Blog: Mike Chappell, The Dean of Colts reporters, is honored by the club, and nobody is more deserving

Our man "Chap" has spent 40 glorious (and sometimes not-so-glorious) years covering the team. A wonderful gesture by the organization.

We would be on the road somewhere, Mike Chappell eating his usual chicken fingers and Coors Light on ice, and we’d talk about the future.

Chap was insistent: “I’m retiring when Peyton retires,” he would say.

And then Peyton Manning was let go – it still sounds weird to say it – and Chap remained. Of course, he remained.

A few years later, we’d be on the road somewhere and Chap would say, “I’ll get through Andrew Luck’s career and call it a day.”

Luck retired early.

Chap remained. Of course, he remained.

Now, after a few years on the quarterback carousel, Chap and Anthony Richardson are joined at the hip. Mike is 73 now and honest to goodness, he’s going to outlast Richardson. Want to bet against it? Shoot, he might outlast Lucas Oil Stadium and its wonky retractable roof.

Wednesday was a great day at the Indiana Farm Bureau Football Center. On this day, the Colts named the press room the “Mike Chappell Media Room,” replete with a large plaque that you can see below. And nobody deserves it more. Chap has been the face and the conscience of Indy’s football media coverage for decades, a smart and gifted reporter with a big heart and an easy going manner that puts coaches and players at ease. Peyton taped a nice greeting. Edge, the same thing. It was lovely and it was moving and yes, it’s the first time I’ve ever seen Mike shed some tears.

His wife, his old friends from The Star, they all showed up to honor Mike, and it was perfect.

Physically, Chap is slowing down a bit. He uses a cane to get around. His body is starting to fall prey to the ravages of age. But he still shows up every day, asks the questions and gets the answers and works the locker room and does all the things he’s been doing for more than 40 years on the Colts beat. “This is my sanctuary,” he likes to say.

I’ve asked him why he doesn’t just hang it up, especially after nights like the one we had in Tampa in 2003 when Manning and the Colts overcame a 21-point deficit with less than five minutes remaining. That epic game was on the nastiest Monday Night Football deadline imaginable, and the whole narrative changed in the last five minutes plus overtime. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen me and Chap “sprinting” to and from the Colts post-game locker room.

“I don’t play golf,” he would say. “What am I going to do? I found something I enjoy doing and I’m semi-good at it.”

He’s more than semi-good. He’s the Dean. That’s what we call him, when we’re not calling him “Chap.” Nobody has done more, seen more. He knows where the bodies are buried.

The thing about Chap is, he’s a good, decent man. In a business populated by quirky people and big egos – hello, mirror -- Chap  is an Everyman. He’s only weird in one way: He hates vegetables. And he loves chicken fingers. In his honor, the Colts provided the media with Chick Fila for lunch. All he needed was a Coors Light with ice.

How long will he stay at the journalism game? I know this: He desperately wants to get Reggie Wayne and Adam Vinatieri into the Hall of Fame. In his role as a Hall of Fame voter in Indianapolis, Chap has been deputized to present their HOF cases, just as he’s done with so many Colts who have been inducted in the past. He busted his butt getting Edge in the Hall. He continues to sell Wayne, who has been close but hasn’t quite gotten over the hump.

I’m all about giving people their flowers while they can still appreciate the gesture. Mike is still kicking ass, still breaking stories, still The Dean. Nobody deserves this honor more.