Today is the Sheriff’s 44th birthday, so we celebrate looking back at his top 5 best moments with the Colts
Peyton Manning is the best quarterback in Colts franchise history. He is arguably the best player in franchise history. Because of his play and how well the team succeeded, the Colts got a new stadium. The city of Indianapolis got a Super Bowl, a new convention center, and new hotels.
The economic impact from his tenure with the team cannot be overstated. Many restaurants and bars were opened near Lucas Oil Stadium as well as the new convention center and hotels. There is even a hospital named after the former quarterback.
Today is Manning’s 44th birthday, so we thought it was appropriate to celebrate his five best moments in a Colts uniform. He played for the team from 1998-2011, so there will be quite a lot to choose from. Some are obvious and some are not so obvious.
Manning wasn’t just a great quarterback who put up unreal numbers. He was a great teammate that made his teammates around him better. Manning helped elevate the play of greats such as Marvin Harrison, Reggie Wayne, and Edgerrin James.
Without further ado, here are the five best moments Manning had with the Colts. We start relatively early in Manning’s career. In fact, we start in just his second year after being taken number one overall by the team all the way back in 1998
Manning’s rookie year was a rough one. He set the NFL record for most interceptions in a season for a rookie by throwing 28 of them. That led the Colts to a disappointing 3-13 record. While they were a really bad team, it did allow them to get the 4th overall pick in 1999.
With that pick, the Colts selected another Manning weapon. They took Edgerrin James, who made an immediate impact with the team. Manning’s play drastically improved that season as well, as he threw for 4,135 yards and 26 touchdowns and cut his interceptions in half.
Those stellar stats allowed Manning to make the first Pro Bowl of his illustrious career. Not only was Manning brilliant, but the team flipped their record from 3-13 to 13-3 and earned themselves a first-round bye in the playoffs. Unfortunately, they would lose their first game to the Titans.
Even though Manning lost in his first taste of the postseason, it was an important turning point in his career. It showed the league that he was certainly ready to take the mantle as the next great quarterback in the league. It also showed the league that the Colts were a team on the rise.
Manning’s next great moment with the Colts happened a few years later on what would become one of the most famous Monday Night games in the history of the league against the defending Super Bowl Champions.
The 2003 season was a great one for Manning. In that season, he threw for 4,267 yards which led the league. He also led the league with an average of 266.7 yards a game passing. All of this led him to be named Co-MVP of the league, and it was his first of five MVP awards.
While all that was good and dandy, the finest moment for him in the 2003 season happened early in the season. The Colts were taking on the Bucs in the fifth week of the season on Monday night, and it turned out to be one of the most memorable nights in franchise history.
The Colts were down 21 points with 4 minutes left in the game. Everyone and their mother thought the game was over, including myself. But then Manning helped lead the biggest comeback in Monday Night Football history.
Manning helped lead the Colts to 28 fourth-quarter points and helped lead them to tie the game up and send it to overtime. In overtime, the Colts eventually won with a 29-yard field goal. In that game, Manning threw for 386 yards and 2 touchdowns to keep the team undefeated.
It was another great moment in the early stages of what turned out to be a Hall of Fame career. But that was just one great game in Manning’s history. His next best moment wasn’t just a single game, it was actually an entire record-breaking season.
Manning followed up his stellar 2003 season which gave him his first MVP with an even better campaign in 2004. He was so good that he won his second consecutive MVP and led the team to another 12-4 record. But it was his touchdown throwing that make this season even more special.
In that great 2004 season, Manning broke Dan Marino‘s single-season touchdown record of 48 with a pass to Brandon Stokely in the second to last week of the season against the Chargers. His 49 touchdown passes were a new NFL record but would be broken the next year by Tom Brady.
Shockingly, this wasn’t the most touchdowns that Manning would throw in a season. He would eventually break Brady’s record as a Bronco in 2013 with 55 touchdown passes. But his 2004 season was the best season any Colts player had in franchise history, and still might be.
Manning showed the league that he was a top player in the NFL this season. He established himself as one of the best quarterbacks in modern history. His back-to-back MVP’s showed that he was not going anywhere anytime soon and that the Colts were a team to be reckoned with.
The next great moment in Manning’s career happened in that fabled 2006 season where the Colts returned to the Super Bowl for the first time since the 1970’s. His second-best moment happened in that final game of the season, where he cemented his legacy.
It was the first time that Manning had reached the big game in his storied career. He had never had a chance to win a Super Bowl. But now it was his time to shine against one of the most vaunted defenses in the league. He was tasked with beating the Bears in Super Bowl XLI.
That Super Bowl in Miami is still the only Super Bowl in which it has rained. Because of the rain, there were a total of 6 turnovers in the game. But Manning was able to persevere through the wet weather. He threw 2 touchdown passes and accumulated 247 yards through the air.
Because of his solid performance, Manning was able to lead the Colts to the Super Bowl victory over the Bears 29-17. He was also named Super Bowl MVP and was finally able to get the monkey off his back. It was one of the crowning moments of his career.
With this win, he showed the rest of the NFL that he can win the big one. This victory put the Colts as one of the perennial title contenders for the next five years. Manning was the biggest reason for that, and his performance in the rain on that great night showed what he can do on the grandest stage in football.
Even though this was his first title as a pro, it wasn’t the finest moment of Manning’s Colts career. That moment actually happened in the game before playing the Bears, in the AFC Championship game. That was where he really cemented his legacy as an all-time great player.
The Colts were once again just one game away from the Super Bowl in the 2006 season. But to get there, they had to go through their vaunted rivals: the New England Patriots. There was some poetic justice that the team had to go through them if they wanted to win the Super Bowl.
It didn’t start out well at all. The Colts were down 21-3 at one point after Manning threw a pick-six. They were down 21-6 at halftime, and it had the makings of yet another blowout at the hands of Tom Brady and company. But then Manning flipped the switch.
An offense that had been stagnant the entire first half all of a sudden burst into life. Manning started things off with a quarterback sneak midway through the 3rd quarter to bring the Colts back within 7 after a successful two-point conversion.
Then later in that quarter, he threw his only touchdown pass of the game to defensive tackle Dan Klecko to tie the game at 21. The Patriots would score later in that quarter to give them the 28-21 lead going into the fourth quarter.
In that fourth quarter, Manning would lead three successful scoring drives to help the team score 17 points in the decisive quarter. After accumulating 38 points, the defense stepped up and intercepted Brady on the final drive of the game to seal their trip to Miami.
That was the game that felt like the Super Bowl for most fans and a lot of the players as well. It is still one of the greatest moments in franchise history and Manning’s single best moment as an Indianapolis Colt.