Broncos fans deserve to hear from Peyton Manning
“Perhaps it’s because, in his heart, he will always be a Colt. He was drafted by the Colts. He played in Indy forever. The stadium there is even referred to as “the house that Peyton built”. All Manning has built in Denver is expectations, expectations that he failed to live up to in the biggest game we’ve hosted here since the 1990’s”
Read more
By Saturday it will be February. January 2013 will be gone. The Super Bowl will be only a day away, and three weeks will have passed since Peyton Manning and his Broncos broke our hearts by losing to the underdog Ravens at Mile High, a game that Baltimore won with a field goal that followed a Manning interception, his second of the day.
Three weeks have passed and we have heard nothing from number 18. Nothing. Aside from playing the role of “mayor” at the Pro Bowl (another game in Manning’s play was below expectations) and being photographed duck hunting with Todd Helton, the most heralded free-agent acquisition since Joe Montana has been a ghost. Despite his twenty-million reasons to step up and take some responsibility for what happened on the evening of January 12, or at least provide an explanation, Manning has granted no interviews, appeared nowhere in the Denver media. He has only disappeared.
John Elway suffered his fair share of painful losses in the playoffs. Heaven knows the Super Bowl wasn’t always kind to him, either. Up until the magical Super Bowl XXXII, every post-season ended in frustration for number 7, and he shared that frustration with his fans. He certainly never turned to vapor after a crushing loss. Elway took his medicine. He knew that the Mile High faithful both demanded and deserved to hear from him and, while it was never comfortable to confront his failings, he sucked it up and made himself available.
Manning must do the same.
The Broncos invested a lot in Manning. Broncos Country did, too. Back in March people were talking time off work to follow the latest news on his possible signing and to take in the press conference when he finally did. We were all on cloud nine. Manning had plenty to say then. He made the rounds, spoke to the radio shows and showed up on TV. He got us excited and promised to do his best. Fans scoffed at the warnings we heard that Manning would struggle in cold weather and that he lacked the fortitude to win the big games. Manning would be a great regular season guy, they said, but he would wither when it mattered most.
They turned out to be right, or so it appears. All of the Manning’s worst traits were on display in that Ravens loss. And yet he’s said nothing. Fans forgive quickly. There’s always next year. We will move on. But, with the big game approaching, we are still hurting.
Peyton Manning has run away and hidden from a fan base that deserves more. His failure to communicate smacks of petulance and lends to a general feeling that Manning isn’t “ours”, never will be. He’s just a very expensive rental who’s content to collect his massive paychecks, win when he wins, lose when he loses and head out of town laughing, to Hawaii to grab some R&R. That attitude doesn’t suit Denver. That’s a big market attitude. The Broncos are a small market team. There’s a certain intimacy between the Broncos and the community that Peyton Manning doesn’t seem to be grasping.
Perhaps it’s because, in his heart, he will always be a Colt. He was drafted by the Colts. He played in Indy forever. The stadium there is even referred to as “the house that Peyton built”. All Manning has built in Denver is expectations, expectations that he failed to live up to in the biggest game we’ve hosted here since the 1990’s.
The 13-3 season was amazing and Broncos fans have a lot to look forward to. First we need closure on this season, though, and we won’t have it until Manning opens up. We can wait until the Super Bowl is over, I suppose. But it’s been too long already. It’s past time for Peyton Manning to sit down for an interview with a local outlet. Vic Lombardi at Channel 4 would be my choice to conduct the one-on-one. He has to tell us what happened – from his perspective – from the horse’s mouth.
Manning has to ease our fears. There’s a real sense, though largely unspoken, that the Broncos might have made an enormous mistake. Certainly, the immobile aging quarterback does not appear to be the wave of the future. Not with Colin Kaepernick, Robert Griffin and their sort capturing the headlines these days. It’s hard not to wonder if the Broncos should have saved their millions and drafted Russell Wilson instead of bringing Manning in and backing him up with Brock Osweiler. The entire team is seemingly assembled around Peyton. He’s a more important figure than John Fox by far – but we have heard from Fox.
The silence has to end – and soon. Broncos fans deserve to hear from Peyton Manning.
