DENVER – These are the games when you know full well that your championship mettle, your lion heart, your grace under pressure, your will to win, will all be tested in ways that define who you are, and define for the rest of us the measure of the man.
Tom Brady had planned to throw everything at Peyton Manning, planned to launch heat-seeking missiles that would demand legendary responses, and of course so was Bill Belichick, the full force of his genius straining with all his might to checkmate Manning in the grandmaster chess game that only meant a berth in the MetLife Super Bowl.
SuperMann, 37-year-old SuperMann, wears No. 18 and he plays for the Denver Broncos and he’ll be at MetLife Stadium looking to hoist a second Lombardi Trophy and his place in history.
SuperMann, after wondering whether four neck-fusion surgeries would render him forever as Clark Kent, throwing for 400 yards and two touchdowns in a back to the future masterpiece for the ages and a 26-16 triumph.
Peyton’s Place happens to be Eli’s Place on Super Sunday, just as Eli’s place happened to be Peyton’s Place in Super Bowl XLVI when the Giants took down the Patriots at Indianapolis’s Lucas Oil Stadium.
“I’m just happy for him to be in New York, and in a Super Bowl,” Eli said after congratulating his big brother in the locker room. “And obviously, played one in Indianapolis, and he was great to me, and whatever I needed, he was going to try to help me out, and obviously I’ll do the same for him.”
Oh, brother.
“I guess that’s pretty coincidental that it worked out that way — the Giants played in Indianapolis and we get a chance to play in New York,” Peyton said. “We’re going to savor this one. You can rename the AFC Championship after the Patriots, and they’ve been here so many times, and they know how to win big games. … It was a significant win.”
It was supposed to be captivating, compelling, mesmerizing, a Legends Game duel on a sun-splashed 60-degree day that no one would want to end, the two greatest practitioners of their craft from this generation eyeball to eyeball and toe to toe, very possibly for the final time with the stakes this high, Manning carrying the weight of his orange-crazed world on his shoulders and Brady carrying the weight of New EnglandStrong and GiseleStrong on his, desperate to get to Super Bowl XLVIII, or die trying.
The heavyweight championship of quarterback.
Peyton Manning by knockout.
Peyback to the Super Bowl.
Peyback from the dead.
“I think with Peyton, not much amazes me anymore,” Eli said. “He’s got a great mind-set, and he was determined to get back, and kind of felt it would happen, and anything he kind of puts his mind to, he usually can accomplish it.
“I had some doubts, I had some worries for sure, but he stayed strong and fought through it and was determined to get back and to get back to playing at the level he wanted to, and probably came back better than ever.”
Peyton was Bob Gibson from the start and Mariano Rivera at the end of the AFC Championship Game, throwing at the jugular to the finish.
And Brady was Ralph Branca pitching to Bobby Thomson.
That cold Brady had last Wednesday must have been Peytonitis.
It was Peyton who was able to reach down deep, and summon the vast reservoir of greatness that rests inside him.
“I thought he was on his game the whole day,” Eli said.
It gave Peyton a 5-10 record against Brady and Belichick, and it gives him the chance to be the first quarterback to take two franchises to a Super Bowl championship and forever change the narrative about his legacy.
Eli watched his brother’s magic in a suite with his wife and mother and brother Cooper and pacing proud papa Archie, who smiled at the recollection of Peyton beginning his battle back to play the game he loves so much again against all odds.
“In New Orleans he was recruiting me to go throw with him one day,” Archie said. “I can’t catch!
“I just didn’t know … when you’re his age, and what he went through, and playing the quarterback position in this league … we tried to just stay positive along with him. He handled it so well, he really had a good frame of mind about working and trying it, but if it didn’t work, he was at peace, so that was comforting, especially to me and [wife] Olivia.”
Brady had Bronco pass rushers in his face, while Peyton could have filmed another Football On My Phone video.
“I never have really bought into the Tom versus Peyton thing,” Archie said.
When Peyton capped a 13-play, 80-yard drive that lasted seven minutes and change at the start of the second half with a 3-yard TD pass to Thomas, it was Broncos 20, Patriots 3.
“One of my favorite things to tell him is ‘enjoy the journey.’ I tell him that all the time,” a misty-eyed Archie said, “and it’s been a good journey.”
SuperMann wears No. 18.