Between Jason Varitek’s retirement announcement and Peyton Manning’s press conference yesterday, we’ve been sharing a lot of tears here on howiGit—for that I apologize. But just as Bostonian’s owed Varitek a moment of reflection, a thank you, I think that Patriots fans owe Peyton a tip of the cap for his 14 years spent as quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts.
Everybody knows that Peyton and Tom Brady will go down in history as the best quarterbacks of their generation. They’ve been rivals throughout their careers, and they have undoubtedly pushed each other to be better. They’ve swapped wins and losses, broke each others’ records and you better believe Peyton had the Patriots game circled on his calendar each year, and vice versa.
In the modern NFL, Brady and Peyton were the equivalent of Magic and Bird, Ali and Frasier. They squared off a total of 14 times since 2001, with the Pats winning nine of those meetings. There’s no doubt in my mind that Peyton would have won more rings were it not for Brady, much like Phil Mickelson’s career record being diminished by playing in the Tiger Woods era.
The romantic in me would have loved to see Peyton stay in Indy for his entire career—I certainly hope that’s the case with Brady. But the hard truth about Peyton leaving the Colts is that due to the business aspects of the game, it made sense for everyone involved. Peyton is undoubtedly in the twilight of his career, and the Colts are lucky enough to have the opportunity to draft Andrew Luck and realize significant savings by moving Peyton.
For Peyton it’s also a good deal of sorts. The Colts are an aging franchise in decline, and he’ll likely walk into a nice opportunity to win wherever he signs while realizing another big payday.
For Colts fans, that doesn’t help ease the sting. Colts fans worship Peyton, as they should, and his press conference yesterday really hammered home what Peyton has meant to the city of Indianapolis. He’s been a good sport, a class act, one of the best quarterbacks of all time and he brought Indy a championship. What more can you ask of your quarterback?
I’m sure that half of the NFL will be pursuing Peyton’s services in the upcoming weeks. Part of me would love for the rumors to be true and have Peyton land in Miami, thus joining Tom in the AFC East. At the same time, I do subscribe to the thinking that the Dolphins are much closer to being a contender than most people think, and a division with the Jets, Pats and a Peyton-led Dolphins team is an unsettling prospect.
Regardless of where Peyton ends up, I expect him to be awesome for at least a few more years—he’s still Peyton Manning. But at the end of the day (the Hall of Fame in this case), Peyton will always be a Colt. And he’ll always have the respect of most New England fans, even the Tom Brady humpers like myself.
Geoff Roberts is the Founder and Managing Editor of howiGit.com, a Boston sports blog.
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