You a Peyton Manning Fan?

If not, perhaps you should be for reasons having little to do with football:

It seems evident that I need not remind people of the incredible athletic achievements of NFL Quarterback Peyton Manning. As a thirteen-time Pro Bowl selection (and one time MVP), seven-time AFC Offensive Player of the Year, four-time NFL MVP, Super Bowl winner and Super Bowl MVP, Manning has space issues at home for all of his trophies. Nor do I need to highlight the impact Peyton has had on Tennessee Volunteer fans (his alma mater), Indianapolis Colts fans (not to mention the city of Indianapolis), and now the post-season prospects of the AFC number one-seeded Denver Broncos. Babies are named Peyton. Children clutch his rookie card. Women (*ahem*) swoon over him. Most of these facts are well-represented in Lee Jenkins’ compelling Sports Illustrated article.

To say the least, in reading “The Sportsman of the Year” article, I never conceived of the degree of perfection Manning expected of himself. As Jenkins relays, Peyton could be found taking thirty pages of notes at his freshman football orientation at Tennessee, endlessly watching tape before and after countless NFL games, perfecting the hurry-up offense, re-enacting entire games with personally recruited players after-hours, sweating the details of solitary “mistakes” from past games, and obsessively researching opposing defensive coordinators and their entire histories against him.

I never completely comprehended the limitations his cervical spine injury and the legacy of four surgeries imposed on him. Prior to surgery, the neurologic damage to his throwing arm led him to be unable to throw an eight yard pass. After the surgery, his pain was better, but his nerve damage persisted. His coaches and trainers were scared for him. According to Jenkins, his former offensive coordinator at Tennessee said,

“He was so out of whack, I had to ask him to quit throwing. He was on his way to hurting himself…He had to rebuild his mechanics from the ground up. He had to relearn everything.”

Manning and everyone around him couldn’t help but think that perhaps he would never recover. And to add insult to injury, in the midst of this physical and emotional crisis, the Indianapolis Colts cut him. The Super Bowl winner and living legend was released from the team he never wanted to leave. Peyton would graciously thank his owners, his team and his fans, he would move to Denver, and he would come back. Incredibly.

While this story of athletic prowess, determination and resilience is enough qualify Peyton Manning as the “Sportsman of the Year”, it is not what is most striking to me. What I think is most important in Jenkins’ essay and most relevant to my purpose for writing this piece for Patheos is the true quality found in the person of Peyton Manning. Needless to say, married to Cari, I have heard tidbits of Manning trivia. His grace in defeat, his uncomplaining nature in the face of personal injury, and his devotion to family. But Jenkins’ article shed a whole new light on Peyton Manning.

Peyton Manning inspires excellence.

Do yourself a favor and go read the whole thing. It's good stuff... hell, it's great stuff.

We need more role models like Peyton Manning.

Carry on.