Categories
Indianapolis Colts

Following Greatness

For years my favorite player who doesn’t wear a Jets uniform has been Peyton Manning. He’s a great quarterback, says the right things, does the right things (for the most part), and he is always in a good commercial. By the way you can pretty much bet that win or lose in the Super Bowl, Mastercard is going to make a commercial about him beating the Patriots to go to the Super Bowl was “Priceless.”
Anyway, going into this years AFC Championship I was terribly disturbed by what I was hearing on the radio and what I was reading in the newspapers. There was just too much talk of Manning not being a “great” quarterback until he won the “Big Game” or a Super Bowl.

Here is the problem with that logic; it’s just an incorrect statement. Let me just rattle off a few Super Bowl winning Quarterbacks and let’s see what they have in common: Jeff Hostetler, Trent Dilfer, and Kurt Warner. Would you or anyone else call any of the above quarterbacks “Great?” If Peyton Manning never wins a Super Bowl, would you want any of the above to be your starting quarterback? Perhaps those examples are a bit too obvious, but in my mind greatness is not determined by Super Bowls.

Football is a team game and as vital as quarterbacks are, they aren’t the only reason why a team wins or loses. We all know that defense, special teams, and coaching are just as integral a part of success in the NFL as any one player.

So why is there so much heat on Peyton Manning when everyone in the sports world knows he is going to break almost every quarterback record there is? Well, expectations.

When you have the best player at the most important position you expect to go to the Super Bowl. We heard the same radio shows make the same statements about Elway and Marino. The fact that Dan Marino never won a Super Bowl still burns me in a way, because a player that good deserves to have something that great happen to him.

For years Peyton has been trying to do it all by himself. Even though he had a great running back behind him in Edgerrin James and a great receiver in Marvin Harrison he still couldn’t get over that proverbial hump. But everyone knows what the Colts truly lacked was a great defense.

This year I could run on the Indianapolis defense, but when we saw this defense in the playoffs they stopped arguably the second best running back in the league in Larry Johnson and a pretty good running back in Jamal Lewis. Granted that these aren’t exactly the offensive elite of the NFL but it is worth noting that the Colts defense raised their play enough for them to win two huge games.

So here come the Patriots and what is beginning to be the Red Sox and the Yankees of the NFL. If you’re a Patriots fan, this must be a little weird for you because now your team is the team everyone wants to lose. The Colts have become the team everyone wants to win, the loveable losers if you will.

We all know what happened in that game. The Pats built what seemed to be an insurmountable lead, the Colts lead by Manning and a stout defense came back in the second half, and now the Colts are going to play in the Super Bowl.

Every newspaper, every talk show, every sports website talked about how great Manning was in that second half, like it was so unexpected for him to play that well. Again, this is a quarterback that is going to break almost every record, so why was it that surprising?

I said to my sister and her fiancée at half time that the Colts were going to comeback and win. You can take that for what its worth, but it’s the truth.

Here is the way I looked at it, whenever people consider me good at something sometimes I have to be in a horrible situation to show just how good I am. And that was where Manning was. He was in an awful situation. Nobody really thought they had a shot except him and the Colts players and coaches.

So I ask you this, when you reach that point where only you and a few others believe in something what do you have to lose? Nothing and the Colts didn’t lose either.

In a round about way, what I am trying to say here is that Manning isn’t a “Great” quarterback because he won the “Big Game”, he is a great quarterback because that team will continue to play in those big games as long as he is guiding the offense. Peyton Manning will lead this team to many playoff appearances, conference title games, and maybe Super Bowls. It is up to the Colts front office to surround Manning with a defense that can pick up the pace when the offense is struggling and to continue to surround Manning with great skill players.

If Manning loses the Super Bowl he will face the question of will he ever win a Super Bowl? He may not ever win a Super Bowl. He may never get back there, but what we do know is that when Peyton Manning steps on the field you know you are watching a player who has mastered his craft. How many other quarterbacks can say the same thing? Well we know that Kurt Warner, Trent Dilfer, and Jeff Hostetler can’t, but hey at least they won a Super Bowl.

2 replies on “Following Greatness”

Kurt Warner He may be terrible now, but from 99-01 he was the best quarterback in football. It’s incorrect to group him with Dilfer and Hostetler, who were never good.

agreed Kurt Warner was unstoppable before his thumb injury.  Now he can neither throw or hold onto the ball.

That Greatest Show on Turf was awesome and hasnt been the same since Warner left.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *