Peyton Manning: Build Him Up to Tear Him Down

Peyton Manning lost the Super Bowl; let the backlash begin. After all the hype about Peyton Manning’s legacy and would he be the greatest quarterback of all time, lots of the media and fans for that matter have taken a baseball bat and like the Robert De niro in the Untouchables, took pleasure bashing him in yesterday.

ENOUGH ALREADY! Yes he lost the Super Bowl, but that shouldn’t take away from his legacy or his greatness. The man is STILL to me the best quarterback of our generation. Why do I say that? The numbers don’t lie.

He was the first person to break Dan Marino’s touchdown record; he is probably going to break Brett Favre’s record for number of games started, number of touchdowns thrown, number of completions etc. I can go on and on and because he lost Sunday, people want to take that away from him and that’s not fair.

Dick Vitale, who rarely I agree with, compared Manning’s situation to Tim Tebow; people want to see him fail. It started last week with Skip Bayless who wouldn’t even CONSIDER Manning in the same conversation as Joe Montana even if he won another Super Bowl.

Manning has done something that two Hall of Fame quarterbacks in Dan Marino and Jim Kelly have never accomplished and that’s winning a Super Bowl. Did that take away from their legacy? I don’t think so. Marino, who probably was the greatest passer of all time, only went to the Super Bowl ONCE. Think about that.

Jim Kelly had Thurman Thomas and Bruce Smith on his team and they STILL didn’t win either. Do you think either one of these guys would trade their great seasons in for one Super Bowl? You bet they would.  Sometimes I wonder if we make too much out winning championships. If you don’t win a championship, you are a bum, overrated or just aren’t any good. Just because Peyton Manning may not win as many Super Bowl’s as Joe Montana, doesn’t make him a lesser player or should tarnish his reputation.

It sure’s hell doesn’t diminish his numbers. If you ask right now who the best player in football is, to a man I bet most of you would still say Peyton Manning. Manning has been constantly good almost from the beginning. As good as Tom Brady is, he has had ONE great season and one MVP.

Manning has four MVP’s and the guy isn’t even 35 yet and by the way, who’s to say he won’t make another Super Bowl before it’s all said and done. How important is Manning to his team? Well look at the Patriots. Even with Tom Brady hurt last year, they went 11-5 and almost made the playoffs AGAIN despite him being out.

Take Manning out of the Colts line up and they would be dead in the water. This guy had a rookie head coach; two of his receivers out in the beginning of this season, the second best player on his team hurt and they still went to the Super Bowl and almost won it.

So for all you Manning “haters” and bashers, you look at the numbers and you tell me if Peyton Manning doesn’t deserve to be considered one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.