Reggie Wayne stands alone with 209 games, 142 wins

The chorus reverberated from inside the locker room, loud enough for the echoes to bounce around the bottom floor of Lucas Oil Stadium.

"Reg-gie, Reg-gie, Reg-gie!"

This was a jubilant locker room, one packed with players dancing and shouting and basking in the glow of a well-earned triumph, the very first goal these Indianapolis Colts laid out 144 days ago on a Wednesday night at Anderson University. Nearly four months later, they're division champs, again. Playoff-bound, again. Ten-game winners, again.

But this day belonged to one man and his milestone. Chuck Pagano wanted to make certain of it, so he silenced his troops for a victory speech and gave his only game ball to a 36-year-old receiver who had four catches for all of 24 yards.

"If I had a son," Pagano told his team, "this is the guy I'd want him to be like."

"I don't have to say anything, anything," owner Jim Irsay added. "Because you know what this man means to this organization, this city, this team, to you guys."
His teammates answered: "Reg-gie, Reg-gie, Reg-gie!"

Four catches for 24 yards in this 17-10 win over the Texans aren't the numbers that matter, not on this day. Sunday was about 209 games played. About 142 wins. About one Reggie Wayne.

"He embodies everything that we talk about," Pagano said. "He represents everything that Mr. Irsay talks about: Faith, family and football. Resiliency, team player, puts the team first, self second. What he's sacrificed, what he's given this organization, what he's given to this city and this community, he's one of the all-timers."

It's been nearly a decade and a half since a wide-eyed rookie out of Miami — dubbed 'Plan B' after he was taken in the first round of the NFL Draft when the Colts originally sought a defensive tackle — first stepped foot on the field with Peyton Manning, Edgerrin James and Marvin Harrison. Hundreds more have worn the horseshoe in the years since. Wayne has remained the constant, a bedrock of stability and production.

Now, he stands alone in franchise lore.

Now, no Colt has played in more games.

Now, no Colt has won more games.

"I remember the first time," Wayne said, looking back on his first game with the Colts. That was on September 23, 2001. That was 4,830 days ago.

"It feels like yesterday, but at the same time, it feels like it's been forever."

Sunday also marked a return to form for the aging wideout. It was a week ago he sat on the team bus as it rolled out of Cleveland's First Energy Stadium, the Colts 25-24 winners, Wayne nonetheless appalled at his afternoon. Enough was enough, he told himself, disgusted after he staggered through nothing short of the worst outing of his professional career.

Eight targets. One catch. Three drops.

That wasn't Reggie Wayne.

"I just basically told myself, if I'm going down, I'm going to go down being me," he said.

Wayne had audibled his trusty routine of late, taking an extra day off during the week to heal his aging body and slipping on an arm brace to safeguard a partially-torn left triceps.

Whatever the cause, his play suffered. And sitting on the team bus in Cleveland after another dismal showing, he knew. Knew that wasn't Reggie Wayne.

"Getting a day of rest and all of that, that was never me," said Wayne, who during one stretch of his career went seven years without missing a single practice. "Playing with that big ol' J.J. Watt brace, that wasn't me. If I'm going to go down, I'm going to go down being me. Just give me the cello and I'm going to play the tune.

"I'm not going to do anything that I'm not used to anymore, so it's Reggie of 2001."

Reggie of 2001? Probably not. But Wayne was Wayne this week, teammates said. Every snap. Every practice. Staying after to catch balls, the sort of solitary slog that kept him in this league for 14 long seasons when the average career spans 3.5.

"He didn't do anything extra, because he's always doing something extra," left tackle Anthony Castonzo said.

"He carries himself in such a way that it doesn't show," offered receiver Hakeem Nicks. "He's a pro and he practices like it every day. He knows what he's capable of doing. We know what he's capable of doing."

He practiced every day this week, swapped the elbow brace for an elbow sleeve and caught four passes on five targets. He also drew two downfield penalties on the defense. Most important, he helped the Colts to their 12th playoff appearance in his 14 seasons here.

Wayne speaks and sounds like he's come to grips with the fact that he's amidst the sunset of his stellar career. Ask him about retirement, he talks family. Ask him if he thought Sunday was his final regular-season home game, he talks team.

"I've been down this road before, playing against the same team on a Thursday night three years ago," Wayne says of the 2011 season in which he nearly left in free agency. "That feeling was going through my head the whole game and I wasn't really able to focus on the game so (today) I just said I'm going to put it in God's hands, play the game the way it's supposed to be played and at the end of the season, we'll see what happens."

When will it happen? Wayne vows he doesn't know, says he'd doesn't have time to sit back and think about what 209 means to him or whether this is it. There's a season to finish. There's a playoff game to ready for.

Not until the season is over, he says, is he able to properly put things into perspective. That's when he packs his car and heads for the sun of South Beach, putting the season behind him and pondering what's next.

"That's when I'm sitting back on I-75 and I'm thinking about what we just achieved, how we can get better," he said before adding one last thing. "And what the future holds."


(indystar.com)