Joe Harrington was at lunch when his phone rang in December 2012.
It was Peyton Manning calling. Harrington is the sports technology coordinator at the University of Tennessee, meaning he’s in charge of all the game film there. He has known Manning since the summer of 1994, when Manning showed up as a freshman.
On this day, Manning was not interested in catching up. Manning, in his first year with the Broncos, had a request for Harrington.
“In 1996 Tennessee played Ole Miss in Memphis,” Harrington recalled Manning asking. “In the third quarter we ran a play called ‘flip right duo X motion fake roll 98 block pass special.’ … I need you to find that play, I need you to digitize it, and I need you to send it to me.”
Sure enough, Manning’s memory of the play was spot on. Harrington sent it to him and the Broncos put the play into their game plan that week.
Of course this is how Peyton Manning spends his time in the pool... pic.twitter.com/y9XTOJ68Xd
— The Whistle (@TheWhistle) December 11, 2013“It was typical Peyton,” Harrington said Thursday.
Manning is not the most athletic quarterback. He is not the strongest quarterback. He certainly is not the fastest. But no one can debate he is the most prepared.
As he enters the third Super Bowl of his career, Manning’s film study is the stuff of legend. He pores over game film and not just the usual film from an opponents’ last few games. He will reach back years to draw on something he saw early in his career with the Colts, and those who know him best say he remembers nearly every defense he has ever seen.
“He has a little ‘Rain Man’ in him,” Harrington said affectionately.
Broncos backup quarterback Brock Osweiler saw the Manning memory on display last year. Osweiler, a rookie, was watching film of an opponent with Manning when they saw an exotic blitz.
“He was like, ‘Oh yeah. I remember back in 2004 when so and so ran that blitz against me,’ ” Osweiler said. “I was just like, ‘I don’t remember what happened two years ago.’ That was probably the first time I was really exposed to his photographic memory.”
Harrington, who has been at Tennessee for 24 years, saw Manning’s love of studying tape immediately when the quarterback arrived in Knoxville in the summer of ’94.
“That whole summer he loved going through the archives,” Harrington said. “He would pull tape and go to a meeting room or I would dub them onto a VHS tape for him to take home. He started watching right away. He really got into it. He was like, ‘This is awesome.’ He was the first player that ever showed any interest in the work that I do.”
Manning did not start immediately at Tennessee. But before the Volunteers first game he asked Harrington for a copy of every game from the previous season UCLA, their first opponent, had played in 1993. Harrington gave him a box filled with VHS tapes.
When Tennessee arrived at its hotel in Los Angeles the day before the game, Harrington was setting up the meeting rooms when Manning stopped by.
“He said, ‘Hey Joe I brought my box of tapes in case you need them.’ ” Harrington recalled. “I was like, ‘Listen guy, I bring the tapes around here, OK?’ ”
Harrington had brought the final three games UCLA played in 1993 with him, figuring that would be enough. But then offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe asked him for the Arizona tape, which was the third game of UCLA’s season.
“He walks out and I tell my intern, ‘Go out and find that tall, lanky new guy walking around the lobby and get the Arizona game from him.’ ” Harrington said. “I said, ‘Do not bring him back here.’ Three minutes later Peyton comes walking in with my intern smiling like, ‘You need me now, don’t you?’ ”
When Manning later became the starter, he requested tapes of every practice. Harrington purchased a new VCR just to make tapes for Manning. Twice a year, Manning would show up with a garbage bag filled with the VHS tapes he was done with. Harrington said every one had been watched.
Manning would not get specific Thursday about how much film he has watched of the Seahawks. But you can bet he has been wearing out his iPad.
“You have two weeks to study so there is more time,” Manning said Thursday. “I think it’s worth it to take time to get as familiar as you possibly can with what I would call an unfamiliar opponent. We played them in the preseason. We have not played them in the regular season. That’s a lot of games that are out there, that are available to study. You try to get to know their schemes. You try to get to know their personnel. There is plenty out there to study.”
He will have studied it all by Sunday.