Peyton is the reason football is as popular as it is in Indy, and the reason why i'm a Colts/football fan. with that said, obviously my love of the Colts didn't end with him leaving, but he trumps the team until he retires.

I think that's the wrong decision. You should reconsider it.

not gonna happen.

I can understand it. I remember my parents rooting for the Chiefs to beat the 49ers out of love for Joe and hatred of Steve Young. Only for his comeback game though.

I can't imagine ever doing it myself though. There's no athlete I love over my teams. The only one that would come close would be Barry when he was getting close to breaking the record while the Giants were going down the shitter. If he was traded around that time, I probably would root for him to hit home runs off Giants pitchers. I wouldn't root for his team to win though.

what it comes down to is that across sports, there's no other player analogous to a legendary quarterback who has always played for your team.

How did your parents manage to hate Steve Young as 49ers fans? Like, just at first they hated him?

Manning is also a unique situation in that he left our team about as classy as possible, and was a part of our community like few other athletes can say.


i walked into a gas station the other day and there was a touchscreen (don't ask me why they put up a touchscreen in a fucking gas station in a small country town), and on it was a poll that asked us to "choose your QB: Manning or Luck". imagine any other situation that would lead to a debate between your current star blue-chip QB who took you to the playoffs and the QB who isn't on your team anymore. its a weird phenomenon.

only a few sports figures are extremely popular among Hoosiers. Bob Knight (who was far more polarizing), Larry Bird (who is a legend but played professionally elsewhere so its not the same), Reggie (who is a fucking GOD, but Ron Artest killed basketball in Indiana and so the Pacers have become a bit of a sore subject), and Peyton (whose name is on the damn Children's Hospital). Peyton stands head and shoulders above all as the greatest sports figure in this state's history. dude turned Indy into a football city. how the hell does that happen? how did football become more popular than college/high school basketball in Indiana?

I'm trying to think of an analogous situation for me, but I'm not sure I can because of how singular the QB position is. When Scottie Pippen went to the Rockets, they immediately became my second favorite team. If Sammy Sosa had gone to another team earlier (like when he was still good), I'd feel essentially the way Batman did about Bonds. If Urlacher had come back for a different team, and that team played the Bears, I'd want him to get 20 tackles or something, but I'd never root for the Bears to lose. The only time I might is if it was the end of the season, and the Bears were out of it while Urlacher's team seemed like they might be able to win a Super Bowl, and needed to beat the Bears to make the playoffs. And that's only because he never won one with the Bears (I might feel the same way if Lovie Smith was coaching a team in the same position). And I don't even think I'd root for the other team so much as I'd just be happy for them after the fact (if they won).

They were longtime 49er fans, so of course Joe Montana was their hero. I'm not sure if you know the history of their "quarterback controversy" but the annotated version is that Montana missed a season due to injury, Steve Young performed well, and when Montana came back, Young said Montana had to go or he would. I'm sure Montana felt the same way. So anyway they ended up trading Montana to keep Young, who obviously ended up being a disappointment compared to Montana.

I myself never felt the same way as my parents, as Steve Young was the quarterback of my childhood. When I was a kid, Jerry Rice was basically the face of the franchise anyway, so Young was less of a divisive figure.

Is this sarcasm? I'm not arguing per se, because I'm not a 49ers fan, I just thought the general consensus on Young was that he was more or less as good as the greatest QBs, he just wasn't a starter for as many years, so isn't as high in the "great" discussion. If it's not sarcasm, is it just because he didn't get as many titles? I guess I'm saying I was under the impression that there wasn't much of a performance drop off from Montana to Young.

(How great a name is "Joe Montana" for a quarterback? I've always marveled at how perfect it is.)

Had Montana's 1980s teams had to go against the early 90s Cowboys he MIGHT have won one Superbowl.

Doesn't Young have one of the best QB ratings for his career in history? Not that QB rating is a perfect indicator of skill and value to a team (Chad Pennington, I'm looking at you), but still.

Both of those teams were pretty loaded.

i almost made a Jordan comparison. but even that's not entirely analogous, because Jordan chose to leave the team in '93. so maybe if he had been traded when he came back, it wouldn't have been quite the same as Manning just coming back from injury. and in '98, the feud between him and ownership was well-known, so it would have felt like a break-up and you could pick a side. but that's the level of importance we are talking about. Manning is much closer to Jordan status than Pippen status. he may not be the greatest ever, but he's close enough that he feels like it to us.

i don't think there is a true analogy for Manning. he wasn't diminishing as a player when he got the surgery, but having the surgery itself could have meant he never played again (or diminished quickly). and we ended up with the number 1 pick who was a blue-chip QB. its not David Robinson/Tim Duncan situation because they could play at the same time and because the salary structure was different. there was no way the Colts could pay both Manning and Luck for Luck to sit and learn. even though that's what EVERY Indy fan wanted to happen. but every Indy fan realized you can't avoid picking Luck just for three or four years of Manning coming off an injury. or so we assumed (in fairness, i would have kept Manning and traded the pick, and even with how he's played in Denver, i probably would have been wrong because Luck looks like he's more legit than i thought). no other MVP caliber player has been traded for a rookie replacement, that i can think of. some have been pushed to retirement after they've faded, in order to make room for their successor, but that's different.


but the importance is HOW he left. he wrote an article in the paper thanking the writers and the community. he said all the right things in every interview (even when ownership would say something underhanded). and he very much still feels a part of the community. he's still on signs at Papa John's, his name is still on the children's hospital, his jerseys are everywhere, he just feels like he is a part of Indy.

i'm kinda repeating myself a little, so i'll stop. but this is huge for me. Manning has legacy at stake in the next few years (fairly or unfairly). he really needs another Super Bowl to help stop the "well Brady has more rings" thing. its the main knock against Manning, the first round exits (as if they were all his fault). but 2 out of 3 would look at lot better than 1 out of 2 SBs, especially with Brady being 3 for 5. that's really all that matters to Manning fans. just the same as LeBron or Kobe, its only rings that really matter now (even if its far more unfair to judge a football player that way). and glory. an undefeated, or nearly undefeated season with a ring at the end would go a long long way to getting rid of the stigma that is attached to him.

Not the first Super Bowl Team certainly. Not really the third either.

I don't know football history well enough to make an argument myself, I was just under the impression that Joe Montana was a fairly non-controversial pick for greatest quarterback of all time, whereas Steve Young was only arguably the best of the 90s, and even then Favre is probably the more popular choice. Not 100% sure though.