After the Denver Broncos won the AFC championship game Sunday to make it to the Super Bowl, Peyton Manning primped.
At his corner locker, he pulled on his gray jacket, plucking every last piece of the lint from it. He arranged his toiletries in his leather toiletries bag, just so, and packed it in his leather roller bag, just so.
And then, for more than a full 60 seconds, he peered into a mirror that he had propped in his locker, combing his fingers through his closely cropped hair, making sure each short strand was placed just right. So meticulous, that Peyton Manning. And so meticulous for so long, too — on and off the field. After 18 seasons, can you imagine how many minutes he has spent fixing his hair at his locker? Countless.
And now this season could be his last, at last. He is primed to end on an upswing.
Manning helped his Broncos beat the New England Patriots, 20-18, throwing two touchdown passes. At 39, he will be the oldest quarterback to start in a Super Bowl, breaking the record held by his Broncos boss, John Elway, who was 38 when he won the Super Bowl in January 1999.
But don’t call Manning old in front of his teammates.
“Is 40 old?” said Broncos running back C.J. Anderson, who is 24. “He’s just No. 18, what he’s known to be, and he knows what he’s doing.”
To get the message through, Anderson added, “He’s keeping up with whatever I listen to on my iPod, so he’s all right.”
Manning may be all right, but he’s still old, given his line of work. You’ll get Manning’s NFL age by multiplying his real age by 2.5. That’s what the league’s hard-hitting players can do to a body.
In recent years, Manning’s body has taken a particularly rough beating, too. Multiple neck operations. An arm so weak that he needed to retrain it to throw. A foot injury two months ago that caused him to miss six games. It got to the point this season that when he took the field, you could almost hear his joints creaking.
So when he went up against Patriots quarterback Tom Brady on Sunday, there didn’t seem to be much hope that it would be a close contest. Brady is 38, but he defies age with his long list of dos and don’ts for a quarterback trying to play when others have long retired or crumbled. He eats 80 percent alkaline foods and 20 percent acidic, and don’t you call him after 9 on a work night because that’s when he’s snoozing, having put his head onto his pillow after executing a series of cognitive exercises. Sounds exhausting to be so perfect.
Brady is mechanical, while Manning is mortal. Both are among the best quarterbacks ever. Yet on Sunday, in their 17th meeting, the quarterback who looked old wasn’t the one we expected.
It was Brady, not Manning. He was belittled by the Broncos’ defense. He was forced to throw terrible passes, including two for interceptions, and was sacked four times.
In the end, Brady did bring the Patriots within a few yards of tying the game in the waning seconds, but his pass for a 2-point conversion was intercepted.
After the clock ran out, Brady walked into the locker room with his head sagging, while Manning soaked up the joy of winning, as the orange, white and blue confetti rained down on him.
“This is a sweet day,” Manning said. “This is a sweet victory. It hasn’t been easy.”
He called it a unique season, which was an understatement. Manning partly tore the plantar fascia in his left foot in November, then had to watch his backup, Brock Osweiler, lead the team for the next six games before reclaiming his starting spot. Then, in December, came a jarring news report.
Al-Jazeera reported that many human growth hormone shipments were sent to Manning’s wife from an anti-aging clinic the year he had neck surgery. That drug is banned by the NFL.
Manning denied that accusation, calling it “garbage,” but did acknowledge visiting the anti-aging clinic — which is based in an Indianapolis strip mall — to use its hyperbaric oxygen chamber.
The report, true or not, tainted Manning, a quarterback known for his work ethic and attention to detail. We may never know if he used HGH. But in a league that generates billions and has players who make millions, it’s not far-fetched to imagine players and teams breaking the rules to get ahead.
Amid those reports, Manning plowed ahead. Look where that focus has taken him: straight to the Super Bowl, where he could win his second ring. If he does win, he will be the first quarterback to win Super Bowls for two franchises. He has taken the long road in his career, and has proved himself in two pro uniforms, unlike Brady, who has stayed with the Patriots, comfortable in his position, for what seems like forever.
Manning wasn’t the star. The Broncos’ top-rated defense won the game. But the meticulous Manning still set the tone.
He pushed the Broncos down the field to score early. Tight end Owen Daniels, who is 33, caught both of Manning’s touchdown passes and said he and his quarterback “were not old for the earth” but were for football.
“I can see myself wanting to end my career on a high note, like winning the Super Bowl, but I’m not going to go there right now,” Daniels said.
Just as Manning won’t go there. He won’t talk about his future and if this season will be his last. A Super Bowl victory might help him decide that.
But time catches up with everyone — and neither anti-aging clinics nor your ratio of alkaline to acidic foods can save you. That was a reason to savor Sunday’s Manning-versus-Brady matchup even more.
Their rivalry, now two golden boys turned golden oldies, has been one of the best of this generation. And under a gray sky here, amid an ocean of fans clad in Broncos orange, it might have just come to an end.
