Rodney Harrison: Patriots clearly superior to Colts as AFC favorites

Former Patriot and current TV analyst Rodney Harrison claims that New England out-classes Indianapolis when it comes to current AFC supremacy.

Over the course of his 15-year career, Rodney Harrison had plenty of opportunities to compete against some of the best teams in the AFC. He spent nine seasons with the San Diego Chargers and then six more seasons with the New England Patriots, the latter of which he won two Super Bowl championships with.

Back then in the fledgling days of New England’s incredible 20-year sports dynasty, the battle for conference supremacy almost always came down to the same two teams: Tom Brady’s Patriots or Peyton Manning’s Colts. To date, Indianapolis has played more games against New England than any of the other 30 NFL teams – including the three in their own division.

All this is to say that back in Harrison’s day, the acrimony and bitterness of the rivalry between the Colts and the Patriots was a very real, very potent thing. Since Manning joined the Denver Broncos and then later retired altogether, the rivalry has been fairly tame and incredibly one-sided, with the Colts having lost six straight games to the Patriots – twice in the playoffs – by a combined margin of 261-124.

Buoyed by the return of a healthy Andrew Luck, a revamped defense, and a finally-competent offensive line, the Colts are once again seemingly poised to make some noise again in NFL circles, and have become a trendy pick this offseason as a potential spoiler to an AFC Championship Game rematch between the Patriots and the Kansas City Chiefs.

Just don’t tell Rodney Harrison, because he’s not buying it.

The retired safety, who now works as a television analyst for NBC’s Sunday Night Football, was inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame Monday. Some naive reporter was foolish enough to suggest that the Colts might actually be the team to beat this season, and did Harrison have any comment on that notion.

You better believe he did. Here’s what he said, per NESN’s Zack Cox:

"“Everyone’s talking about the Colts. You think I’m taking Andrew Luck over Tom Brady? You think I’m taking that young, inexperienced team that went into Kansas City and got their butts kicked? No. The Patriots went up there and did their thing. I’m taking the veteran-laced team with the best quarterback — I don’t care what they say on TV — with the best general manager and head coach in Coach Bill Belichick. There’s no reason (they can’t win). The only thing that can stop them is complacency.”"

Jeez, Rodney… tell us how you really feel.