Wait ... what?

 Aaaand there it is, right on time: The calliope music.

Remember the other day, when the Blob reasoned (to stretch that word out of round) that Colts coach Shane Steichen was sticking with ancient turnover machine Joe Flacco because otherwise the calliope would start up and the dreaded quarterback carousel would begin to turn?

Well, hop on board, boys and girls. What'll it be, the seahorse or the giraffe?

Because  yesterday, two days after Steichen declared Flacco was still his guy and would start Sunday against the Jets, he abruptly course-corrected. Got up there in front of the Colts media cohort and said this: Oops, my bad, dudes. What I meant to say was ANTHONY RICHARDSON will start Sunday against the Jets, and furthermore he'll start EVERY GAME FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON.

Wait ... what?

So what happened between Monday and Wednesday?

Well, he's made great strides in learning how to be a pro.

In two days? 

Nah, in the last couple weeks.

OK, so, in two weeks, then?

Umm ... yes. I'll go with yes.

Aye-yi-yi. Things just get stranger and stranger out there on the west side of Indy.

Steichen swore yesterday the decision to reverse course was ultimately his, just as he swore less than 48 hours before that the decision to stick with Flacco was ultimately his. But the barn door is open now, and the speculation is running free.

Did Colts owner Jim Irsay call and say "Play the kid"? Was Steichen facing a locker room mutiny if he didn't play AR? All that stuff Kenny Moore said postgame Sunday about certain players not putting in the time to get better at their craft ... was that aimed at Joe Flacco?

I mean, you assumed he was talking about the younger players, because the demands of the pro game are naturally a learning process for them. But in retrospect ...

Ah, who knows, really. Maybe Steichen, general manager Chris Ballard and the rest of the Colts brain trust woke up the morning after deciding to ride with Flacco and thought "Oh, s***, we forgot! AR is the future of the franchise! Also we spent a buttload of money on him! Also-also, we're gonna look really stupid if we go with the ten-year-old Honda Civic and leave the brand-new Ferrari in the shed!"

Again, who knows. Only thing for sure is the Colts have jerked Richardson around about as badly as you can jerk a guy around, and God knows what the kid's confidence looks like right now as a result.

The Blob's crystal ball has always been notoriously murky, but here's what I see going forward: I see AR taking the reins again, and doing things that make you grab your head in amazement and other things that make you grab your head in dismay, and the Colts win some and lose some. Then, I don't know, sometime in December, when they're still miraculously in the playoff hunt and AR has been subpar in a crucial loss, Steichen changes his mind again and hands the keys back to Flacco, and never mind what he said before.

After which, having thoroughly ruined the future of their franchise, they trade him in the offseason to an organization that actually knows what the hell it's doing. And of course Richardson blossoms into the quarterback the Colts thought he would be when they made him the No. 4 pick in the 2023 draft.

Sound likely?

I mean, as likely as anything else right now?