contract for what figures to be his final five years, and mainstays Jeff Saturday, Ryan Diem, Reggie Wayne and Robert Mathis are all in the final year of their deals.

He needs to build for now, to get this team to another Super Bowl. He needs to build a team that will be somewhat less reliant on Manning as he enters his late 30s, a team that can win with a running game and defense. And -- gasp -- he eventually needs to find Manning's successor when the dreaded day finally comes.

He also is taking over at the back end of a lockout, which will slow rookie development and impede everyone's efforts to build depth with younger players.

For now, though, he is largely sticking to the script. This team is still built around Manning and nine other highly-paid stars who account for the vast majority of the payroll.

"For now, in terms of seeing a dramatic philosophical change, the train is too far down the tracks," he said.

This quiet changing-of-the-guard has been in the works for years. Bill Polian has incrementally increased Chris' workload and responsibilities. This year, Bill has stepped away some, hanging around simply to help with the transition, work with the organization through the post-lockout period, and to provide his son and his staff with a sounding board.

What will Polian the Elder's role be?

"Whatever he wants to do," Chris said with a smile. "Whenever he wants to do it."

The kid has learned from the best. And he's smart enough to know, the wheel is still round. This article was written by Bob Kravitz and appeared in The Indianapolis Star.