Column

A legacy completed, Manning gets his title

By JOHN ROMANO
Published February 5, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [AP photo] Tony Dungy is dunked after his Indianapolis Colts defeated the Chicago Bears in a rainy Super Bowl XLI on Sunday night in Miami. Related coverage Gary Shelton: Top of the World View photos Complete coverage

MIAMI - In the end, he held his ground.

If 11 angry Bears could not make Peyton Manning flinch, what chance did something so trivial as a snarky reputation have?

So no, Manning did not cry at the conclusion of Super Bowl XLI. He did not strut, and he did not gloat. There was just a simple grin and a single raised fist as Manning forever walked away from his past.

Rain had given way to confetti, and doubts had turned to praise late Sunday night. The Colts had beaten the Bears 29-17, and Manning had beaten the notion that he could not win the big one.

And yet he refused to throw this evidence back at his critics. He hugged coach Tony Dungy, but he declined to embrace his new legacy.

"I don't play that card," Manning, 30, said. "I don't believe in that."

He has been chasing a championship for more than half his life, and too many times, he has come close enough to understand what he was missing. Close enough for others to wonder if maybe he lacked some mystic intangible.

At first, it began as whispers. Later, it turned into debate. Lately, it has been a running newsreel of Manning's near-misses and supposed shortcomings.

"You don't like to hear that talk of validation or having a monkey on your back, but I've been around and I know how it is," said Peyton's father, Archie. "The people who count have always known what kind of football player he was, so that's helped. We're just real proud of him tonight."

So this was for the people who used to wonder about him at Isidore Newman High in New Orleans. The ones who talked about the interception he threw in the final minute of the state semifinals in his sophomore season.

Manning never did win a state title.

This was for the people who were critical of him at the University of Tennessee. The ones who scoffed when he set an NCAA record with 39 victories as a starting quarterback, pointing out that he was 0-4 against Florida.

Manning never did win a national championship.

This was for the people who called him a choker in Indianapolis. The ones who looked past the regular-season records and saw only six playoff failures.

For, until now, Manning never had finished a season as the last quarterback standing.

"He proved to the world what all of us have known for the past nine years: that he is one of the greatest quarterbacks to have played this game," Colts general manager Bill Polian said. "He is unflappable, and he prepares better than any player I've ever been around."

His numbers Sunday night (25-of-38 for 247 yards) were good enough to win the game's Most Valuable Player Award. They may have even been great, considering the relentlessness of the rain.

But Manning often has great numbers, and they haven't mattered much before Sunday. No, this was about how Manning led a team. How he controlled an offense. How he dictated the terms of this game.

Today, you can wonder if maybe he really is as cool as Tom Brady. If, perhaps, he is just as clutch as Joe Montana.

Today, you can take Manning's legacy off the hangar and think about having the waist let out and the hems lengthened.

Today, he officially joins a handful of others in the debate of history's greatest quarterbacks.

"He already had everything else he needed that set him apart, except for the ring," kicker Adam Vinatieri said. "Now he has that, too. We already knew he was a Hall of Famer, and now he's a Super Bowl champion."

No way you can call this a fluke. No way anyone can claim Manning won his title in any manner but decisively. Over the past four weekends, Manning has faced some of the best the NFL has to offer, and he's been better.

He went on the road to Baltimore and survived against the No. 1 defense in the AFC. He stared down the mini-dynasty that is the Patriots and beat them on a last-minute drive. Then he took on the Bears, and the No. 1 defense in the NFC, and befuddled them in a driving rain.

What you witnessed Sunday night was a quarterback who has come of age. He no longer forces his expectations into the game plan. He doesn't allow doubt to consume him when a game starts poorly.

Manning threw underneath when the deep routes were taken away. He handed the ball off when it was time to bully the Bears.

In a way, it was poetic the way Manning started Super Bowl XLI. He went from shaky to awful in the span of five plays on Indy's first possession.

He had one completion and one interception among his first four passes. Yet when it was over, Manning had brought the Colts back from an eight-point deficit, making it the third-largest comeback in Super Bowl history.

So this was for Manning's father, who played 15 seasons in the NFL and never made it to a playoff game.

This was for his high school football coach, Tony Reginelli, who suffered a heart attack the night before the AFC Championship Game and watched from a bed in the ICU as Manning led a comeback against New England.

This was for you, Peyton.

You finally did it.

John Romano can be reached at (727) 893-8811.

Fast Facts:

No. 1 champs

Five quarterbacks drafted No. 1 overall have won a Super Bowl. All but John Elway won on their first try.

Peyton Manning, 1998 XLI

Troy Aikman, 1989 XXVII, XXVIII, XXX

John Elway, 1983 XXXII, XXXIII

Jim Plunkett, 1971 XV, XVIII

Terry Bradshaw, 1970 IX, X, XIII, XIV

[Last modified February 5, 2007, 05:24:45]