![]() ![]() Wins as starting quarterback for two different teams.Patriots ( XXXVI, XXXVIII, XXXIX, XLII, XLVI, XLIX, LI, LII, LIII).Patriots – Head coach ( XXXVI, XXXVIII, XXXIX, XLII, XLVI, XLIX, LI, LII, LIII).Most appearances as either a player or coach: 12.Longest time span between Super Bowl championships as a player: 12 seasons.Win a Super Bowl with one team and then defeat that same team in the Super Bowl the following season.2000's: Patriots ( XXXVI, XXXVIII, XXXIX).Win a Super Bowl in three different decades.Back to back championships with different teams.Patriots ( XXXVI, XXXVIII, XXXIX, XLIX, LI, LIII).For a sport that prizes collective splendour, there can be no greater individual reward for Peyton Williams Manning – and it would draw him level with his younger brother, Eli, who has won two with the New York Giants.A complete list of Super Bowl records can be found in the 2022 Official NFL Record & Fact Book beginning at page 659. It is to this end – the winning of titles – that his singular gifts are dedicated. It is a team that sees nothing less than a Super Bowl victory as proper reward for its purposeful striving.Ī second championship would indeed be a fit and proper reward for Manning. It is a team constructed in his image: calm, smooth, not given to panic or rash decision-making. The team – like Manning – quietly hums along. In his second season, he won the Most Valuable Player award, and led the Broncos to the Super Bowl. In his first season there, he led Denver to the best record in the conference, winning the league’s comeback player of the year award and turning a losing team around on a dime. His performance has been nothing short of superlative. Arriving in Denver, he took charge of a team desperate for a good quarterback. ![]() In the wake of the operation, it was entirely possible that he wouldn’t be able to play – ever again, let alone at the level the NFL demands. What makes the fulfilment of Manning’s duties even more astonishing is that they’ve come in the wake of him missing an entire season due to spinal fusion surgery. The totality of his accomplishments are too staggering to dismiss, let alone ignore. Dan Marino, Joe Montana, Johnny Unitas – even Denver’s own John Elway, who remains the best-loved Bronco of them all, having spent his entire career with the team. In the shattering of these milestones, Manning has surpassed every noteworthy quarterback of the last 50 years. Not only has he thrown more touchdown passes than anyone else, he ranks second in total yards, second in both completed passes and pass attempts, second in passer rating, and third in yards per game – and he is the league’s career leader in game-winning drives and fourth-quarter comebacks. Manning’s achievements are simply too majestic to ignore. ![]() ![]() Sunday night was one of those rare occasions. It prefers the glorification of the team, and the surrender of the individual to a greater whole, in pursuit of a greater good. The sport, with rare exceptions, does not celebrate the individual pursuit of excellence. For a sport whose tactics and strategies are dominated by numerical analysis, there’s a strange lack of reverence for its individual achievements unlike baseball, most fans couldn’t tell you who the career leaders in various statistical categories. The NFL draws vehement criticism for being obsessed with how players behave on the field, banning the most anodyne of personal expressions, while being blind, deaf and mute to how its players act outside the gridiron.įor a league lately beleaguered by those off-field travails, last night’s record-setting performance by Manning proved a welcome tonic. It’s with good reason that people mock the initials of the National Football League as standing for the “No Fun League”. His buttoned-up image is the personification of what has become a corporate sports behemoth. These are not words you would associate with Manning. And last night, he threw the 509th and 510th touchdown passes of his career, breaking the record held by retired quarterback Brett Favre – a man who was, in most respects, the complete opposite of Manning, a happy-go-lucky gunslinger whose reckless risk-taking sometimes careened into disaster. ![]()
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