You may be right. The rumors we heard early on, were that Ross was quoted to be "obsessed" with signing Manning. I however disagree that Ireland is a nobody GM........... he's going to be one in this league for a long, long time. From what we know of Ross, it makes sense that he would jump at the name Peyton Manning before looking at the football side of it. It could be possible that Ross wants Manning, Philbin wants Flynn, and Ireland wants Moore/ or even Henne. Just a thought. Perhaps these mentions of our front office being whack are legit. Marino may have even unintentionally warned Peyton.
Ross didn't publicly say a word about Manning. You say it yourself, it was a rumor.