| Peyton Manning |
| Written by Chuck Cavalaris | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, 01 July 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Here's one way to put things into perspective: The 32-year-old superstar has been in the NFL for a decade and will participate in his 11th training camp with the Indianapolis Colts this month. Yes, 11 training camps. Which means a lot of cute little babies that were named Peyton way back in the mid-1990's are teenagers now. Pretty soon, there might even be a Peyton Somebody that plays quarterback at a place around here. The 32-year-old superstar is so old that his kid brother, Eli, has also been the winning quarterback in a Super Bowl and was voted the MVP, too. The 32-year-old superstar is old enough for a rookie teammate, tight end Jacob Tamme of Kentucky, to point out how much he enjoys watching Manning play football on ESPN Classic in a 1995 Tennessee win at Georgia. At least the game footage was preserved in color. Perhaps you get the picture. We're not getting any younger and neither is Peyton Manning. Time waits on no one - not even a future Pro Football Hall of Famer. "Wait a minute, there," Manning said recently during his golf tournament at Egwani Farms to benefit St. Mary's Medical Center. "I don't feel like an old player. I feel very much young." The 6-foot-5, 235-pound quarterback is in great shape. He has started all 160 regular season games the Colts have played since Manning joined the franchise as the No. 1 selection of the 1998 NFL Draft. With the retirement of Brett Favre at Green Bay, it just happens to be longest streak among active quarterbacks in the NFL. (Perhaps Peyton should send a thank-you note to Brett - assuming, of course, that Favre actually stays retired.) For all of the country boy charm and shrewd business sense that Manning and Favre have in common, the former UT standout is smart enough to seek advice about how to stick around as an NFL quarterback in his 30s. Manning sought opinions of players and trainers about how to prolong a career. He learned there's no better time than the present to curtail the amount of throws in training camp and practice. For comparison, a baseball pitcher in his 30s that gets a "tired arm" usually ends up throwing batting practice. "I don't want to just be hanging on," Manning said. "I still want to be able to make the same throws I've always made. Hopefully, that will be a number of more years." The New Orleans native has been making slightly wobbly throws with incredible accuracy for a long time. His first game as a Vol occurred in the 1994 opener at UCLA after senior Jerry Colquitt suffered a knee injury that ended his college career just seven plays into the first game. Manning was happy to make the travel squad and had accepted the fact a redshirt season was more likely than quality playing time. He entered the game in relief of Todd Helton after the Vols had fallen behind by three touchdowns. He entered the game with the voice of his father, Archie, in his head. "We're getting beat - 21 to nothing, I think - so the team is kind of down," Manning recalled. "Anyway, I'm jogging in and right then I remember old Dad's pep talk. So I get in there and say, ‘Alright, guys, I know I'm just a freshman but I can take you down the field right now and lead you to a touchdown.' And I'm fired up. And this left tackle, Jason Layman, grabs me by the shoulder pads and says, ‘Peyton, freshman, shut up and call the play.' No lie. I said, ‘Yes, sir' and called the play. And I didn't say a word the whole season." Fast forward 14 years and there isn't much else to say. Not about Peyton Manning, the quarterback, intense competitor, shrewd businessman and benefactor. He has put together one gigantic highlight reel. He's definitely become one of the all-time classics to play the game.           
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For anyone that recalls seeing a lanky Peyton Manning make his debut at quarterback for the University of Tennessee, the thought of him as a "grizzled veteran" in the NFL is difficult to accept.
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