Peyton Manning was the reason I first took an interest in NFL.
It was 2009 and I had just started university. I was living away from home for the first time in my life and finding the experience both satisfying and incredibly scary. It’s the paradoxical idea that you want both freedom and the safety and comfort of home. That’s university in a nutshell folks!
In the halls of residence I was in there were two flats per floor. In one flat lived all girls (including myself) and in the flat opposite lived all boys.
I was doing OK I thought for the first month, but I was finding it hard to really gain that sense of comfort away from home. The feeling that you finally felt like you belonged and could settle away from home.
Of course like most evenings at university, this particular one started quietly. Evenings often do start this way (sorry if this breaks the illusion that every night is like a night out of that TV programme Skins!). That was until one of my flatmates, Jade, said the boys next door had invited us round for some drinks. I had met one or two of them before but not all, so as a group we all thought we would get to know the neighbours.
The evening was fun as we got to know each other: where we were from, what we were studying etc. At one point in the evening I heard two of the boys, Perry and Matt, talking about a football match tonight. Now I may be a girl but I know some things about football. Surely they must be talking about highlights, not a live game. They said it was live football, but not soccer. This is when I first got introduced to American Football.
The game they were excited about that night was between the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts. There was only an hour to go until the game started (at 1am no less!) so I decided I wanted to see a bit of it. Only one other flatmate from my flat stayed with me but together with the four boys we went downstairs into the empty common room to watch the game.
Before the game started, Perry and Matt started trying to explain the rules to the rest of us as none of us had watched American Football before. It sounded a little complicated if I’m completely honest so when they said the game would be on until around 4am, I laughed and thought I would never stay up until then.
But I did and it was all because of Peyton Manning.
As I understood it, there was a great competition between Manning and the Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady to be the best quarterback in the sport. And the game played exactly that way. It was almost like a boxing match. Each quarterback kept gaining the upper hand with touchdown passes until it looked like with three minutes to go Brady had finally wrapped up the game.
The Colts were 13 points behind; almost two touchdowns ahead. It was going to take a spectacular finish to win the game.
Manning handed the ball off to the running-back for the first touchdown. But following the converted field goal they were still six points behind and now there was only two minutes left on the clock.
On 4th & 2, the Patriots went for it despite being on their own 28 yard line. They snapped the ball, Brady took it, looked instantly looked to the right and threw it. His teammate Faulk caught it but it was short! The Colts defended well and prevented the Patriots making the it by just half a yard!
It was not over though. The Colts still needed to score another touchdown. Manning worked the ball towards the goal line, simultaneously winding down the clock as well as trying to preserve time for his team to score.
16 seconds were left of the game. We had all stayed up until half 4 in the morning for this one moment. Perry, a Patriots fan, was biting his nails. The rest of us all holding our breath for what was going to happen next.
The ball was snapped to Manning who looked to his left and threw quickly to Reggie Wayne in the end zone.
It felt like a moment frozen in time; in reality it all occurred in a split second. The commentators celebrated, the home crowd became wild and those of us who had managed to stay up until the early hours of the morning all cheered in celebration too (except Perry. Sorry Perry!).
Manning had done it! The Colts had done it! With the last seconds of the game they managed to overhaul a 13-point deficit. It was one of the most exciting sporting events I had ever watched!
I was in awe of Manning. The way he commanded the game; the way he was so calm when the excitement levels were building up at the end.
From then on I knew I was a fan of his and of the sport. Since then I have tried to watch him whenever he played. I was with him through the highs and lows. The season he missed because of his neck injury, his incredibly emotional press conference when leaving the Colts, his record breaking games at his new team the Denver Broncos, the Super Bowl loss to Seattle, through to this year when he ended his career with his second Super Bowl triumph.
He has the record for most career passing yards, most career touchdown passes, most career wins, most touchdown passes in a season and is tied with Bret Favre for most regular season wins as a starting quarterback. He is the only quarterback with 200 career wins, the only QB with at least 6 touchdown passes in three games and is the only starting QB to ever win the Super Bowl with two different teams.
He truly is one of the sport’s greatest ever players.
To me though, he was the reason I first felt comfortable away from home and at university. Surrounded by and enjoying myself with friends, I was introduced to a sport and a player I loved. As a group we always tried to watch games together.
Manning’s career is exceptional and I’m not sure anyone will ever be able to match it.
Thank you Sheriff for you everything.
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This post was written by Rachel, 26, from Sheffield.
(Image courtesy of: https://goo.gl/oVtcdq Photo is untouched, and is used for non-commercial reasons).
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