Brett Favre-Peyton Manning Super Bowl: Battle of Epic Proportions

Brett Favre is playing like he's 25. Peyton Manning, well he's just being Peyton Manning.

It's crazy to hear such things as "career year" in regards to the play of Favre and Manning this season, a pair which has combined for seven league Most Valuable Player awards.

But that term is accurate in summarizing the season of arguably the two best quarterbacks the NFL has ever seen.

Favre's 107.2 quarterback rating, a career high, ranked just second behind his counterpart in this weekend's NFC Championship, Drew Brees. His 8:1 touchdown to interception ratio is a career best and his seven interceptions have astonished spectators as the gun slinger is known for his numerous turnovers.

Despite losing the MVP battle to Manning, this season, Super Bowl victory or not, has been Favre's greatest. Never again will we see a 40-year-old quarterback take over and dominate games the way Favre did this season. He took over a team with the league's top running back and changed the run-first mentality of the Vikings to nearly unstoppable mixture of pass then run.

From a statistical standpoint, this wasn't Manning's best season. Yes, he threw for 4,770 yards and 33 touchdowns but those 16 interceptions were his most since 2002. Where Manning earned and solidified is MVP award was by simply winning, and the Colts did plenty of that this season.

In fact, Manning hasn't lost a game that he's played in its entirety since last year's wild card weekend loss in overtime to the Chargers in which he didn't have a chance to touch the ball. Everybody loves and has a will to win. But I don't believe the league will ever see a better winner than Manning.

Manning led Indianapolis to a league-record 23 straight regular-season wins, another league record seven fourth-quarter comebacks and perhaps most impressive of all, he did so without the likes of Marvin Harrison and Anthony Gonzalez. And if he can lead the Colts past New York this weekend in the AFC Championship, Manning could be facing...Favre.

Can you imagine a Favre-Manning Super Bowl?

That would easily make Super Bowl XLIV the most highly anticipated championship game in NFL history. Never will the league see a quarterback matchup such as this in Super Bowl history.

The pair combine for 31 years of experience, over 119,000 passing yards, 863 touchdowns, 478 consecutive starts, 312 wins, 20 Pro Bowl appearances, 11 All-Pro selections, seven MVP's and two Super Bowl victories.

Need I say more?

The two have at one point in their careers been labeled as a playoff choke artist, but both have shed that label by winning Super Bowls and consistently contending in their conferences.

The Colts will be the favorites against the Jets while the Vikings will be a slight underdog in New Orleans, but just the thought of a Favre-Manning Super Bowl gives me the chills.

Both will likely finish one-two in all major passing categories once their careers end. Manning holds the edge in MVP awards. Favre holds the edge in virtually every other category (he is seven years older).

But the two are tied in Super Bowl victories at one apiece, so a battle on sports’ biggest stage will keep one of these greats at one, and propel the other to two.