Will Peyton Manning Need This Super Bowl Win To Secure His Legacy?

Super Bowl XLVIII

Seattle Seahawks 43,. Denver Broncos 8

East Rutherford, New Jersey

February 2, 2014

The talk all week seems to be this: Peyton Manning is one of the great quarterbacks of all time. Probably the greatest regular season quarterback, with all the statistics and the wins to back this up.

But the knock on him is his performance historically in the postseason. In short, it has not been that great, and he has not kept up those great numbers of the regular season once he gets into the postseason.

This will be his third time reaching the Super Bowl. The previous times, he was at the helm for the Indianapolis Colts. They got hot in 2006 and won three straight postseason games to reach the Super Bowl, and he had a strong game there, winning Super Bowl MVP honors, and earning his first ever Super Bowl ring. But when the Colts got there after a very strong 2009 season, they lost to the Saints. The clinching moment was when Manning threw a pick six late in the fourth quarter to ice the game for New Orleans.

Obviously, he has burned to get another shot at the big game, after that last experience. But he would not have the chance to do it with the Indianapolis Colts.

This time, he did it with another team, and another system. He chose the Denver Broncos, and was rewarded with two great seasons. But last season was marred by the failure of the Broncos to win even a single postseason game. Manning had a decent game, but the Ravens were the hot team, and shocked the Broncos at Mile High.

On the heels of that disappointment, Manning and the Broncos put together a phenomenal season this year. Manning threw for more passing yards and, more importantly, threw for more touchdowns, than any other quarterback in history for a single season. He already owns many of the all-time quarterback records, and if he continues on past this season, he likely would clinch many more records very quickly next season.

In short, his credentials are beyond question in his overall career.

Still, people knock him for his postseason failures, and claim that this detracts, even greatly detracts, from his legacy.

Maybe. I'm not sure. I think he has always been among the most talented quarterbacks that the league has ever seen, and when you think about what he accomplished simply in keeping on playing, and starting anew with a different team, and actually succeeding with them, it is really phenomenal, and adds even more to his already considerable legacy. Other great quarterbacks have tried with other teams, and did not succeed. Joe Montana did not continue in Kansas City the way he had in San Francisco. Joe Namath was not the same quarterback with the Los Angeles Rams that he had been with the New York Jets. Brett Favre came close in 2009 with the Minnesota Vikings, but is best remembered for the interception with seconds left in regulation, that probably cost his team a berth in the Super Bowl. Favre's 2010 season was a disaster, and rather marred his public image.

In each of those cases, it was clear that these men should have stepped away from the game earlier, that their experimentation with other teams at an advanced age was a flop.

Not so with Manning, who has absolutely thrived in Denver. How much did he flourish? The Denver Broncos barely won a weak division in 2011 behind a much maligned quarterback in Tim Tebow. They snuck into the playoffs, but their home victory against Pittsburgh was deemed by many to be a fluke. When Denver got slaughtered at New England the next week, it kind of confirmed their status as a not so serious team.

That changed dramatically, and right away, when Manning chose the Broncos out of the three teams that he had been officially flirting with joining at the time - the Tennessee Titans, the San Francisco 49ers, and the Denver Broncos.

But people were not sure. he had not played in more than a year. How would he react the first time he really got a big hit? Was his arm still the same? Was he too old? Had the game perhaps passed him by a little during that long 2011 season when he was standing on the Indianapolis sideline?

Well, those doubts have been answered. The Broncos went from relative mediocrity at 8-8 in 2011, to the cusp of greatness since. They started off the 2012 season at 2-3, struggling out of the gate. But boy, did they end with a flourish, winning their final eleven straight to earn the top seed in the AFC. Still, they lost to Baltimore immediately.

Now, this season, the Broncos were ready. It started off right away with a rematch against the defending Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens, and Manning set the tone for the rest of a historic season, throwing seven touchdown passes and wowing audiences everywhere. He would go on to throw 55 touchdown passes in the season, easily a record. He also passed for more yards than any other quarterback in a single season. He was the engineer of the most explosive offense that the league has ever seen. The Broncos were the first team to have scored over 600 points in a season. And now, he has gotten back to the Super Bowl. That more than answered the critics, silencing them forever.

Or, has it? Some are still suggesting that Manning needs this victory to secure his legacy. I have been listening to sports radio the last week or so more than usual, getting in the mood for the upcoming Super Bowl. Some are suggesting that he does indeed need it, while others claim that he already has attained that lofty status, and that this would cement that further.

Personally, I think that he already has earned that very elite status, although his winning this Super Bowl upcoming would indeed finally silence all the critics. But this is a man who has passed for many of the all-time records already. Plus, he already has a ring, and has led his team (two entirely different franchises, in fact) to the Super Bowl three times. Having led Denver to this Super Bowl, he becomes only one of a very few men (I think he becomes the third) quarterback ever to lead different teams to the Super Bowl. If he wins this Super Bowl, he will become the first ever quarterback to achieve that feat. And, again, he has more than one season under his belt that were considered serious contenders for greatest season that any quarterback ever had. Two of the top three touchdown passes thrown in a single season belong to him, and this season was the all-time record. So, if he caps all of that with a Super Bowl ring to boot, I don't think there remains any real arguments anymore that he belongs to the very upper tier even among elite quarterbacks. Only a very few names - Montana, Elway, and perhaps Brady - would belong in the same category, and could be mentioned in the same breath as Peyton Manning without strange looks.

Obviously, though, it would really, really help his cause if he and the Broncos were to win on Sunday.