I often feel as if I have lived in some sort of parallel universe with Denver Bronco quarterback Peyton Manning.
Peyton was born in March of 1976. I graduated from high school in May of 1976.
Peyton’s mom and my mom were born and raised in the Mississippi delta.
Peyton and I played high school football in Gulf Coast states; Manning in Louisiana and me in Florida. Of course, Peyton played at a much higher level than me.
Peyton has had multiple neck surgeries, and so have I.
And finally, both of us graduated from the University of Tennessee with a Speech Communications degree.
I’ve been following Peyton for more than half my adult life — from the time in 1994 when he announced he would be playing college football at Tennessee.
My ties to the Manning family go back even further, as I followed his dad, Archie, when Archie was a quarterback at the University of Mississippi and then the New Orleans Saints.
Sunday, I’ll settle into my favorite recliner and watch the Super Bowl with Peyton’s Broncos facing the Carolina Panthers. I’ll be pulling for Peyton and the Broncos in the Super Bowl, knowing this is probably Peyton Manning’s last big game.
Peyton will be 40 on March 25. If you go back to his high school days, Peyton’s body has absorbed more than 25 years of hits on a football field.
That’s a lot of abuse, even for a quarterback standing 6 feet, 5 1/2 inches, and who weighs 230 pounds.
Records aside, and Peyton does own most of the passing records in the National Football League and the University of Tennessee. He is what is good about sports.
Manning has endowed several scholarships for academic excellence at Tennessee. Hospitals in Indianapolis, where he started his NFL career, and Knoxville have wings bearing his name.
Peyton has a 4-year-old son, Marshall, who recently became a media darling when he appeared with his dad at a post-game press conference. It will be interesting to see if Marshall follows in the steps of his grandfather and father.
In more than 25 years in the public eye, about the worst thing Manning has been associated with was mooning a female trainer his sophomore or junior year in college. And even that was a matter of the trainer being in the wrong place at the wrong time, as Manning’s “full moon” was intended for a teammate.
My football youth was defined by Archie Manning, and my football adulthood has been defined by Peyton Manning.
Here’s hoping Peyton’s arm has one more big game in it Sunday and he can ride into the sunset as the champion he has always been.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: DICKSON: Pulling for Peyton Manning