Peyton Manning: Fame or Failure?

Peyton Manning has been a hot topic of discussion in break rooms, at water coolers, with friends, with strangers, on sports news, and during in game commentaries for years. There’s been talk about how great a quarterback he is and arguments about how he chokes during the biggest games of his career. Anyone who supports him will talk about his records and highlights while all those that criticize him point to each of his losses in the Playoffs and his failure to achieve a Super Bowl victory. However, it is this writer’s opinion that a game victory is a team achievement, while records reflect the statistics of the player. Regardless of whether Peyton Manning ever achieves a Super Bowl Victory he will most certainly be admitted into the Hall of Fame as one of the greatest Quarterbacks in history.

Peyton Manning has been shattering records since he set foot on a college football field. In 1994, Manning began playing for the University of Tennessee Volunteers during his freshman year. By his sophomore year he had already started to set team records, setting the single season passing yardage record after throwing for 2,954 yards. In 1996, he not only passed his own single season passing record with 3,287 yards, but he also set a new single game passing record with 492 yards. Completing his final year as a senior in Tennessee, Peyton Manning continued to out do himself again by resetting the single game passing record with 523 yards and the Season record with 3,819 yards. He even shattered Andy Kelly‘s (1988-91) and Heath Shuler’s (1991-93) tie of 36 career touchdowns, by finishing his college career with a record smashing 89 passing touchdowns. Peyton Manning left Tennessee holding 2 NCAA, 7 SEC, 33 Tennessee, 10 season, and 7 game records to highlight his college career.

In 1998, the Indianapolis Colts chose to take Peyton Manning as the #1 overall pick in the NFL draft and have been rewarded with one of the best quarterback careers in history. Seemingly without missing a beat, Peyton Manning has continued to break records consistently during his nine year NFL career. He currently holds 10 individual, 5 rookie, and 3 QB-WR tandem NFL records and also has 12 Colts team records, and has received numerous accolades including the 2003 Co-MVP with Steve McNair, 2004 MVP, 2005 Pro Bowl MVP, 2003 and 2004 Bert Bell Award, and several Player of the week and month awards. His team records include Most Passes (575), most completions (326), most yards gained (3,739), and most touchdowns (26) in a rookie season among many other game and season records. Some of his NFL records consist of seven 4,000+ yard seasons, six consecutive 4,000+ yard seasons, nine consecutive seasons with 25+ touchdown passes, 49 touchdowns in one season, season passer rating of 121.1, and 4 games with perfect passer ratings(most of any QB since the rating was created in 1973). With the possibility of several years left in his career, it is possible that Manning will continue to break several more career and season records before his retirement.

It seems that no matter how many records Peyton Manning continues to break, critics continue to concern themselves over Manning’s lack of a Super Bowl title. They often refer to the career of Dan Marino of the Miami Dolphins, pointing to all the records that Mario set, but his own failure to achieve the greatness that comes with the status of a Super Bowl victory; However, Marino has been inducted into the Hall of Fame, and anyone with a little knowledge about football can tell you who Marino was or at least recognize his name in a conversation. Super Bowl victories are the goal and dreams of every player in the NFL, and recognize great teams for their crowning achievement, but not every player on a Super Bowl team is worthy of fame status. Winning a Super Bowl doesn’t gain admittance into the Hall of Fame. Although winning a Super Bowl would help compliment Manning’s stellar career as an NFL Player, his admittance into the Hall of Fame is what will set him aside as one of the greats in NFL history. Regardless, of his success in the Super Bowl, Manning’s record breaking career has already propelled him into greatness. His spectacular play and athleticism on the field has him destined for the Hall of Fame where he will be a legend among legends.

Silver Dragon