MILE-HIGH MANN
Broncos soak in Peyton euphoria as they cross fingers on his health
Tim Tebow, a quarterback with a limited skill set, took the Broncos to the playoffs last year and won a playoff game, so if Peyton Manning, one of the top five quarterbacks in NFL history, is back to being Peyton Manning after sitting out last season, then Denver will be a legitimate Super Bowl contender.
“He looks good to me,” coach John Fox told the Daily News from the Broncos offices. “Compared to the times I’ve played him, me personally, I don’t see a difference. I can’t predict wins and losses and record. You get what you deserve in the end.”
Manningmania has replaced Tebowmania in the Mile High City, with attendance at training camp doubling from last year and Manning’s jersey the No. 1 seller in the NFL since April. With a 14-year gap from John Elway to Manning, Denver fans are hoping for a repeat when Elway ended his career with wins in back-to-back Super Bowls.
In the last two years, Manning has undergone four neck surgeries. He is 36 years old. After starting every game in his first 13 seasons, and missing only a handful of plays due to injury, he missed all of last year and was cut in March when the Colts elected not to pay him his $28 million option bonus. The Colts collapsed last season and finished 2-14 without him, which positioned them perfectly for the No. 1 pick in the draft. So, they went from Manning to Stanford’s Andrew Luck, who plays more like Peyton than Eli Manning does.
“Did I miss playing? What do you think? I have missed it, and I’ve never taken it for granted to be out there playing,” Peyton said. “I had been playing for 13 years straight and never missed a game since I’ve been playing quarterback in the seventh grade. That’s a lot of consecutive games, a lot of Fridays or Saturdays or Sundays to be playing a game. . . .
“I’ve always felt very fortunate to be playing this game for a living.”
The Broncos, who hold training camp at their facility, averaged 2,872 fans for each practice, with the largest crowd at 5,040. There is a hill the length of the field that wraps around one of the end zones. Fans sat 15 deep to watch practice. The Broncos held one practice at Mile High Stadium which drew 41,304 fans, the second-largest stadium crowd for practice this summer behind Green Bay, which had 55,608 fans.
Last year, Broncos television ratings were up 38% over 2010, more than twice the next biggest jump in the league. Tebow was embraced by Broncos fans, and his incredible run of last-minute victories endeared him to fans across the country. But this is Peyton Manning, one of the best ever.
Fox said he has no doubts physically about Manning and worries about him taking a hit in a game, but no more than any player, he said. But he’s now the franchise and the only one of Fox’s players who has had four neck surgeries in the last two years.
The Broncos’ success will be determined almost entirely by how Manning plays. “He’s throwing the ball excellent,” Fox said. “He’s convinced he is still getting better every day. I don’t think he ever stops trying to get better. I respect that about him. He holds guys accountable. He’s a perfectionist.”
The Broncos had been dormant since Elway retired following the 1998 season until Tebow revived them last year. But Elway never believed he could win a Super Bowl with Tebow. He was aggressive recruiting Manning and then traded Tebow to the Jets rather than keep him as a backup. Now they are making a run for it with Manning.
“I plan on playing for a long time,” Manning said. “I realize that I don’t have 14 years left by any means, but at the same time, this isn’t something that I’m building a foundation for. This is a now situation. We’re trying to win now.”
“He’s leading in the same way, playing the same,” said Broncos tight end Jacob Tamme, who followed Manning from Indianapolis to Denver and caught 67 passes from Manning in 2010. “He’s throwing the ball great. Everybody wants me to make comparisons, which I am not going to do, and is hard for me to do, but he is throwing the ball great. It’s really nit-picking to get into that. He’s the same. Everything is the same.”
OFFICIAL WARNING
Roger Goodell has 17 days to get the labor situation settled with the game officials before the GiantsCowboys opener. If he doesn’t succeed, then he loses some credibility when he speaks about the integrity of the game or player safety. It will make him look bad if one of these rent-a-referees blows a huge call that costs a team a game. Or if defensive players take advantage of the substitute teachers and bend the rules just enough to injure one of the bigname quarterbacks, risking that a flag won’t be thrown. Or if a receiver gets his knee twisted by a cornerback holding him knowing he’s not going to get caught. This is a $9 billion a year industry that’s ready to risk too much in its fight with officials who hardly register on the accounts payable sheets in the league office.
ADIOS, ALBANY?
I would be surprised if the Giants return to Albany for training camp in 2013 rather than staying at home and training at the Timex Center. Just 13 of the 32 teams went away for camp this summer. The Giants have everything they need at home: Grass fields, a field house when it rains, nearby hotels for the players and no drama that needs to be solved by team bonding. Rex Ryan loves taking the Jets to Cortland. It was a necessity this year. The Jets were so dysfunctional at the end of last season that they needed time away to try to learn how to like each other again. . . . Chad Johnson has playfully called Goodell his dad. If the allegations of domestic violence are true and a team gives him a chance after the Dolphins had zero tolerance and cut him, then Johnson can expect his dad to come down pretty hard on him. Why would any team want him? Johnson is not a declining player. He’s declined. He had 15 catches playing with Tom Brady last season. He has not been the same since disappearing on Revis Island in the 2009 wild-card game with two catches for 28 yards. . . . David Garrard had been No. 1 on the Dolphins’ quarterback depth chart ahead of incumbent Matt Moore and first-round pick Ryan Tannehill despite not playing at all last season after he was cut by the Jaguars less than one week before the start of the season. Garrard then had back surgery and didn’t play. Earlier in camp this summer, he had knee surgery. Rookie coach Joe Philbin is the Dolphins’ fourth coach in the last eight seasons. He should use his honeymoon period to play Tannehill instead of wasting time with Moore, a journeyman backup. If he waits too long to play Tannehill, he will be developing him for the next coach.
THE SIMMS LINE
The best line of training camp comes from Jets rookie QB Matt Simms, son of Phil, who was born on Sept. 27, 1988, about 20 months after his father played a nearly perfect game in the Giants’ victory over the Broncos in Super Bowl XXI. “I was probably the celebration,” he said. Matt Simms has watched the game as part of NFL Films’ America’s Game series. Phil was 22-for-25 for a Super Bowl-record 88% completion rate. “I don’t have much to say about it other than pretty damn good,” the younger Simms said. “There is a reason why the record still stands today. Who knows if it will ever be broken. My dad had a great day that day.”
GANG’S LOSS
Jeff Demps, the Olympic medalist and former Tebow teammate at Florida, would have added desperately needed firepower to the Jets offense even if they didn’t need another player with a unique story who would command a lot of attention. . . . Tony Romo could be without tight end Jason Witten, his most reliable target, against the Giants in the opener. Witten suffered a lacerated spleen last week against the Raiders, and at this point, whether he will be ready for the opener is uncertain. “It’s not something you can fight through and dig deep,” Witten said. “That’s the challenge in a situation like this. Rest is the only answer. I’d be hard-pressed to imagine not being out there against the Giants. But there is no timetable right now.” No surgery is required at the moment, but that could change if the spleen doesn’t heal and blood continues to enter his abdomen. This is not as serious as the ruptured spleen suffered by Chris Simms in 2006. The oldest of the Simms boys, by the way, is working in New England for Bill Belichick.