Manning retires

Broncos announce Peyton Manning’s retirement

Michael David Smith

Broncos announce Peyton Manning’s retirement

The Broncos announced this morning that Manning has informed the team he’s calling it a career. A ceremony in Denver is scheduled for Monday.

“When you look at everything Peyton has accomplished as a player and person, it’s easy to see how fortunate we’ve been to have him on our team,” Broncos General Manager John Elway said.” Peyton was everything that we thought he was and even more—not only for the football team but in the community. There’s no question that his work ethic is what made him into one of the great quarterbacks of all time. All the film study Peyton did and the process that he went through with game planning and understanding what the other teams did was second-to-none. Peyton was a player that guys wanted to play with. That made us better as a team, and I’m thrilled that we were able to win a championship in his final year. Peyton won a lot of awards and set a lot of records, but to me, what he helped our team accomplish during the last four years is what stands out the most. I’m very thankful Peyton chose to play for the Denver Broncos, and I congratulate him on his Hall of Fame career.”

Broncos coach Gary Kubiak thanked Manning for the one year they spent together, a year that ended with the Broncos winning Super Bowl 50.

“It was a blessing to coach Peyton Manning,” Kubiak said. “Nobody worked harder at the game and nobody prepared harder than Peyton. His preparation was the best I’ve ever seen with how he went about his business. There was nothing like his work habits. Each and every week, he did everything he could to get ready to play not only against the defense but even against the coordinator. After competing against Peyton many, many times, I already had great respect for him. But being with him this season, going through what we went through and accomplishing what we accomplished—that was special.”

And now a special career has ended.

from off the net

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A favorite all-time story on Peyton Manning

I went to a basketball coaching clinic in Tunica a few years back and listened to the current Boston Celtics coach that had coached at Butler. After Butler had some success, the coach got to go the Colts stadium. I don’t remember the specifics of the visit and all it entailed, but it did not really include Peyton Manning.

But on a cold early March day, Peyton Manning was at the Stadium after his football season just finished at 7:30 in the morning. He was in a video room all by himself with a notepad watching video of himself taking a snap and dropping back to pass. The Butler Coach was able to go into the room and meet him and asked him what he was doing. Manning said he was putting together a plan on how he was going to get better the following season.

He watched over and over and took notes on all the different drop backs and different plays and wrote down where he felt he could improve and than he was going to come up with how he was going to get that improvement whether it be reviewing film, doing drills, simulating the plays.

From how he collected the snap to his first step back to setting his feet, to stepping into the pass. He reviewed it all over and over.

Manning in my opinion is the most successful athlete in history. I would put him and Larry Bird side by side. They maximized their abilities and became superstars way beyond their physical abilities.