Peyton Manning and 18 Athletes It Was Bizarre to See Play for Another Team

Peyton Manning is a Denver Bronco.  Just typing that sentence was an odd experience.

Seeing him under center, receiving the ball from a guy not named Jeff Saturday, not wearing blue and white is going to be surreal.

Manning, like many of his fans, thought that he’d end his career with in Indianapolis at a time of his choosing.  But after fourteen seasons, his career has taken a detour.

Going from a horseshoe on his helmet to a horse’s profile doesn’t seem like that big of a shift, but fans will likely spend the entire season trying to get used to the change.

Like Manning, there have been a number of athletes so tied to a team and a city that watching them play for someone else just didn’t seem right.

These 18 athletes spent the majority of their career with one team.  As they aged, trades or free agency brought them to a bizarre new place—the opposition.

Joe Montana

The 49ers were so dominant during Montana's tenure that it seemed like their success would go on forever.

We dreamed of seeing Montana to Rice well past the horizon.

But with a young, promising star in Steve Young on the bench and Montana aging, San Francisco decided to move on without their legendary quarterback.

Fans then watched as Joe Cool began throwing passes for the Kansas City Chiefs.  Even with the success Montana had there, those years felt like they'd been pulled out of a video game.

In reality, Joe Montana was a 49er, period.

Earl Campbell

The Oilers' bulldozer of a running back stiff armed and powered his way to a spot in the Hall of Fame.

From 1978-1983, Earl Campbell was the foundation of the Houston Oilers offense.

If you were to think of Campbell in a uniform other than the Oilers' blue and white, it'd be his Texas Longhorns gear.  At the end of his career though, he stumbled to mediocrity with the Saints. 

After a trade to New Orleans in '84, he didn't make the Pro Bowl or reach a 1,000 yards like he did so many times with Houston. 

Patrick Ewing

Depending on who you ask Patrick Ewing is either one of the greatest Knicks of all time or the man who held New York back from their true potential.

In either scenario, Ewing is a Knick.

During the '90s, the Knicks were in the playoffs often, coming ever so close to overcoming Jordan's Bulls or Olajuwon's Rockets.

That flat top, that infectious smile, shot block after shot block, it all looked better in a Knicks uniform.

His years with the Sonics and the Magic will fade from our memories as time goes on, as if they never even happened.

Harmon Killebrew

Harmon Killebrew stayed so long with his first franchise that he saw his Washington Senators turn into the Minnesota Twins.

The Twins first superstar took them to the World Series in 1965 and hit well over 500 homers for them.

In his final season, Killebrew switched his Twins cap for a Royals one.

During his one supbar season with Kansas City, the Minnesota faithful gave him a standing ovation during a Twins-Royals game.

Johnny Unitas

From 1956 to 1972, Johnny Unitas was the face of the Baltimore Colts.

While wearing the blue and white, Unitas led the team to two NFL championships and a Super Bowl.  One of the Colts' and the NFL's greatest players of all time is understandably associated with one team.

Unitas though, ended his career with San Diego.

Seeing a photo of him with bolts on his helmet, one's first instinct is to dismiss it as a clever photoshopping job.  

Bobby Orr

He played 10 seasons for the Bruins, two for the Blackhawks.  Orr scored 101 goals with Boston, six with Chicago.

He meant so much to the Bruins franchise, one might think that the B on their jersey stands for Bobby.

Orr brought them two Stanley Cups and 10 years of exciting play.

The Blackhawks only got the twilight of his career, a mere 26 games from one of the greatest hockey players of all time.

Wade Boggs

To watch Wade Boggs leave the Red Sox after 10 years of service was something Boston fans would have struggled with regardless.

To make it that much more painful, he was traded to the Yankees.  Fewer pills are harder to swallow.

Boggs didn't bring the Red Sox to championship heights or past their curse, but he earned a spot in the All-Star game nearly every year he played for them and, almost as often, won the batting title.

Strangely enough, Boggs later went on to play for Tampa Bay.

It seems he couldn't bring himself to leave the AL East.

Tony Dorsett

Tony Dorsett ended his career in Denver of all places.

For a decade, he gained yard after yard for the Cowboys.  Dorsett seemed born to wear the silver and blue.

Looking back at photos of him in Dallas, that uniform seems like a second skin.

How many of the Cowboys plays ran through Dorsett in the '80s?  His year with the Broncos seems like an aberration.

Hank Aaron

The Hammer hit 733 of his 755 home runs while playing for the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves.

He reached his 3,000th hit and his 500th home run, surpassed Babe Ruth's homer record and won the World Series with the same team.

For all but a few fans, the mention of Hank Aaron conjures up the image of a man with a confident smile, a swift bat and a Braves cap on.

Even though his career started in Milwaukee, seeing him end his career with the Brewers was unreal.

Joe Namath

We will forever remember Joe Namath's Super Bowl guarantee and his finger wagging as he exits the field in victory.

In that image, carved into the brain of every sports fan, Broadway Joe is wearing a Jets uniform.

Is there anyone outside of Los Angeles who remembers anything specific that he did while with the Rams?

After over 10 years with New York, Namath finished his career with the Rams, injured, battered and nowhere near the star he'd been before.

Karl Malone

Basketball fans got used to seeing John Stockton throw passes to Karl Malone.  Seeing that they played hundreds of games together for nearly two decades, it's no surprise how attached we got to that pair.

You couldn't think of the Utah Jazz without thinking of one or both of those men.

Then in the 2003-2004 season, the Mailman joined the enemy.

He played for the Lakers in the hopes of achieving his elusive championship goals.  Malone looked awkward in the triangle offense, but even stranger in a Lakers uniform.  

Albert Pujols

Who knows how long Albert Pujols will play for.  Maybe he'll have such a long, fruitful career with the Angels that we don't think of him as Mr. Cardinal.

In 10 seasons with the Cardinals, Pujols helped bring two World Series titles to the city.

But for now, his depature from St. Louis is still hard to swallow, even as an Astros fan.

Plucking Pujols out of the lineup, leaves not only a hole in terms of power and batting prowess, but fans got accustomed to rooting for or against the Machine.

Anaheim seems like a distant planet to where Pujols has been abducted.

Ray Bourque

Beginning with his first game as a Bruin, where he scored a goal, Ray Bourque made a major impact for the Boston hockey team for what seemed like an eternity.

His tenure with the Bruins last for more than two decades.

How bizarre and frustrating must it have been for Boston fans to see him finally hoist the Stanley Cup in 2001 while playing for the Colorado Avalanche?

Even though his playing days with Colorado were so brief and even though he will always be a Bruin to nearly every hockey fan out there, Colorado retired his jersey. 

Yogi Berra

18 of Yogi Berra’s 19 seasons were with the New York Yankees.

Consider yourself a real sports fan if you can name the only other major league squad he played for without looking.

He capped his Hall of Fame career with a brief stint with the Mets.  While managing the Yankees' cross-town rivals, Berra stepped in and played just four games for them.

Yogi is one of the most iconic players on the most iconic team in baseball history.

Sure the Mets had pinstripes and NY on their caps, but they were never Yogi Berra's team.

Hakeem Olajuwon

Counting his days as a University of Houston cougar, Olajuwon played for Houston for 20 years.

In any Houston Rockets highlight reel, no one is featured more than the Dream.  He was the linchpin of their two championship seasons and easily the most popular player for much of his career.

Watching him suit up for the Raptors just felt like a bizarre dream.

Olajuwon failed to capture his former glory in Toronto, posting career lows and adding little to his Hall of Fame resume.

Brett Favre

Now that he's played for the Vikings and the Jets and played "Can you guess if I'm really retired?" with the media for so long, it's easy to forget how important he was to the Packers franchise.

For 15 years he wore the Packers green and yellow, accumulating just about every career passing record there is.

If you could tell a Packers fan in '97 that Favre would not only not end his career in Green Bay, but end it tossing the ball for the Vikings, they would have laughed in your face.

Favre played for them for so long, it felt like the Packers only two quarterbacks had been him and Bart Starr.

Emmitt Smith

Likely many of us have already washed away the memories of Emmitt Smith struggling for the Cardinals at the tail end of his career.

It's far more pleasant to remember him as one of the Triplets, a key figure in the Cowboys dynasty in the '90s.

He continued and topped the legacy of great Cowboys running backs.  He was the most charismatic superstar on America's team.

Emmitt did too much for too long for that franchise to be considered anything else than a Cowboy for life.

Michael Jordan

Even the most casual of fans could link the Bulls with Michael Jordan.

One of the most popular and famous athletes in any sport and any era, his Airness turned the Chicago Bulls from a directionless franchise into a dynasty.

We all knew that the experiment with baseball was temporary.  Seeing him in a White Sox uniform wasn't that unsettling because we knew that he'd be back to the sport where he was king.

After his second retirement ended, he came back as a Wizard.

Even now, seeing him play for them is a disturbing experience, proof positive that the world has gone insane.

Jordan had his moments with Washington, but it wasn't the same, and it wasn't right.