Peyton Manning doesn’t like to make business decisions on the fly

While the football world waits for Peyton Manning’s decision -- the Denver Post reports that he’s narrowed the field to the Broncos, Cardinals, Titans and Dolphins -- some people who know him well are not at all surprised the MVP quarterback is meticulously taking his time in choosing his new team.

Consider a story from Craig Huse, owner of St. Elmo’s Steak House, a landmark restaurant in Indianapolis where Manning had a standing reservation in his own private room (which doubles as the wine cellar.)

A few years ago, when word spread that Huse was opening a sister restaurant, Harry & Izzy’s, next door, Manning contacted him about becoming an investor. Huse met with him, of course, and they worked out an agreement -- but not before Manning put him through the paces on what would be a relatively small investment for one of the NFL’s richest players.

“When I met with him, he had this two-sided sheet with all these very-well-thought-out questions about the business and the investment and what our projections were,” Huse said. “We met for maybe a couple hours and relaxed for a little bit. Then right before we got up, he comes back and makes sure he had gotten every one of his questions asked that he wanted to.

“That just reminded me of how he prepares. He doesn’t go into anything blindly. Even if it’s this very small investment in the scope of his financial picture, he still treated it with a lot of due diligence.”

So you can bet he has a lot more questions than that for the team where he’ll launch the final chapter of his playing career. And he won’t be rushed.

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