Turning Pages of ‘100 Things Colts Fans:’ ‘You kiddin’ me?! Playoffs?!’

As his NFL coaching career neared an end, frustration manifested into Jim Mora’s most famous soundbite. Years later, anyone uttering the word “playoffs” evokes memories of the Indianapolis Colts coach.

Years pass and perspectives can change, but absolutes remain when remembering how Indianapolis Colts coach Jim Mora went off in 2001.

First things first, Mora has been adamant that his “Playoffs?!” eruption wasn’t a rant. It sure sounded like one, but he saw his post-game interview as speaking the truth about ongoing issues with the team.

“The guy asked me a question and I responded,” Mora said in a 2013 interview for Chapter 24 in 100 Things Colts Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die (Triumph Books). “But it caught on. I can be walking down the street and somebody will bring it up to this day.”

Mora was frustrated by quarterback Peyton Manning turning the ball over. The quarterback had four interceptions, one returned for a touchdown, and three of those picks while in scoring position as the Colts lost 40-21 at home to San Francisco, whose defensive coordinator was Mora’s son, Jim L.

Mora was more upset about an ongoing feud with Colts president Bill Polian, who blamed the team’s demise on a bad defense. Manning took chances because one of the worst defenses in team history couldn’t be trusted.

The Colts had just lost their third consecutive game to fall to 4-6 in what would be a five-game losing streak that eliminated the team from playoff contention. Mora was visibly agitated when he walked into the RCA Dome interview room on Nov. 25, 2001.

“Well, I’ll start off by saying this. Do not blame that game on the defense, OK?” he said.

When WRTV-6’s Tim Bragg, asked about the Colts playoff chances, well, the rest is history.

“What’s that?” Mora said, stunned. “Ah – Playoffs?! Don’t talk about – playoffs?! You kiddin’ me?! Playoffs?! I just hope we and win a game! Another game!”

Mora vented about Manning’s interceptions.

“We threw that game,” he said. “We gave it away by doing that. We gave ’em the friggin’ game. In my opinion, that sucked.”

Bob Kravitz, former columnist at The Indianapolis Star, saw the big picture.

“The underpinning of it was Mora walked into that press conference already pissed off that Bill Polian had spent the previous two weeks ripping Vic Fangio and the defense and kept kissing Peyton Manning’s ass,” Kravitz said. “Jim was just loaded for bear.

“After the press conference, I was walking back to the locker room and Jim grabbed me. We went back into a little room. ‘Tell me, Bobby, did I say anything that wasn’t 100 percent true?’” Kravitz recalled Mora saying.

Mora wasn’t talking about the sound bite everyone else would be.

“He wasn’t even thinking about the playoffs quote,” Kravitz said. “He was talking about poking the bear, No. 18, Peyton.”

Manning took exception to being called out by Mora, first in front of the team in the locker room and then in the postgame presser. The quarterback responded in a teleconference with Baltimore media and then in an interview with The Star later in the week.

“He and I have had one-on-one talks before where he’s gotten on me,” Manning told The Star. “I have no problem with that. It’s just that it was national television.”

Bragg, aware of Mora’s history for blowing off steam in post-game pressers as the New Orleans Saints coach, sensed what was coming.

In retrospect, Bragg would concede a dozen years later, “It really wasn’t a shock that he went off like that.”

Bragg eventually left the media profession to become a teacher. But friends reminded him of his “playoffs” role in text messages.

“I get a kick out of it,” he said.

The Mora soundbite took on a life of its own, including a 2006 Coors Light commercial, when the outburst was used in a re-staged presser with party-hearty men acting intimidated. The coach might have had the last laugh on that one. While the hype bothered him at first, he evidently mellowed about it enough to accept a Coors Light paycheck.

“Those Coors commercials, they were great,” Mora said.

Mora’s son, Jim L., had some fun with it, too. While Seattle’s head coach in 2009, the younger Mora said his offspring impersonated their grandfather.

“He gets a kick out of it, especially when his grandsons do it,” Jim L. said. “I put my 6-year-old on the phone with him two years ago and he had it down perfect. I think that kind of lightened the moment for him. It was funny.”

Mora’s refusal to fire Vic Fangio and two other assistants prompted Polian to fire him. Mora never coached again. He and his wife, Connie, built their dream home in the Canyon View area of Ironwood Country Club in Palm Desert, Calif.

His affinity for golf included playing country club tournaments. One year, he and partner Rick Bay, a former college athletic director, ended up tied with another team for the low net score.

“We’re standing there watching the scores on the board,” Mora said. “And someone comes out and says, ‘We’ve got to have a playoff.’”

There was that word again.

“All the people start laughing and are saying, ‘Playoffs?! Playoffs?!’” Mora said. “Even I was laughing. It was funny. I’m sure when I die, I’ll be known for that.”

(Phillip B. Wilson has covered the Indianapolis Colts for more than two decades and authored the 2013 book 100 Things Colts Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die. He’s on Twitter @pwilson24, on Facebook at @allcoltswithphilb and @100thingscoltsfans, and his email is phillipbwilson24@yahoo.com.)