Was Last Night the End of Reggie Wayne’s Career?
By Peter Smith
The Indianapolis Colts won a huge game against the Denver Broncos last night that meant a little more than just the result on the field. The win appears to have come at a substantial cost though as reports are that wide receiver Reggie Wayne tore his ACL in an awkward landing last night. Andrew Luck had an uncharacteristically inaccurate pass that forced Wayne to make a difficult adjustment and in doing so, he came down badly on his leg and he went down immediately. On the sideline, he was furious and pounding the bench as doctors evaluated him and he was inconsolable as he left the field. Not only is this an absolute shame for Wayne as it might be the end of what should be a Hall of Fame career.
Wayne was in great shape for 28, let alone 34 years old and for all of the talk that Tony Gonzalez gets and deserves for his remarkable consistency at his age, Wayne has been that type of player in relative anonymity in Indianapolis. Even at 34, Wayne was the Colts leading receiver and Luck’s favorite target. He led the team in targets with 58 and catches with 38. The second receiver on the Colts is T.Y. Hilton who has had 27 catches on 54 targets and Hilton, while being an extremely talented option, works off of what Wayne can do underneath and works as a big play threat.
Wayne led the team with 8 catches of 20+ yards, had the most yards after the catch with 162 and had 28 first downs, which are all far and away the most on the team. He has been playing so well that people forgot he was 34 years old, but not only is he 34, but turns 35 in less than a month and is now battling an ACL tear.
As great as Wayne has been, Father Time is undefeated and while he could work hard to come back from the injury and come back for another season, this game might have been the last game from Wayne. If it is, Wayne finishes his career as a model of consistency and should end up with a bust in Canton someday as he was able to catch 1,006 catches for 13,566 and 80 touchdowns in 196 games, all with the Colts and in between his first and last season, he had 12 years where he never missed a game.