Peyton Manning’s four interception performance last night may have cost his Denver Broncos a first round bye in the playoffs. And while even the best quarterbacks are bound to have weak performances from time to time, his cam at the worst possible time - and more vitally, he hasn’t looked right in a month. If he were a younger player, NFL football fans would assume he’s merely trying to play through an injury. But because he’s 38 years old and playing with a rebuilt neck, fans can’t help but ask whether he’s simply washed up. And that in turn begs the question not whether he’ll retire in 2015. So what’s really going on?
Manning insists he’s fine physically, but the official injury report says otherwise: he missed time this week to deal with a thigh issue. That may explain why, over the past several games he’s looked at one minute like his old gunslinging self and at other times he’s appeared to have a noodle for an arm. Rather than the arm no longer being reliable, it could be that Peyton is trying to throw the ball as his thigh injury intermittently has him off balance.
That spells trouble for the Broncos 2014 playoff run. The team is capable of running the ball regularly but is built to win by passing, and as last night’s game showed, playing against a high scoring opponent means that Peyton Manning is going to have to start throwing the ball around eventually. But regardless of how severely handicapped Denver’s chances are this season, injuries are a part of the game. The bigger issue is what he decides to do in the offseason.
Retirement has been on deck for Manning ever since he suffered the severe neck issue which resulted in his change of teams. But even without that stigma, any 38 year old football player is going to face annual questions about the issue. Tom Brady, who is just a year younger, had a brief stretch of bad games at the start of the season and was also hit by fans with the “washed up” tag, but now Brady is the odds-on favorite for winning the Super Bowl.
Ultimately, Peyton Manning will have to make a decision about retirement this offseason based on whether he thinks his current injury is a one-time concern or whether he believes it’s an indicator of his body breaking down due to age. That’s not an answer that doctors can give him, so he’ll end up having to go with his gut one way or the other. Gut level decisions didn’t pay off for him last night, but they have for most of his career. What will his instincts tell him this time?
Latest posts by Will Stabley (see all)
- NC State vs UCF Bitcoin football bowl game tonight time TV live stream - December 27, 2014
- North Carolina vs Rutgers football bowl game today time TV live stream - December 26, 2014
- Johnny Manziel vs Brian Hoyer QB battle for Browns goes down in flames - December 26, 2014
If he is injured he is entering a dangerous era like Kurt Warner did in 2009 or stay out there past his prime long after like Brett Favre. The Saints ultimately KO-ed Warner but that was after they ate him alive and had all those illegal hits. It didn’t matter Warner knew then and there it was time to retire.