Over the weekend, Peyton Manning was honored with his fourth NFL MVP Award. This gives Manning more MVPs than any player to ever play the game. Two weekends before, Manning became the youngest quarterback to ever throw for 50,000 yards and the fourth ever along with Elway, Marino, and Favre.
Peyton Manning’s brilliance is something that I feel gets overlooked today. Sure, everyone recognizes him as a great quarterback, but I feel like future generations are going to appreciate him more than the people that actually watched him play. The reason for this, I believe, is that there is so much talent at quarterback in the NFL today. This generation of quarterbacks have several guys who aren’t necessarily historically amazing, but have an opportunity to be remembered long after they’re done playing. This list includes McNabb, Roethlisberger, and Brees (who granted, has put up historic numbers). We have young QBs who have the chance to be very good, including Stafford, Ryan, Flacco, and Sanchez. And we have the guy who will always compete with Peyton as this generation’s best, Tom Brady.
Brady is a phenomenal player, you won’t find anyone who would say otherwise. And of course, Brady’s biggest advantage when it comes to being remembered as a historic QB are his three Super Bowl rings. But Peyton Manning is just flat out GOOD. Not only good but he is a hands down better quarterback than everyone else. Peyton has it all, the arm, the touch, the smarts, the consistency, and the intangibles. On top of that all, he works harder than anyone else in the league perfecting his craft.
As fans I think we all need to make an attempt to appreciate Peyton Manning while he is playing because we will certainly miss him when he’s gone. He may not get all of the credit he deserves because more of it is being spread around than ever, but make no mistake about it, there will not be another QB quite like Peyton Manning again in our lifetimes. Let’s hope the Colts keep things going in the playoffs so we can have a longer look this season at the greatness that is Peyton Manning.
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