Statistically speaking, Peyton Manning is the worst quarterback currently in the NFL. The only QB with a worse passer rating this season is Ryan Mallett, who was cut two weeks ago. Manning's performance on Sunday was among the worst games submitted by a quarterback in league history. These are the facts.
Statistically speaking, Peyton Manning is also the greatest quarterback to ever play in the NFL. He surpassed Brett Favre's career passing yards record on Sunday and had long since eclipsed the career passing touchdowns mark. As a result, Manning has arguably had the highest Q rating of any player ever.
The only real criticism ever levied against Manning was his inability to win the big one, a notion that dissipated after he took home MVP honors in Super Bowl XLI (despite an 11-13 career playoff record). We loved him on "Saturday Night Live." We respect his charity work. We appreciate how he exceeded all the hype that came with growing up as Archie Manning's son. We like his "cut that meat" and "chicken parm you taste so good" commercials, even though they've been stuck in our head for weeks on end.
But that's not enough for Brandon Marshall, who called the coverage of Manning's demise "disrespectful" during a roundtable discussion with Phil Simms and Boomer Esiason on Showtime's "Inside the NFL."
“Listen, we're not immortal. It happens to all of us. It's going to happen to me. I'm still playing. You guys retired. You can't play forever. So, for us to bash Peyton Manning, it's disrespectful. That's all I hear: Peyton Manning's done. It's disrespectful the way we're talking about it. He's older, he's had some injuries and his time is near. It's the reality. I just don't like the way we're covering it. I don't like the narrative right now. To me it seems very disrespectful when you look at what this guy has done for this league and for so many people in this league.”
This came about 45 minutes before the New York Jets wide receiver's diatribe about how "the media has too much access." And while I agree media hordes should not be surrounding players before they've dressed, the NFL Network's Judy Battista rightly points out during the segment: "Most players, including star players, talk once a week, which means they are available for basically 15 minutes a week."
Never has the ratio of media coverage to media access been so disparate. But despite a 24-hour news cycle covering every possible angle of Manning's downfall, these are the first five headlines that appear in a news search, in order: "Peyton Manning has been set up for failure," "Peyton Manning deserves better than this," "Peyton Manning staring down unsatisfying finish," "Time has caught Peyton: All-time great should bow out now with grace" and "Will Peyton Manning's foot injury spell the end of his career?"
ESPN dedicated an article and a two-minute segment to the idea: "Peyton Manning is still the best."
I don't see anything there that seems disrespectful. In fact, it's no different from Marshall himself saying, "He's older, he's had some injuries and his time is near." Sometimes you get the feeling players confuse Twitter and clickbait with the media that covers them on a daily basis. To their credit, "Inside the NFL" host Adam Schein and the two retired NFL QBs on the panel challenged Marshall. Esiason said it best:
“You're sitting here with two guys who have done a million of his games as broadcasters. And no two guys in this business respect Peyton Manning more than we do. Though we also see the reality of what is happening right now with the Denver Broncos.”
Honestly, if we're not going to discuss the fact one of the greatest players to ever play the game was benched for Brock Osweiler during a game in which he set the career passing yardage record, why talk about anything? Perhaps instead of writing, "Manning was benched," we should've worded it differently.
"A wooden bench-like structure serves as his throne, a headset his crown and a clipboard his scepter: All hail Peyton, Son of Archie and King of Football." Or we could just discuss a football player's NFL legacy.
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