Peyton Manning is the NFL's most widely marketed player, and yet he was destined to spend this season, as they say, under the radar. Even an alarming injury could not elevate his personal drama to a level of pressing coast-to-coast interest.
As it turned out, his knee surgeries were greatly overshadowed by Tom Brady's.
Manning didn't have to be Manning this year; for all practical purposes, he could've taken the season off. He had his built-in excuses.
He was hurt, he had missed the entire preseason and he'd already taken the Indianapolis Colts to six consecutive playoff appearances and the one Super Bowl title he desperately needed to remove that ugly A-Rodian stain from his otherwise epic career.
Peyton had carried the Colts and the Manning name long enough. With his team at 3-4 and booked for games with the Patriots and Steelers, he could've temporarily surrendered the league to little brother Eli in New York, to the Titans of Tennessee, before picking up next year where he and Brady had left off.
That Manning chose to win seven consecutive games instead came as little surprise to those around him in the immediate wake of his liberating Super Bowl triumph over the Bears.
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Author's Website:http://www.foxsports.com
Added: December 17, 2008
