Colts set to celebrate Manning
INDIANAPOLIS — Bill Polian remembers walking into the RCA Dome for Peyton Manning’s home debut in 1998, peering into the stands and seeing all those Dan Marino jerseys.
When he wanted an explanation, the future Hall of Fame executive was told Indiana’s football fans started following the Dolphins when former Purdue quarterback Bob Griese was winning Super Bowls and never switched their allegiance. Polian, who attended high school in the Bronx and grew up a die-hard Yankees fan, never completely understood why they wouldn’t support their hometown team.
Within a few short years, Manning and his teammates had converted them.
Suddenly, an oft-empty stadium was selling out so often the organization needed a season-ticket waiting list. And so many fans dressed in royal blue and white, many bearing the familiar No. 18, that television analyst John Madden often dubbed Indy as the home to the most jerseys in any NFL stadium.
On Sunday, Manning will be inducted into the team’s Ring of Honor and become the first player from the franchise’s Indianapolis era to have his jersey retired.
“He put the sheen on the horseshoe, and the horseshoe, because of him and Jim Irsay and Tony (Dungy), really means something now,” Polian said. “He had a pretty special antenna and connection with fans.”
By almost any measure, Manning had one of the greatest careers in NFL history.
He started 227 consecutive games, including the playoffs, and finished as the league’s career leader in yards passing (71,940) and touchdowns (539). His 6,125 completions and 9,380 attempts are second all-time.
He holds records for most TD passes in a season (55), most yards passing in a season (5,477), most 300-yard games (93), most games with a perfect passer rating (five), most 4,000-yard seasons (14), most come-from behind wins (45), even most interceptions by a rookie (28). His 14 Pro Bowl appearances are tied for the most ever.
His trophy case includes a record five NFL MVP awards and two Super Bowl rings.
For most teams, the numbers would warrant erecting a statue outside the stadium he helped fund and that will happen today. Of course, Manning did more than win on the field: he helped this basketball-crazed state and a city known far and wide for the Indianapolis 500 embrace football.
“Inside the stadium in those early days, it was hit or miss whether or not the other team was going to have as many fans as you did,” said former deputy mayor Steve Campbell, a longtime season-ticket holder who starts a new job with the Colts on Monday. “Two, maybe three years in, inside the stadium, outside the stadium at tailgate areas, that was the moment I think the Colts truly became solidified as Indianapolis’ team and not just the team that came from Baltimore. He was not only an ambassador for the team and the NFL, he was an ambassador for the city.”