MIAMI – A little more than 10 years ago, Peyton Manning was a second-year pro with Indianapolis, fresh off a record-setting college career at Tennessee that included a Heisman Trophy top three finish.
So, he understood the plight of Drew Brees, the Purdue quarterback who would go on to be a two-time Heisman Trophy finalist for the Boilermakers.
Manning took Brees under his wing, meeting with him several times for Colts games and making the occasional phone call to offer words of encouragement.
Well, if Manning could go back in time, he might want to take those words of encouragement back.
Drew Brees will lead the New Orleans Saints against the Peyton Manning-led Colts tonight in Super Bowl XLIV.
While Manning will be going for his second title in four seasons, Brees is hoping to lead the Saints to the franchise’s and his first.
“For a young college player, here’s Peyton Manning, second or third year in the league, already kind of coming into his own, Pro Bowl player, one of the best in the league, for him to kind of reach out to me like that meant a lot to me as a young player,” Brees said this week in the run-up to Super Bowl XLIV. “Who would’ve thought 10 years from then we’d be sitting here playing in a Super Bowl against one another.”
The connection between the two is frightening.
Brees has finished behind Manning the past two seasons in MVP voting.
Brees and Manning are one and two in three major quarterback categories since 2006 – passing attempts, completions and yards.
And in that same span, they’re tied for touchdown passes with 122.
But don’t ask them to make this game about them. They’ll tell you it’s not.
“It’s me and my offense against their defense and vice versa,” Brees said. “Certainly, I have a lot of respect for Peyton and what he has been able to accomplish and what their team has been able to accomplish, but it’s not me against Peyton Manning.”
Manning was no different in deflecting attention from the quarterback matchup.
“I feel like both teams have gotten to this point because of the success of the teams,” Manning said. “Certainly if you look at our regular season and playoff schedule it has been a team season. Different guys have stepped up along the way, making critical plays at critical times.”
In fact, while the storyline certainly is about Brees versus Manning, it is about the other players on the field who have stepped up all season.
Or, in the case of the Saints, it’s about the assistant coach who wasn’t around a year ago. When New Orleans hired Gregg Williams to become defensive coordinator, the fate of the franchise changed.
Williams brought with him an aggressive, cocky style of defense that helped the Saints get over the hump.
All these aggressive penalties you might get, you don’t worry about that with Gregg Williams as your defensive coordinator,” Saints defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis said. “As long as you’re going 100 miles per hour and he feels that you’re trying to help this team, he doesn’t mind you being aggressive.”
In the past two games, the Saints have dialed up their aggression, hammering both Arizona’s Kurt Warner and Minnesota’s Brett Favre. Pictures emerged on the internet this past week of Favre’s hamstring and ankle, both colored a deep hue of purple and blue.
But Manning is the least sacked quarterback in the NFL the past four seasons and this season alone, going down only 13 times.
Getting hits on Manning, in other words, won’t come easy.
“If you can get him off rhythm, you’ve got a chance,” Williams said. “Not many people do that with Peyton Manning. Peyton Manning is probably I think the best in the National Football League…he’s been the best in the last four or five years on not letting people getting to him, so we’ve got our work cut out for us this week.”
Yet, even when it’s not about Manning and Brees, it really is.
If neither defense can slow them down, then the game becomes a shootout, which again means the game is about the quarterbacks.
“They’re so talented and have so many weapons, it’s going to be key to stay on our details and don’t make too many mistakes because Drew will capitalize,” Colts cornerback Jerraud Power said.
That goes for Manning, too.
By 9 p.m. central time, we’ll know just which quarterback the game was about.
