Voice Of The Chiefs Thinks KC Will 'Be A Player' In Peyton Manning Sweepstakes

The "Voice of the Chiefs", Mitch Holthus, joined Kevin Kietzmann on 810 WHB on Wednesday night to discuss the Big 12 basketball tournament in Kansas City -- I wish I could be boozin' it up all day downtown right now -- and, of course, the Peyton Manning sweepstakes.

Holthus had a few interesting things to say about Manning back in January, namely that he expected the Chiefs to at least explore Manning's situation. Now that Manning is a free agent, it's been reported by ESPN that the Chiefs are one of the teams that have reached out to his camp.

Holthus addressed the Manning issue again now that Manning is the former Colts QB.

"I think the Chiefs are gonna be a player in this," Holthus said. "Now let me start, the genesis of this conversation, this does not cast aspersions on Matt Cassel. I've been a Matt defender and I will be continue to be a Matt defender. People have to understand that Matt Cassel has done good things for this franchise and I think he has a chance to do some more."

OK, but what about Manning?

"If you have to discuss where does the market go on this," Holthus continued, "I think the Chiefs are going to be in play in this matter and I think they'll be somewhat aggressive in checking out this situation. It's not to put butts in the seats. It's not to sell suites. If they do it, it will be to put themselves in a better position to win football games, which essentially puts butts in the seats and sells suites. But it's about winning football games. It's not about a dog and pony show."

Holthus also shared his personal experience with Manning.

"I spent a day with Peyton Manning in Kansas City," Holthus told Kietzmann. "He's got his own empire with different sponsors but he came in and Sprint had me basically host him for a day. It was one of the best days I've had in my professional life.

"One, the guy is fabulous. He has a great personality. It's kind of what you see is what you get. But he likes Kansas City. He likes Kansas City a lot. I think one of the pluses about Kansas City is the fact that, if you think about a market that most assimilates Indianapolis and what he's been able to play in the last several years and the framework of how the organization is structured, and the market that he's in...he can handle being in a market like New York like his brother is but I get the sense from him that he doesn't want every breath analyzed.

"He appreciates the fans here. He's talked about it with me. He appreciates Kansas City and the passion for the franchise so it would be the closest thing to Indianapolis he can find. That would be a positive for him. I think he can also appreciate the sense that there's a young team being built around him with a defense that could be very, very good and with the right pieces put together on offense and they could be very, very good."

Holthus stressed that his Manning talk wasn't to knock Cassel, which is understandable. Free agency is a hard thing to talk about from a team perspective because any time you talk about a free agent it necessarily means you're advocating for someone else to be replaced.

But Kietzmann brought up a good point about Cassel -- he's still important in all of this. You probably don't sign Manning, health issues and all, without a solid backup option, which would be Cassel.

It's getting interesting with this Manning talk, folks. That someone from the organization is openly talking about what his addition could do is very interesting.