Don Shula can rest easy tonight...

Don Shula can rest easy tonight.

He can thank Indianapolis Colts' head football coach Jim Caldwell for the quiet, rest full sleep he'll get this evening. Caldwell decided to pull the plug late in the third quarter of today's NFL game against the New York Jets (8-7) in Indianapolis and rest his star quarterback Peyton Manning.

 he result: The Colts lose 29-15 and in doing so watched their unbeaten season go down the drain. Manning and the Colts are now 14-1 and can now concentrate fully on the playoffs and the Super Bowl. When the Indianapolis football players got up this morning, they needed to win their final two regular season games, a couple of playoff games and the Super Bowl to become the second NFL team to go unbeaten from start to finish. In 1972, the Miami Dolphins went undefeated during the regular season, won both of their playoff games and then the Super Bowl. Shula was the head coach of the Dolphins, and chances are he's on his cell phone right now, talking to his former players, discussing today's game and the unblemished record that he and the Dolphins still own.

On the other hand, Caldwell will be preparing his speech for all the television networks, explaining his decision to call off the dogs with a little over five quarters left in the regular season. The Indy fans will also be interested in Caldwell's reasoning. They may offer a few collective boos, but all will be forgiven if the Colts go on to win the Super Bowl. Two weeks ago there were two teams chasing history. The New Orleans Saints started out 13-0 this season and are now 13-2. They're history. The Colts have been erased from the unbeaten list and they're history. Shula and the 1972 Miami Dolphins established a professional football record that has stood for 38 years...that team and its coach are still the proud owners of an NFL record that may never be broken.