Sports

Health a concern a Peyton makes his return

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Peyton Manning comes back tonight. He comes back as a 36-year-old quarterback, comes back from four delicate surgical neck procedures, from what we have come to know as anterior cervical fusion, comes back from an agonizing season away from the game he loves, comes back not as a Colt but as a Bronco, and comes back trying to remember what it was like to be Peyton Manning.

He comes back in one way as the Other Manning, one Super Bowl ring shy of little brother Eli, but in so many other ways as the main event of his sport, the face of the NFL, both for his unrelenting genius on the field and his pitchman prowess off it.

Rocky Manning High.

You hope and pray that his medical team was right, that his maniacal obsession to play again and win it all again does not put him in harm’s way, especially tonight against the Steelers, when his health and well-being lie much too heavily in the shaky hands of replacement refs.

Because there are no guarantees with something like this. Ever so conscious about the concussion and head trauma horrors and growing number of lawsuits from debilitated former players, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has stepped up his vigilance on player safety. The hitting zones may have been altered, but the new lines between legalized mayhem and impersonal foul remain blurred to defensive players trained from an early age as merchants of violence, to search and destroy. The game is still the game, and for all the emphasis placed over the years on protecting the quarterback, the league has yet to listen to mocking defenders who wonder why it simply doesn’t put skirts on its golden boy marquee stars.

Peyton Manning comes back no longer on the pedestal with Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady and Drew Brees. We begin to find out tonight whether he comes back with enough arm to scare defenses again and enough pocket awareness to survive the way he survived 227 consecutive games all those years.

Jets coach Rex Ryan speaks for the football fraternity when he says: “I can’t wait to see him play. I’m just happy he’s healthy enough to play, ’cause as a fan of football you love watching the best.”

Peyton Manning comes back for the first time since losing the 2010 wild-card game to the Jets 19 months ago, comes back needing one touchdown pass for his 400th, comes back replacing Tim Tebow to give Broncos general manager John Elway more than just a puncher’s chance to win a Super Bowl, comes back with his remarkable football IQ and anticipation, and comes back with an up-tempo offense and new receivers.

“I like the way the locker room is coming along,” Elway said this week in a call with season-ticket holders. “Plus, having Peyton Manning in there, with the respect that he has throughout the league and also in that locker room, having those guys see what a true Hall of Famer looks like in practice day-in and day-out. I think that’s been a positive influence for everybody having Peyton in that locker room.”

Manning’s bond with Elway, a two-time champion franchise quarterback with a Hall-of-Fame pedigree, was a much bigger selling point for him than playing in the same market as Eli, for a frayed team coached by the anti-Tony Dungy. Of course the Jets wanted him — what better way (aside from Tebow) to sell tickets? And imagine if he’s more than a shell of his former self! Jim Harbaugh and the 49ers wanted him as well, and so did Bud Adams and the Titans.

Parting was such sweet sorrow for the Colts, who understandably turned the page on their city’s beloved icon and his $28 million bonus that was coming due. They invested anew, emotionally and financially, in a 23-year-old franchise quarterback with a healthy neck, Andrew Luck, the most polished quarterback to enter the NFL since … Peyton Manning.

Luck and Tebow go first, and then all eyes of football-crazed America turn to Manning and his compelling comeback. But Elway’s answer to a question about backups Caleb Hanie and rookie Brock Osweiler ­— offered prior to Hanie’s release yesterday — says everything about the unchartered waters Manning will be swimming in and the unknowns about how this will all work out.

“I’m knocking on my head because I like to knock on wood to think that nothing would happen to Peyton,” Elway said.

“If you look at Brock, he’s very young and athletic with a tremendous amount of upside.

If the football gods are listening: Let nothing happen to Peyton.

steve.serby@nypost.com