His health is questionable going forward and he gets to go out on top.
One thing that grabbed me was when they were introducing players from past Superbowls...most couldn’t walk well at all.
Retire, Payton, you have been barely functional the last few games. Leave your legacy intact.
Thanks for the memories.
But why retire on a low-note? ...right?
The only reason he might want to stay is to break Favre’s record for total wins (they’re tied at 200 now), but I think Peyton is more long-term than that; he has the brains and football savvy to be a head coach like, well, Kubiak.
How many NFL players can say that their last act on the field was a completed pass for a 2-point conversion to emphatically slam the lid on a Superbowl victory?
Let’s hope it was. He’s been so bad. Yeah with that defense he could probably make another run, but then how much of that defense could they keep if they’re still dragging his salary? 19 million is a lot to pay for a guy throwing less than 30 passes a game, meanwhile almost their entire starting D including Miller, Marshall, and Smith are free agents. They’ve already said they want to tag Miller, which keeps him for a year but is expensive, the rest have to be negotiated. The difference between keeping the core of that defense and blowing it all up could very well be not bringing back Manning.
He looked awful yesterday, but don’t discount his leadership. For some reason, the Broncos won behind him and lost behind Brock Ostweiler. He should take Irsay up on retiring as a Colt. He’s got nothing to prove anymore and everything to disprove.
Manning is done as a player. It was painfully obvious this year. He knows it, and has been dropping a lot of not-so-subtle hints in that regard. You have to hand it to him, he played this masterfully. He planned on this being his last game, he orchestrated the “I’m retiring” thing to help motivate his team, and maybe, just maybe place some subtle bias in the minds of the officials. Nobody wanted to be the guy who denied him his glorious well-managed exit from the playing stage, did they?
And he didn’t want to make the announcement last night because he didn’t want to take away the focus on the fact his team just won a Super Bowl.
No, he is doing this “the right way” all down the line. I expect the formal announcement will come soon, within the next week or so.
His QB rating from 1999-2014 was 100.3
His QB rating this season was 67.9
He's done.
I respect Manning, but honestly, Ryan Leaf could have won that game with that defense....
he will retire, he can say it after savoring the win.
Peyton is going to retire. He just didn’t want to steal the spotlight from the rest of the team.
Just wasn’t the right time to announce it.
I’m not a Broncos fan but Peyton got his start here in Indy and he did Right by us. I was sorry to see him go, but given his injuries and subsequent surgery, I understood the business decision iIrsay had to make.
I’m glad he won and would like to see him go out on top.
Classy guy.
There is a rumor floating around that he will sign a ceremonial contract with Indianapolis and retire a Colt. Would be kind of cool, I suppose.