Manning’s Legacy Tarnished? Please

The most oft-discussed storylines from Super Bowl XLIV since the game ended two Sundays ago were that of the joy of the city of New Orleans winning its first pro sports championship and partying the night away, and that of Peyton Manning's legacy being tarnished. One of those cannot be questioned, the other raises both of my eyebrows.

I know that Peyton Manning is the most talented quarterback of his generation. He has numbers to rival Dan Marino and dwarf everyone else who ever played his position and, in theory, should have like a truckload of Super Bowl rings by now. I get that. Okay, so maybe I don't quite get it.

Dan Marino never did win the big one. Neither did Warren Moon (at least not in this country anyway) or Y.A. Tittle. Dan Fouts, Fran Tarkenton, and Jim Kelly all make the list. Donovan McNabb's career seems headed that way, as well. There are countless examples of great Hall of Fame players of the highest caliber talent in their sport coming up tragically ringless. And who could blame them? The NFL's single-elimination can be cruel and unreasonable in its flukes and hunches. Often teams' entire seasons are at the mercy of one fortuitous bounce.

Over his career, Peyton Manning has had a laundry list of playoff games that can be considered debacles (this would have been another great column idea if it didn't already contradict the one I'm writing now). Many wondered if he would ever overcome those demons and finally finish.

Well, in case anyone forgot, he already did this three years ago.

Perhaps Manning didn't bust down the doors with his performance (one of the more questionable Super Bowl MVP decisions) in Super Bowl XLI and his defense seemed to carry him through the playoffs that year, but this was cancelled out by his epic victory over the Patriots that year in the AFC title game. That comeback and final victorious drive over rival Tom Brady to break the Patriots' spell over the Colts had Manning's fingerprints all over it.

Now, for all those aforementioned greats, some of whom never even got a sniff of the Super Bowl, why are we so hard on Peyton for winning only once? Wouldn't Marino have gone Ray Finkle/Lois Einhorn psycho on Peyton Manning if it meant getting what Peyton already has? If anything, Manning should still be praised for overcoming some bad luck and perhaps a mental block to still break through to win one Super Bowl. This year, after vanquishing two notoriously stingy defenses in the Ravens and the Jets in postseason, Manning returned to the promised land for a second time. There is no shame in that.

In this year's Super Bowl, it's hard to say he played poorly when you realize he completed 31 passes for 333 yards, both totals higher than in his MVP appearance in XLI. Certainly, there were stretches in which he carved up the Saints' secondary with his usual pinpoint precision, particularly throughout the first quarter, as well as one mesmerizing scramble in the third where he dropped a perfect pass to a double-covered Dallas Clark for 27 yards on a crucial 3rd-and-4. While he did not play poorly, he simply had stretches where he appeared mortal. Mortal is not good enough when you wear No. 18 in blue.

Manning was beaten by a quarterback in Drew Brees who has a chance to become his equal by the time all is said and done, and it took Brees' best to do so, going 32-of-39 and tying a record for completions in a Super Bowl. Sadly, Manning did not throw his first interception in this game until 3:12 left in the fourth quarter (to Tracy Porter, who took it 74 yards to the end zone, doing what you would expect his teammate Darren Sharper to do), yet because that one pick crushed the Colts' chances of winning, it was enough to let loose a flood of skeptics.

There is one man who has a right to criticize and be skeptical ... well, sort of. Eli Manning is not the quarterback Peyton is, nor will he ever be. However, now both brothers are in the odd position of having quarterbacked in a Super Bowl under the same ultimate conditions; needing a fourth-quarter drive in the final minutes to save your team from defeat. Eli succeeded in epic fashion against a great defense in the 2007 Patriots, Peyton fell short against the good-but-not-great defense of the Saints. It is unlikely that Peyton will ever find himself in such a rare situation again in his NFL career, so it seems safe to say that little brother will always have bragging rights over him on this matter.

Peyton could mention to Eli that Asante Samuel never should have allowed his drive to happen. If that doesn't work, he will just have to resort to hitting little brother over the head with a heavy book of stats. That should be enough to knock the poor kid out cold.