He turned this season into an extended Manning Passing Academy wherever he went. And all of it — the 55 touchdown passes and the 5,477 yards — will mean nothing if Peyton Manning fails to close the show.
There isn’t a bigger player in the game than Peyton Manning, and there isn’t a bigger game than this one, this New York Super Bowl played in New Jersey, which means it is time for Manning to remind us he was born for this kind of off-Broadway stage, and play as big as Joe Montana always did, as big as his little brother Eli did at the end of Super Bowls XLII and XLVI.
He won’t have to worry about any Ice Bowl or Snow Bowl, only Richard Sherman and the raging Seahawks defense. Sherman should understand that Manning won’t be bringing any sorry receivers with him. Manning won’t be afraid to try Sherman, try to shut him up, along with the naysayers who will be all too eager to trumpet his 11-12 playoff record if he doesn’t finish the job.
The royal Manning family will be in a suite watching what has a chance to be an epic game, centered around their 37-year-old medical marvel barking out “Omaha, Omaha” on an historic night when, fairly or unfairly, he will be hailed either as The Greatest, or something considerably less flattering.
Manning may not want to view this as another Legacy Game, but whenever they rip the jersey off of him, and they likely will have to, he will care plenty about what he did or didn’t accomplish on this Sunday night.
It has been such a long and arduous road from the operating table to here for Manning, a road filled with self-doubt and fear, and yet here he is, the epitome of perseverance and commitment, not nearly the sentimental favorite Muhammad Ali was when he was 37 the night he beat Leon Spinks and won the heavyweight title for the third time, but someone you have no choice but to respect, if not cheer.
“I’m proudest of the passion and respect he’s shown for the game,” father Archie Manning said. “He didn’t want to give it up. He wanted to play some more. … He knew he could only come back if he worked hard, which had always been a trait of his. And then he made a transition, he had to make a transition to new team, new coach, new system, new players, and he stood up to that, so we’re proud of him for a lot of reasons.”
His son cannot afford to throw the kind of backbreaking interception that sabotaged his last Super Bowl against the Saints four years ago. Just as it seems like an injustice that Dan Marino never captured a ring, so it would be if the greatest regular-season quarterback is remembered mostly as that, with only one ring.
Archie remembers that rainy night in Miami well, the one time Peyton was crowned champion.
“I got to the stadium early that day, I had to do some TV stuff,” Archie said, “and before they ever came out and warmed up, I saw him in kind of their tunnel. So when I saw him after the game, I said, ‘I saw you real early, an hour-and-a-half, two hours before the game.’ I said, ‘What were doing, what were you thinking?’
And this is what Peyton said to his father: “God, why are you raining on my Super Bowl?”
This could be his last Super Bowl, you just never know. A 79-year-old man named Tony Reginelli will be watching from his New Orleans home. He was Peyton’s coach at Isadore Newman High School. He was an early witness to Manning’s legendary preparation, football obsession and drive.
“It’d be 9:30, 10 o’clock, he’s out there on the field working with those special shoes that they had back then that would increase your speed. He would be out there running sprints in a stadium that was completely dark,”
Reginelli said. “But I knew it was him because I yelled — I was coming out of the office — ‘Peyton, is that you out there running?’ ”
Of course it was.
Reginelli didn’t want to stop talking about his celebrated high school quarterback, who was at Rocky Top long before his Rocky Mountain High.
“I was at an Alabama game, and we had tickets in the Alabama section,” Reginelli said. “I think it was Peyton’s freshman year, or sophomore year — it was early in his career. And he was calling out different plays and stuff, and he’s pointing at different guys. And after the game, one of the linebackers, they were interviewed, and he said, ‘Damn, I think he knew everything what’s gonna happen, who was gonna do this …’ In other words, I think he defeats ’em before the play even starts.”
These Seahawks will be tougher to discourage. These Seahawks believe they can put some heat on Manning. These Seahawks believe they can hound Manning’s receivers enough to disrupt them if the zebras choke on their whistles and let them. These Seahawks believe Marshawn Lynch can keep Manning off the field.
But after all the analysis, Super Bowl XLVIII very well could come down to this: Can Russell Wilson get his team in the end zone enough and stand toe-to-toe with Manning if the circumstances demand it? If the Broncos dare Wilson to beat them, can he? This much is certain: The Seahawks won’t dare Manning to beat them.
“I don’t have to wish him luck,” Reginelli said, “because I know he’s gonna play well. I feel very confident in him. I know he’s with a team that he wanted to go to, and Peyton didn’t make that choice overnight. He’s gonna do well. Peyton’s only gonna do one thing: He’s gonna elevate the players that he’s around, he’s gonna bring ’em to another level.”
God isn’t raining on Peyton Manning’s Super Bowl.