Colts owner Jim Irsay has stirred up a hornet's nest of speculation with one of his latest tweets:

"NFL Season opens 2nite!We had a good practice yesterday and r guys r fired up 4 the season.#18's out for awhile,but compete,we will/BELIEVE."

The hope was of course that Peyton would only miss this week; next week at the most (let's be honest; Curtis Painter could beat the Browns), but when Irsay said "awhile" that leaves when Peyton will return up to interpretation.

I will not bother with printing the definition of the word. I think anyone that is capable of reading this and able to get on the internet knows that people use that word when they have no idea what sort of time frame they are looking at. They just know that it isn't going to be anytime soon.

Irsay had another tweet recently that refuted a local radio host's claim that Peyton has already had another surgery and is out for the year. However, a comment that SI's Peter King made when he looked into the report makes it appear as if "awhile" could mean "a long while."

“Peyton Manning has not had a procedure on his neck, I am told reliably,” King wrote on Twitter. “Manning could have a procedure. He and team still investigating options. But it has not happened yet.”

Hmmm.

Could.

Awhile.

In a word-- not good (okay, two words).

If you're a fan of the Indianapolis Colts, your world is in danger of falling in on itself right now.

By now you have probably had three or four friends IM, text, call, or email you with the news that Peyton Manning will be out for the immediate future. So far, that is not necessarily the case.

The team has been trying to get opinions on why the neck of their superstar is not healing any faster than it is. With the surgery he had he should have been rockin and rolling after 8 weeks tops; its been 4 1/2 months.

As it turns out, the lockout may be killing the 2011 season for the Colts.

Peyton mentioned in one interview prior to the end of the lockout how his recovery was not going as well without the trainers from the team to help him with his rehab. It's not that he wasn't rehabing; just not with the people who know him best. Now it appears that could be the difference.

There is no definitive word yet, but Chris Mortensen of ESPN tweeted that there could be a problem with scar tissue, some inflammation, and the nerves.

Peter King of Sports Illustrated has tweeted something about there being an issue with nerve regeneration with the type of surgery that Peyton had.

That would make sense with the rumor that Peyton was has had trouble putting a little zing on the ball since being taken off the PUP list and practicing.

Having been around athletes my entire life, I've heard of guys that did not rehab well or re-injured something shortly after surgery, and the rest of their recovery did not go as planned. Scar tissue, hampering what they needed to do, and they ended up having another surgery to clear it away.

Should this be the case with Peyton, that means more recovery time. The possibility that he does not play till mid-season could be very real.

For now, anything and everything that people say is nothing but speculation. No one actually knows anything with the exception of Peyton and his doctors.

As soon as I hear anything, rest assured I'll be letting you know.