The 2013 NFL season ended Sunday night with a bang, but for Peyton Manning it seemed more like a whimper.
It’s hard to say which part of Super Bowl Sunday captured the most attention. Between Joe Namath traveling to an igloo in the Arctic Circle to trade for that coat, a successfully ostentatious halftime performance that featured a charismatic Bruno Mars and an ever-wildly pleasing performance by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and a lineup of commercials that were “stronger than last year,” according to Adweek, the folks who prepared for this event definitely hit it out of the park.
But the game itself will go down in history. The Seattle Seahawks won their first Super Bowl in franchise history with each starter of the winning team making his Super Bowl debut. In the four major professional sports (football, baseball, basketball and hockey), the city of Seattle captured only its fifth major title Sunday night. The first came from the now-dissolved Seattle Metropolitans, who won the Stanley Cup in 1917, and the second came in the 1979 NBA Championship from the Seattle Supersonics, who have since moved to Oklahoma City and become the Thunder. Finally the Seattle Storm won the WNBA finals in 2004 and 2010. Most impressive of all, the Seahawks defeated the favored Denver Broncos and its seemingly unstoppable quarterback Peyton Manning, arguably the greatest quarterback ever, in a 43-8 rout.
Or maybe the game won’t go down in history. In the days and weeks preceding the game, many sports critics, analysts and writers argued that if Manning won the Super Bowl, he would cement himself as the greatest quarterback of all time, and if he lost, then, well, who knows.
If Manning won the Super Bowl? It takes 10 other players on the field, 42 players off the field, a coaching staff, an administration, a fan base and a city to win a Super Bowl, not one player.
Football demands the most teamwork of any sport. One simple mistake from one player on any given play creates a hole that usually explodes and devastates the outcome. One game should not and cannot define a single player’s status as the greatest quarterback of all time. Yes, Manning’s playoff record slipped below .500 Sunday. Yes, he has one Super Bowl ring. These statistics reflect a team effort, not that of one player.
Peyton Manning is undoubtedly the greatest regular-season quarterback ever. His list of awards, accomplishments and records could fill up a phone book, and most critics contend it is impossible to argue against these personal accomplishments. But his historical performance in the playoffs blemishes his claim for all-time greatness, according to most critics.
Manning’s personal playoff statistics do not disqualify him from all-time greatness. And if one cites his personal statistics for his regular-season greatness, he or she must consider correlating statistics for the playoffs as well, rather than the final score of the game.
In the loss Sunday night, Manning broke the record for most pass completions in a Super Bowl. Given his performance in the regular season, this would be an obvious prediction. All roads lead to Rome, so to speak. But the points on the board cast shadows on this record-breaking performance.
Some critics say that Manning does not have what it takes to win in the postseason. Among the records to refute that notion, Manning holds the record for leading the biggest comeback in a conference championship game, as he led a charge that overcame an 18-point deficit to defeat the New England Patriots and Tom Brady, heralded for his comeback success and cool attitude under heavy pressure, to win the 2006 AFC championship 38-34.
I don’t mean to say that Peyton Manning is or is not the greatest quarterback of all time, but it is not fair to allow one game in one player’s career to define his legacy and success.
In the words of Gary Gaines, head coach of the 1989 State Champion Permian High School Panthers, “There ain’t much difference between winning and losing, except for how the outside world treats you. But inside you, it’s all about the same.”
Hawley Martin is a senior history major from Richmond, Va.
