Is Peyton The Best Ever?

On Sunday we might not just be watching Super Bowl XLIV, but we might just be watching a player make a case for the greatest to ever lace up the cleats.

Peyton Manning will be attempting to grab his second title and in the process put him one step closer to having his name thrown around with Dan Marino, Walter Payton, Emmitt Smith, and Jerry Rice.  Just think for a moment that the 33 year old still probably has a couple years left if not maybe even 6 or 7, but he already has 10 Pro Bowl selections, 4 MVP Awards, a Pro Bowl MVP, a Super Bowl MVP, and 1 Super Bowl Title.  All that and I haven’t even mentioned his stats yet…

Manning holds the records for consecutive seasons with over 4,000 yards passing and the most seasons with 4,000 or more yards passing in a career.  Those are just 2 of the 31 regular season records he holds.  Wait, he also holds 7 playoff records, 7 rookie records, 5 QB-WR tandem records, 7 Pro Bowl records, oh and just 54 team records. Did I mention that since he was drafted in 1998, the Colts have the highest conversion rate on 3rd down (44.6%)?

This obviously doesn’t count all the major records that he’ll most likely steal from Brett Favre as Manning closes out his career.

If the colts win on Sunday, he’ll have his second title, most likely his second Super Bowl MVP and I can’t see why he might have contention to be called the greatest after that game.  He won 115 games in the 00’s, he puts the team on his shoulders (in 2009 he had 7 4th quarter comeback wins), and at times looks like he is unbeatable (completed 82% of his passes in December 2008).

I didn’t get to see some of the other great players our parents claim were unstoppable, but every time Peyton is on the field I see something amazing and outside of a couple games, there is nothing that can stop him.  He trains and studies like no other and he has never been the center of controversy.

To me, he is 1 win away.