SUPPORT SYSTEM
Peyton takes back seat in run to title
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The game was already over in theory, if not yet on the scoreboard. There were 3 minutes and 8 seconds left in Super Bowl 50, and the Broncos had just taken a 2210 lead, and the heavily proDenver segments among the crowd of 71,088 inside Levi’s Stadium had already begun to celebrate.
Peyton Manning, one last time, waved his arms, gathered his offense around him. The little card that tells coaches what to do told Gary Kubiak to go for two here; it was not surprise that Manning didn’t need any prompting. Manning had spent so much of the afternoon channeling Trent Dilfer, trying to manage the game, trying — and failing a few times — just to stay out of the way.
Now, needing two, he was able to channel someone else: Peyton Manning. He was able to get the ball out of his hands quick, able to zip it to receiver Bennie Fowler, able to bisect the “1” and the “6” on Fowler’s jersey. It was an afterthought play, a footnote play, the play that finalized this 2410 victory for the Broncos and gave Denver its third Lombardi Trophy.
One last time, we got to see what we remembered.
Maybe that’s what Manning himself will remember, too, assuming this really is his last hurrah — and let’s be very frank about this: It needs to be his last hurrah. Maybe there will be a few nights scattered across the next few decades when his thoughts turn to a career unmatched by almost any man to ever play the position: all those yards, all those touchdowns, all those accolades.
And yet it took this likely swan song of a season for Manning to understand what other, lesser quarterbacks learned, what Bob Griese and Terry Bradshaw and Jim McMahon were able to discover, and Phil Simms, and the great Kenny Stabler, voted into the Hall of Fame on the eve of this Super Bowl.
Because being part of a great team is like being part of a great ensemble on a great TV show, on “ER,” on “West Wing,” on “The Sopranos.” This is what Manning was given, as a lovely parting gift to a legendary career: The opportunity to share the spotlight, to be a bit player, to be a contributing actor and not the leading man.
It’s inevitable that people will give Manning far more credit for this second Super Bowl than he deserves, because that’s who Manning is. He isn’t just great, he’s famous, and he isn’t just famous he’s wildly popular. People like these kinds of stories. They like to see old guys take their final bow on the stage.
But if you’ve seen these Broncos you know the stars are all on defense. You know Von Miller may be the most impactful defender since Lawrence Taylor was young and fast and doing things from the linebacker position nobody had ever believed possible before. You know DeMarcus Ware remains a force. And you know Wade Phillips, as well traveled as anyone in the league, figured a way to make all of this work this season, peaking at the precise time. Manning? He’ll always have Super Bowl XLI, when he was the deserving MVP of his first trip to the Big Game. He’ll always have those five MVP Awards, and the time he flat stole “Saturday Night Live,” and his place as a forever icon not only of pro football but of pop culture.
But he’s also as smart a football mind as there has ever been. He knows he was along for the ride this year, and that if anything the interception and the lost fumble Sunday did more to compromise the happy ending than craft it. He’s smart enough to understand the way the Broncos defense corralled and humbled Cam Newton was the singlemost important development of the 50th Super Bowl.
“I’m very grateful,” he said afterward, time and time again, and he was referring to his career at large but also to this wonderful walkaway game. Sometimes it’s hard for stars to understand that you don’t have to be the biggest reason your team touches the sky, just one of the reasons.
And they call you the same thing when you do. They call you champion. Not a bad consolation prize.