The Kansas City Chiefs got a dose of bad news last night when several sources reported that the Chiefs along with the Seattle Seahawks were out of the running for Peyton Manning's services. Instead, it was circulated that the Arizona Cardinals and the Denver Broncos were those teams he was considering the most, and that others like the Titans and Dolphins might or might not still be in it. The Titans, for that matter, were just getting started in their public interest.
But are the Chiefs really out of it? Remember that a lot of this is posturing and nothing came officially from Manning or his agent Tom Condon? Is this a publicity game? As Pro Football Talk noted via Twitter late last night/early this morning, "Also, as the Peyton chase approaches the finish line, we should expect some deliberate misinformation from the agents or teams."
The bottom line is that misinformation is the name of the game at this point -- it's like believing a team that says who they are interested in drafting. Managing the media is a part of this affair, and Manning is the biggest free agent to possibly ever hit the open market. Of course there is going to be media sway one way or the other and reporters will be used as toys in the game to land him.
For now, it's hard to believe much of anything unless someone from an official source connected with Manning publicly creates a list of teams in the running. Everything else could be a spin move.