By Michael Samaha, columnist
Alright Peyton Manning, I think it’s finally time to hang up the cleats. Put away that helmet that is clearly way too tight, before the big red mark on your forehead becomes permanent. We know you want to win another Super Bowl, but nobody beats Father Time and, right now, you are clearly struggling to do the things you used to be able to.
The best quarterback of our generation was Peyton Manning. I know I’m speaking to a large majority of Patriots fans, so you can disagree all you want. But what Manning has done is something we’ve never seen before and to do it with multiple different coaches, teams and crappy defenses isquite impressive.
The NFL’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award has Manning’s name on it five times. He was a First Team All-Pro seven times in an 11-year period, andone of those years he sat out the entire season. He has the most passing touchdowns in the history of football and is second all-time on the career passing yards list. He has lead 52 game-winning drives and 41 comebacks, both all-time records.
Manning should be able to retire, and get no flack for doing so. Who cares if he only won one Super Bowl. He got no help in the second Super Bowl he played in against the New Orleans Saints. There was no team in the last five years who could’ve competed with the Seahawks last February. Let’s compare that to Brady’s Super Bowls. He has two MVP Awards, but in the first one he really was the default winner just for being the quarterback, because no other single player really deserved it. In the most recent two Super Bowls against the New York Giants, he had a team that was led by its offense for once, and unsurprisingly, lost both of those games scoring only 14 and 17.
Rag on Manning all you want about this season, but he was playing great up until his alleged right quadricep tear. With Manning, he has never had the greatest arm strength. He relies on his superior ability to read the defense and anticipate his receiver’s routes. Without great arm strength, a quarterback has to rely on the rest of his body to help with velocity on throws, and, with a torn quad on his push-off leg, all the timing became messed upin the latter part of the season, including the playoff game against Indianapolis.
Manning is 38 years old, has had four neck surgeries and it is going to become harder and harder to bounce back from injuries as he gets older. He has done everything there is to do in this league and has nothing left to prove in the NFL. The media likes to create controversy, and the public falls for it too easily. It doesn’t matter how much somebody accomplishes, people will always find a way to say it isn’t enough. For example, Andy Dalton gets a lotof flack for not winning a playoff game. Tony Romo has never lead the Cowboys to the Super Bowl. Donovan McNabb hasnever won a Super Bowl. Manning only won one Super Bowl. Tom Brady doesn’t have as many Super Bowls as Joe Montana. Terry Bradshaw won as many as Montana, but wasn’t the main reason those Steeler teams won, because they had great defenses.
The only untouchable people are those who are #1, and Manning is #1 in more categories than anyone. So Manning should look back on his great career, understand how fortunate he’s been and realize that his body can no longer keep up with his mind and the pace of this game. It is time to finally call it quits, and not try to drag on the end of his career. I don’t want my last memories of him to be struggling to be a half-decent shadow of himself.
Photo courtesy Jeffrey Beall, Creative Commons
