SAN JOSE -- Peyton Manning did his damage to the Patriots early in the AFC Championship Game at Denver. After throwing two first-half touchdowns, his job was keeping his hands on the wheel at 10 and 2 and not running the Broncos into a ditch.
His biggest late-game contribution? He said it was the disposition of his posterior.
Asked Monday night at the Super Bowl Opening Night thingy what he was thinking on the Patriots' final drive downfield as they tried to erase a 20-12 disadvantage, Manning went in a surprising direction.
“I was standing up and I really feel that whether our defense stops the other team’s offense has to do with whether I’m sitting or standing,” Manning deadpanned. “I really go with what’s been working. And I’d been standing for a number of our third-down stops. But I decided to sit down on the fourth-down conversion to [Rob] Gronkowski (a fourth-and-10 throw for 40 yards), not sure why I did that. But I decided to stand up on the (two-point conversion, which was intercepted).”
As his myriad commercials and one memorable Saturday Night Live hosting gig showed, Manning’s pretty funny. And Monday night -- knowing he was trapped like a rat for an hour -- Manning was amusing and expansive on a few different topics.
Asked why he doesn’t celebrate with the same flair Carolina’s Cam Newton does after a touchdown, Manning pointed out, “Well, I don’t run any touchdowns for one thing. If I run a touchdown -- I promise if I run a touchdown on Sunday, I will celebrate. I can assure you of that.”
Manning then added, “I doubt I’ll get to run that much on Sunday because of the 12-yard run that I had against New England. There’s a good chance Carolina may send someone to spy me. You know, drop somebody to defend me in the run, I could see it happen. I think we will find out early, the first third down, to see if they have somebody spy me like they do other quarterbacks.”
New England Patriots
Asked what percentage his arm was operating at, Manning said, “I’ve never really given a status of an arm. It’s not like it’s giving a status of a player, kind of a whole human body. Just the one arm, I’m not sure if I’m able to do that. My arm is what it is.
“I honestly think that having a little time off to heal my foot maybe helped some other parts,” he explained. “I think it’s something not getting hit every Sunday night, throwing 100 passes at a practice every week. So I took some time off and then I started rehabbing so I tried to use that time to help other parts of my body physically. My arm feels okay.”
Manning did acknowledge, though, that he couldn’t break a pane of glass with most throws.
“My arm has not been the same since I got injured four years ago,” he said. “It just simply hasn’t been. I had a strange injury. I had a neck injury that caused some nerve problems in my right arm. My high school coach used to always tell me when you’re sprinting left it’d be a lot easier if you could throw it left-handed if you were amphibious, and I think he meant ambidextrous. I hurt my arm and I had that nerve damage and I said, ‘If only I could throw left-handed, now it would be a lot easier.’ I’ve worked hard to sort of manage with the physical limitations and have gotten to a place where I think I could be effective and that’s where it is.”
Manning was reflective as well on just how much those physical limitations impedes the offense relative to how much his mind and experience helps it.
“I think I have a pretty good understanding of whether you can still contribute and help or if you’re in the way and you’re just hanging on,” he said. “Are you a nuisance to the team or are you a contributor? I think I have a pretty good understanding of that. It’s hard to make comparisons. It would be one thing if you were asking me this question and this was the last game of the season and we were 4-11. But we’re playing in the Super Bowl on Sunday and I get to start in it.”