His younger brother, Eli, stole some of Indianapolis quarterback Peyton Manning’s thunder by leading the New York Giants to a Super Bowl title last season.
Another quarterback, New England’s Tom Brady, broke Manning’s single-season record for touchdowns in a season in 2007.
But now that Brett Favre apparently has retired, Peyton Manning assumes the pedestal as the NFL’s benchmark for quarterbacks. Manning has started 160 consecutive regular-season games (Favre finished at 253 straight games) and enters the 2008 season as the league’s active leader in just about every significant passing category.
“I do take a lot of pride in going into my 11th year, and I’ve always admired guys who have played as long as (Steve) McNair did or Favre did or (Dan) Marino did,”
Manning told reporters during the Colts’ minicamp last weekend.
“It’s not an easy position to have longevity in this career. I turned 32 this past March, but I really feel as quarterbacks, it’s not necessarily how old you are, but maybe it’s how old your body is. And I think because of the protection that I’ve had with the offensive line … I’m probably in maybe a 28-year-old body, if that makes sense."
“Hopefully I can keep it that way and be able to hopefully play as well in the second half of my career as I maybe did in the first half. That’s my goal.”
Manning, a two-time league MVP, wrote a letter to McNair — with whom he shared the 2003 MVP award — congratulating him on his career.
“In the NFL, not many guys get to retire as much as they are sort of retired,”
Manning reflected. “A guy retires in March or April, there’s not much fanfare to it or you just see it on the ticker, ‘So and So retired.’ So throughout the years, different players I’ve admired … Frank Wycheck, Curtis Martin, Will Shields … when they retire, I always write them a letter and say how much I’ve enjoyed watching them play."
“Brett’s a guy who has been such an influence on me and all young quarterbacks. I was surprised … by his decision. I haven’t written a letter to Favre yet. We’ll kind of wait and see what happens there. I guess part of it is kind of hope, maybe, that he finds his way back in the NFL this year.”
Manning, like Favre, has won one Super Bowl in his career. He led the defending champion Colts to a 13-3 record in 2007, but they stumbled in the playoffs, losing their first game, 28-24 at home to San Diego in the second round.
Manning was the NFL’s fourth-ranked passer last season, throwing for 4,040 yards and 31 touchdowns (fourth in the league), but did it for most of the season with a patchwork receiving corps due to injuries.
His favorite target, Marvin Harrison, missed 11 games because of an injury to his left knee, caught a career-low 20 passes in 2007, and his Hall of Fame career could be nearing its end. Also, Harrison, 35, is embroiled in an investigation of an April 29 shooting in his former Philadelphia neighborhood where police have confirmed a gun owned by Harrison was used in the shooting.
Harrison, who is not considered a suspect in the case, was not made available for interviews at the Colts minicamp. He did not work out on the field but underwent treatment for his knee.
Fellow wide receiver Reggie Wayne, who caught 104 passes for a league-leading 1,510 yards and 10 touchdowns a year ago, may have to duplicate that performance if Harrison is not at full strength or even available.
But Wayne said he’d rather have Harrison on the field with him.
“You can tell it’s definitely hurting him not being out there,”
Wayne said. “That’s where I get a lot of my practice skills from, because he never takes plays off. So when Peyton’s out there, I don’t take plays off. We feed off each other, and the more we’re together, the better off we’ll be.”
The Colts, believing that Harrison will make a full recovery, did not sign a free agent wide receiver during the offseason or draft one. Colts coach Tony Dungy, who could be retiring himself at the end of this season, hopes Harrison hasn’t reached the end of his career.
“I remember a time when people thought Jerry Rice was on the downhill side when he left San Francisco, and he played quite a while after that,” Dungy said. “Marvin is like Peyton in a lot of ways. I think it’s going to be mental with him, how much longer he wants to put in that grind of staying at the top and practicing and working to stay at that elite level. Physically, I think he can do it for a number of more years.”
Otherwise, Manning may soon be writing a letter to Harrison, too.
