Peyton Manning is making his chase of Dan Marino’s record 48 touchdown passes look easy mainly because he works so hard at it. The greatest athletes are the ones who enhance their gifts.
Manning, five touchdown passes from breaking Marino’s 1984 mark, wants to talk only about the chance for his Colts to clinch the AFC South against the Texans on Sunday. But he did say, “Every team has guys with good arms and good receivers, but I feel like we’ve truly put in some extra work to kind of get things the way they are right now.”
The time Manning spends in the off-season with receiver Marvin Harrison and others plus the in-season game preparation awes colleagues.
Mark Rypien, former league MVP with the Redskins and a Manning backup in 2001, calls Manning “obviously the brightest mind in the game. He watches a heck of a lot of film. I watched a lot of film, but he watches more than anyone I’ve ever seen.”
Former teammate Marcus Washington, now with the Redskins, said, “The thing I admire the most about Peyton is that when we had things that weren’t mandatory and a lot of the [so-called] big-time players won’t come, not only will Peyton be there, he’ll be taking notes.”
Other views on this unprecedented onslaught:
– Marino, on how much the emphasis on illegal chucks and pass interference has aided Manning: “I think he would have been able to do this regardless of the rule change or not. I do think it has definitely affected how receivers get releases off the line of scrimmage because some of the defensive backs are just afraid to do it–to jam and re-route guys. They just don’t do it like they did before.”
-Marino, on seeing the record fall: “I don’t think anybody in their life who has accomplished something wants to see someone else beat it. For a guy to do it the way Peyton is doing it. . . . He has a lot of class and he’s everything that’s right about the NFL and playing the quarterback position.”
– Colts coach Tony Dungy, on the role of running back Edgerrin James: “What has made us this year has been our running game. Edgerrin is up close to the league lead, and people have had to defend the run. It really has made our play-action game great and that has helped our protection.”
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-Rams coach Mike Martz, offensive guru: “He might be one of the greatest ones to ever play the game. He can put the ball wherever he wants to. He knows what you’re going to do before you do it, almost, on defense, and he just gets the ball there.”
– Cardinals coach Dennis Green: “It’s a totally different approach than what Dan Marino did in 1984. It’s a system where he just dissects you. He makes you wrong.”
– Saints coach Jim Haslett: “They only have like 12 or 15 plays, but what’s in that one play he can change off to four or five plays, so it looks like he’s making them up at the line of scrimmage half of the time. He comes up, tells them what to do.”
– ESPN analyst and former quarterback Ron Jaworski: “They have every component it takes, every dimension of offense that a defense dreads facing. When all is said and done, and if Peyton stays healthy and things like that, I think it might go down as the greatest offense of all time.”
Rival quarterbacks marvel.
– Rams’ Marc Bulger: “You see [the Colts] on film and you say, `How do those guys get so open?’ But at the same time, he’s making the right reads. It’s a credit to how hard he works. It’s not by accident.”
– Seahawks’ Trent Dilfer: “There is a guy who prepares like no other. A lot of guys grind and work hard, but nobody like that. And he’s experiencing the fruit of his labors.”
– Rams’ Chris Chandler: “It’s like you can’t believe that it’s real, that many touchdown passes. It’s something that you never thought you’d see.”
– Bengals’ Carson Palmer, who drove to a Monday night Colts game, asked whether the game is finally slowing down for him: “Not really. It still is fast. Guys are still flying all over the place for me. It hasn’t slowed down really at all. I still have a long ways to go to where I need to be to react to certain defenses and coverages. . . . I don’t know what Peyton sees out there, but it must be really slow for him.”
– Saints’ Aaron Brooks, on whether he’s impressed: “Heck, yeah. I don’t have 20 yet, and he has 44. I’m happy for the guy.”
Defensive players pay homage.
– Bucs linebacker Derrick Brooks: “I respect him more because every time he is asked about the record, he always pays tribute to the guys who made the touchdowns and who made the plays. That’s the sign of a great player.”
– Cards pass rusher Bertrand Berry: “I don’t know if I’ve ever played against a guy who knows where everyone on the field is supposed to be more than him–all 21 other guys, he knows exactly where they should be.”
– The ultimate compliment comes from Eagles receiver Terrell Owens, asked whom he would pick for league MVP: “I’d vote for myself. If I had to vote for someone outside of myself, I’d probably say Peyton Manning.”
Not all work
Manning doesn’t spend every waking hour watching tape. Last week he spent nearly four hours at his third annual holiday celebration for 1,100 disadvantaged children in Indianapolis. Manning mingled with the kids and their parents, signed autographs and even sat on Santa Claus’ lap.
“Nobody’s ever too big to sit on Santa’s lap,” Manning said. “Everybody says, `What do you do when you’re not playing football?’ Well, this foundation has been a great way to get away from football and keep things in perspective.”
Texans not happy
The Texans weren’t happy when the Colts threw some passes in the fourth quarter of their 49-14 victory Nov. 14. The Colts have scored 49, 41, 41 and 51 points the last four games.
“The interesting thing that people don’t realize is that we’ve averaged six passes in the fourth quarter [in the current streak],” Dungy said. “We’re not trying to run up the score. I don’t believe in that, and we don’t do it. People can read a lot of things into what you do, but nobody knows what we’re doing, so we can’t worry about it.”
Still goal-oriented
Becoming a head coach isn’t exactly what Ravens linebackers coach Mike Singletary has on his mind.
Asked on NFL Network about head-coaching aspirations, Singletary replied: “Absolutely. One of the things I want to do is be the greatest coach of all time.”
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