The Indianapolis Star’s Bob Kravitz on a battle of The Over-Exposed Vs. The Over-Exposed.

On Thursday at the Colts facility, reporters were having their usual conversation with Manning when he casually said that “Monday Night Football” “isn’t what it used to be.” At that point, one of the pointy-headed journalists (myself included) should have asked the obvious follow-up question: “Um, why do you say that?”

I called Craig Kelley, the Colts’ spokesman, and asked if he could check with Peyton. Was Manning saying that “MNF” had lost its luster because of the proliferation of non-Sunday-afternoon games, that it was not quite the novelty we remember as kids when “MNF” was to Mondays what “Saturday Night Live” was to Saturdays? Or, was he taking a semi-veiled shot at the broadcasters, or, um, one of the broadcasters?

Kelley called back about 90 minutes later to say he talked to Manning, and all Peyton meant was that “MNF” wasn’t the novelty it used to be.

Then I stumbled across the transcripts of Manning’s Thursday teleconference with Jacksonville’s media, during which he was asked about watching his brother Eli play the previous Monday night against Atlanta.

“I enjoyed watching (Eli) play on Monday night because I got a chance to see him play live on TV, and being able to watch the game in mute,” Peyton said. “Because it’s an easier way to watch the game than hear some of those broadcasters.”

“Yeah, it’s probably me,” Tony Kornheiser said by phone Saturday, moments before walking into production meetings with Manning and the rest of the Colts. “I’m sure it was the heads-on-sticks segment I did before the game. You think that upset him? Really? I thought it was very funny. I think most people thought it was hysterical. That wasn’t me saying those funny, mean things about Peyton. That was Eli. That’s the whole idea behind heads-on-sticks.”