So now the page turns, with the softest of rustles. Something seismic is behind it, unheard as yet but not unsensed.

Some rift is about to open between then and now, between 10 playoff appearances, one title and two Super Bowl appearances in 14 years and whatever will come next.

I say that with absolute certainty now, because, at the dawn of a new year, the architect of the Peyton Manning Indianapolis Colts is being shown the door, effective immediately.

Bill Polian is gone, the Colts announced Monday. Ditto his son, Chris, the Heir Apparently Not – whose role, it seems, is now to hold the door open for his father and then follow him out.

And, listen, boys and girls, if you don’t think that means the dominoes are all a-tremble in Indianapolis, you’re not paying attention. Either that, or you’re willfully closing your eyes, sticking your fingers in your ears and humming loudly to drown out the obvious.

Here’s the skinny, see, and it takes no Carnac the Magnificent to call it: The Polians’ leaving is only the first rumble of the Big Change. Jim Caldwell has been retained, but you wonder for how long; 2-14 meltdowns, whether they are your fault or not, tend to consume everyone in their path. And if Caldwell eventually goes, and the Polians are gone, you can probably put down cash money that Peyton Manning, whose age (35) and neck issues (three surgeries in a year including a spinal fusion) suddenly make him a fool’s gamble, will not be far in their wake.

How it will go down no one can say yet, but you can make an educated guess or two. In April, the Colts will take Andrew Luck with the No. 1 pick. He is the future, after all, and the future is now. The Colts just said so by yanking the Polians off the stage.

What that probably means is, in March, they likely won’t kick Peyton his $28 million bonus, which would make them liable for the last four years of his contract. It won’t be an easy decision. Colts owner Jim Irsay will wrestle with it the way Hulk Hogan used to wrestle with Randy “Macho Man” Savage, because that’s what you do when you’re talking about the best player in franchise history.

In the end, though, he’ll do it. If he’s smart, and he’s not dumb, he’ll offer Peyton some sort of lifetime contract that includes the option to become, say, the Colts quarterback coach or offensive coordinator. You can certainly see that happening.

In any case, the Peyton Era will be done. There’s simply no way the Colts will draft Andrew Luck and make him sit for three or four years while Manning plays out the string. That won’t work – and even if it could, it fits not at all with the clean break the Colts clearly seem to be making here.

If you’re going to turn the page, you turn the page. There can be no half-measures or backward glances. Every organization with a modicum of smarts knows this, and the Colts, until recently, have been nothing if not a smartly run organization.

Before conventional wisdom thought the time had come, after all, they cut loose Marshall Faulk. Then they cut loose Edgerrin James. Both moves proved to be the right ones, even though they seemed rash at the time. Knowing when to move on, and always moving forward as they did so, were after all what made the Peyton Era the glory days of Colts football they were.

Now, by cutting loose the Polians, the Colts have signaled it’s time to move on again.

So move on, then. And, though it might not seem just yet, move forward, too.