Why should he be benched when the Peyton Manning Pity Tour is in full swing?
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/13810920/a-diminished-peyton-manning-stands-patriots-super-bowl
DENVER -- Wearing a sweat-soaked T-shirt and game pants, his thigh and knee pads still firmly in place,
Peyton Manning worked a receiving line of well-wishers near his corner locker Sunday night while his boss, John Elway, looked on approvingly. The quarterback of the Denver Broncos offered up handshakes and, better yet, semi-meaningful eye contact before joining this procession of giddy, middle-aged men for a photo.
On some level, yeah, Peyton Manning is still Peyton Manning. He still does and says all the right things after a game even before he takes a shower. He's the same person, the same face and voice of the league. Just not the same football player, and it's probably not even close.
And that's OK. Manning gets it. He's ready to win ugly at 39 and prove to his teammates he's willing to be a drummer or guitarist in the background rather than the omnipotent leader of the band.
"He's shown with the new offense we've installed that he's a really unselfish guy," tight end
Owen Daniels told ESPN.com after the Broncos beat the Minnesota Vikings 23-20 to make Manning a 4-0 quarterback for the sixth time in his career and to make him the NFL's second starter to win 100 home games (Brett Favre won 113).
"Peyton's been doing this so long his way," Daniels continued, "and to have to change things up at this point of his career, you've got to give him credit for being super unselfish like that."
But guess what? Even at a time when he's better described as super unselfish rather than just plain super, Manning might be the one and only player in the AFC who can prevent the
New England Patriots from making their seventh trip to the big game in the
Tom Brady/Bill Belichick era. Take a quick look around the conference. If you believe
Andy Dalton is your man for the job, good luck with that.
No, on this day Manning didn't look like someone who could stop the defending champs from winning ring No. 5. His two interceptions nearly cost Denver the game. The first set up Minnesota's touchdown at the end of the first half, and the second set up Minnesota's tying fourth-quarter field goal with 5:11 left.
But Manning responded both times on the next possession. He opened the third quarter with an 80-yard drive finished by his 1-yard scoring pass to Daniels (after two
Ronnie Hillman runs failed to punch the ball in), and then he drove the Broncos toward the winning field goal that would've been the winning touchdown had
Demaryius Thomas pulled in a very catchable ball.
Manning passed five times on that deciding drive, proof the Broncos know their quarterback has to remain a significant player -- just not their only significant player -- if Manning is to win a second title.
Before that possession, right after Manning threw his second ghastly pick, Broncos coach Gary Kubiak told his offensive assistants the following: "We're going to keep throwing it, because he's the guy that will get us back in position to win the game."
How long will he continue to be that guy? Among the Super Bowl winners of his generation, Manning projects the least amount of confidence in playing multiple seasons beyond this one.
Drew Brees has said he will play into his 40s. In a private email to a friend made public, Brady predicted he would go another seven or eight seasons while his frenemy Peyton was down to a measly two.
"Brady and Brees both talk about how long they're going to play, and they may very well do it because they're playing so well now," Peyton's father, Archie, told ESPN.com. "But they haven't had four neck operations like Peyton has. And I hope they don't have to."
Excuse the first father of the NFL for sounding a tad defiant. Archie was the one catching passes for Peyton after those surgeries, the one who saw his own flesh and blood struggle to throw a 10-yard lob.
"It was pretty ugly," Archie said. "It made you wonder if Peyton could ever be an NFL quarterback again, and nobody was sure he could do it. There wasn't anyone to build on. No quarterback or baseball pitcher had gone through what Peyton had. But I've never seen anybody work as hard as he did.
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