Manning, Peyton

Peyton Manning, in full Peyton Williams Manning, (born March 24, 1976, New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.), American collegiate and professional gridiron football quarterback who is considered one of the greatest players at his position in National Football League (NFL) history. He won Super Bowls as the quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts (2007) and the Denver Broncos (2016).

Manning was immersed in football from a very young age. His father, Archie Manning, was a star quarterback with the New Orleans Saints. (Younger brother Eli also became an NFL quarterback, and he led the New York Giants to victory in Super Bowls XLII and XLVI.) Peyton Manning was highly regarded as a high-school player and received a national Player of the Year award in his senior season. He attended the University of Tennessee, where he was the starting quarterback for four years. He earned the Sullivan Award as the country’s top amateur athlete in 1996, was selected a first-team All-American in 1997, and finished his collegiate career in 1998 as Tennessee’s career passing leader.

Manning was drafted first overall by the Colts in 1998. After struggling somewhat in his rookie season, he helped the Colts in 1999 to win the franchise’s first division title since 1987. In 2000 Manning threw for 4,413 yards and 33 touchdowns to finish among the NFL’s leading passers. Three years later he shared the league’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) award with Steve McNair of the Tennessee Titans. Manning won the MVP honour outright in 2004 with a sensational performance that included 49 touchdown passes and a passer rating of 121.1, both NFL records for a single season (his touchdown record was broken in 2007, and his passer rating record fell in 2011). His on-field greatness and amiable personality made him an extremely popular commercial pitchman, which significantly increased his celebrity over the years. While not as seemingly omnipresent as such contemporary athletes as Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, Manning reached a level of fame few football players—whose accessibility to fans has been historically limited by, among other factors, the briefness of their careers and playing while wearing face-obscuring helmets—had ever reached.

During the 2005 season, Manning led the Colts to victories in their first 13 games. Although considered one of the favourites to win the Super Bowl, the team lost in the divisional playoffs to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Some questioned Manning’s ability to win a championship, but in the 2006 season he silenced his critics. He threw for 4,397 yards—the seventh time in his career he had passed for more than 4,000 yards, breaking Dan Marino’s record—to lead the Colts to 12 wins during the regular season. After playoff victories over the Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens, and New England Patriots, Manning helped the Colts defeat the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI. For his performance, which included 25 completed passes for 247 yards, Manning was named the game’s MVP. In 2008 he won the league MVP award a third time, and in 2009, en route to a record fourth MVP award, he led the Colts to a franchise-best 14–0 start to the season. While Manning led the Colts to another Super Bowl berth the following postseason, the spectre of his past failure to win big games was again raised, as he threw a game-changing interception in the fourth quarter of a loss to the New Orleans Saints.

Manning once again earned Pro Bowl accolades after leading the Colts to a 10th consecutive playoff berth in 2010. He had neck surgery the following off-season (the third procedure on his neck in a 19-month span), and a difficult recovery forced him to miss the entire 2011 season, which brought his streak of consecutive regular-season starts to an end at 208 games (the second highest total for a quarterback in NFL history). Without Manning, the Colts struggled to a 2–14 record. The team released Manning in March 2012 to avoid paying the injured quarterback a $28 million bonus and to begin rebuilding around a nucleus of younger players, and he signed a five-year contract with the Denver Broncos.

In Denver Manning quickly returned to his previous form. He led the NFL in completion percentage (68.6) while passing for 4,659 yards and 37 touchdowns. Manning led Denver to a conference-best 13–3 record, but he again met with postseason disappointment as the Broncos were upset in their opening playoff game. In 2013 Manning had one of the all-time best seasons for an NFL quarterback: he established new league records with 5,477 passing yards and 55 touchdown passes while throwing just 10 interceptions. The Broncos scored an unprecedented 606 points over the course of the season, again finishing with 13 wins and as the top seed in the AFC. Manning also won a fifth league MVP award. He led the Broncos to two playoff victories (including a win over his longtime rival Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in the AFC championship game) to advance to the Super Bowl, which the Broncos lost to the Seattle Seahawks. In October 2014 Manning threw his 509th career touchdown pass, breaking the record held by Brett Favre. (Manning’s record was later broken by Brady and Drew Brees.) He finished the 2014 season with 4,727 passing yards and 39 touchdowns, but the Broncos were again upset at home in the team’s first playoff game, this time by Manning’s former team, the Colts. Manning struggled during the following regular season but nevertheless broke Favre’s record of 71,838 career passing yards in November 2015. (Manning’s record was in turn broken by Brees in 2018.) An injury-plagued and ineffective Manning was replaced as the team’s starting quarterback soon afterward, but he had resumed that role by season’s end, and he then led the Broncos to a division title and another trip to the Super Bowl, where the team defeated the Carolina Panthers to capture the franchise’s first title in 17 years. He retired from professional football in March 2016, with career totals of 71,940 passing yards and 539 touchdowns. Manning was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2021.