Giants vs. Patriots: Second Title for Eli Manning Won't Push Him Past Peyton

There's been a lot of commotion about whether Eli Manning winning his second Super Bowl on Sunday would boost him past older brother Peyton.

But even if Eli surpasses Peyton in titles, he still shouldn't be deemed the better Manning.

It's safe to say that you don't need a Super Bowl to be called a great player, but it certainly helps. Eli's opponent, Tom Brady, is going for his fourth title, trying to tie Terry Bradshaw and the one and only Joe Montana for the NFL record among quarterbacks. A fourth championship could cement him in Montana's company.

But when evaluating individuals, it's not all about titles. Football is a team game, after all, and sometimes, well, certain quarterbacks have better teams than others.

Just look at what happened to the Indianapolis Colts this season when Peyton was out. The Colts had won 10 games or more the past nine seasons and all of a sudden went 2-14 the first year Peyton didn't start.

While the NFL MVP race is between Brady, Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees this season, an argument could be made Peyton should be the most valuable player in the true sense of the words.

That brings up another point: the Colts have never surrounded Peyton with a spectacular team. If Manning wins a title for the second time on Sunday, he will have been helped along by a fierce New York Giants pass rush.

While he's played stellar football this season, an argument could be made that the Giants wouldn't be where they are now without players such as Jason Pierre-Paul, Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora.

But there's more. When you look at their overall statistics, it's not even close. Peyton not only has a superior completion percentage (64.9 to 58.4), he also has a better touchdown-to-interception ratio, throwing 399 touchdowns to just 198 interceptions.

I'm not saying that Eli doesn't have a shot at catching up to Peyton, but having one more Super Bowl than him shouldn't automatically have us thinking he's a better quarterback.

Eli still has plenty of work to do to beat his older brother.