EARLY SIGNS POINT TO DUNGY DEPARTURE

A source with knowledge of the Colts’ organization tells us that there’s a growing sense in the building that, this time around, coach Tony Dungy will retire. The source points the current atmosphere as 70 percent that Dungy will leave, 30 percent that he’ll stay. It’s hardly an earth-shattering revelation, especially in light of Dungy’s recent disclosure to NBC’s Al Michaels that, for each of the past five years, Dungy has entered the offseason initially planning to call it quits. There’s another sign pointing directly to Dungy’s departure. Bob Kravitz of the Indianapolis Star writes in Monday’s edition that it’s time for Dungy to go. In a city where the Colts often keep the primary newspaper in town on a choke chain, Kravitz (in our view) wouldn’t be sliding out onto that specific limb unless he already knows what Dungy is going to do. Of course, there’s also a chance that Kravitz has gotten a nudge from G.M. Bill Polian, who might want to use the transition to a new head coach as cover for the team’s looming struggles in the last capped year under the current CBA, which for the Colts will be the day of reckoning after years of pushing cap dollars into future seasons. In 2009, the old accounting rules don’t work. Peyton Manning can’t be given $10 million of his $14 million salary as a guaranteed payment in order to reduce Manning’s $21.2 million cap number. UPDATE: A media source tells us that it’s highly unlikely that Polian would have nudged Kravitz because, per the source, Polian hates Kravitz “like poison.” (I’ve never understood that saying. I actually like poison. It can be very useful when added to the beverage of an enemy.)