There was a suggestion during Sunday’s Vikings-Broncos game that Denver quarterback Peyton Manning doesn’t care about numbers. The new book from Gary Myers regarding the Peyton Manning/Tom Brady rivalry suggests otherwise.
Chapter 1 begins with a story about the 2007 regular-season finale between the Giants and Brady’s undefeated Patriots. Peyton Manning called his brother, Eli, with a request.
The request wasn’t to keep the Patriots from becoming the first team to go 19-0 (although the Giants would get that job done later). It was to keep Brady from breaking Peyton’s single-season touchdown pass record.
“Anytime players say statistics are just numbers and they don’t pay attention, they’re not telling the truth,” Myers writes. “Manning might have been funny as guest host on Saturday Night Live and a tremendous pitchman in all through television commercials, but he has an ego, a big ego. Manning wanted that touchdown record to be enduring, just as Dan Marino did when he threw forty-eight back in 1984, shattering the old record of thirty-six set by Y.A. Tittle, which had stood since 1963. At least Marino’s record lasted twenty years. Manning’s was on the verge of being wiped out after just three.”
So Eli passed the message along to linebacker Antonio Pierce, with Pierce requesting dinner for the defense at Del Frisco’s in Manhattan if they kept Brady’s 48 from surpassing Peyton’s 49.
Ultimately, the Giants failed to keep Brady from getting to 50. Six years later, Peyton would get his record back, with 55.
If/when someone is ever closing in on breaking Peyton’s record of 55 touchdown passes, look for Peyton to find a way to plead with the opposing defense to keep it from happening. Because he cares about numbers. And there’s nothing wrong with that.