Peyton Manning, Indianapolis Colts expected to part ways

It is expected to be announced at a joint press conference Wednesday at noon ET that Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts are ending their 14-year relationship and Peyton will enter the free agent market, reports ESPN.

Manning sat out the entire 2011 season, having three surgeries on his neck in the span of just 19 months. The Colts went 2-14 without Manning as the signal caller, which affords them the no. 2 pick in the NFL draft come April. Conventional wisdom says they'll choose between collegiate superstar QBs Andrew Luck from Stanford and Robert Griffin III from Baylor and a new era will begin in Indianapolis.

After the announcement, Manning will be shopping around for a new team, as sources say he he intends to continue playing in the league. The probable destinations?  The New York Jets, the Washington Redskins, the Miami Dolphins and the Arizona Cardinals are all considered the likeliest teams. It would be interesting if he became a Jet, as his younger brother Eli Manning quarterbacks for the New York Giants.

One of Manning's closest friends in the NFL, center Jeff Saturday, tells the AP, "I never thought it was a foregone conclusions. I was always hopeful they'd get something worked out, and that he would be back in a horseshoe, but it doesn't look that's going to happen."

It certainly is the end of an era and it will be weird seeing Manning play in another uniform. But we hope he lands somewhere, since the doctors have cleared him to play.

And in case you were wondering - so far Rob Lowe is mum on the subject.