WOW, TALK ABOUT A BUZZKILL...NON OTHER THAN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL PUBLISHES THIS ARTICLE TODAY, JUST BEFORE THE SUPER BOWL, ABOUT WHAT A DICK PEYTON MANNING IS TO HAVE ON A FOOTBALL TEAM. CAN'T WE JUST LEAVE OUR SPORTS HEROS ALONE WITHOUT THIS GARBAGE?
PEYTON IS GREAT BECAUSE HE DEMANDS SO MUCH FROM HIMSELF AS WELL AS HIS TEAM. BUT, YOU GOTTA ADMIT THAT PEYTON GETTING PISSED OFF (AT PRACTICE) AT HIS D-BACKS FOR NOT INCEPTING HIS BAD PASS (THAT MANNING THOUGHT SHOULD BE PICKED) IS PRETTY FUNNY.
Super Bowl 2014: Peyton Manning Is Mr. Annoying
Playing With Denver's Star Is Fun—But Does He Have to Be So Focused?
The only thing more terrifying than playing against Peyton Manning is playing with him.Let's be clear: Players love everything that comes with playing with Manning. He's a great quarterback and by all accounts a fine fellow. Teammates get Super Bowl appearances, eye-popping statistics and big contracts out of playing with him.
There's only one problem. He's kind of annoying.
Walking by Manning in Denver's locker room is a source of anxiety for all Broncos players, they say. Running back Ronnie Hillman said he tenses up when he brushes past him. This is because Manning is known to give passersby a pop quiz about Denver's upcoming opponent. Backup quarterback Zac Dysert said the questions Manning asks him usually focus on where the ball should go against a particular coverage. It is "definitely easy to be scared" of Manning, he said.
"It seems like he's going about his business, and then all of a sudden he'll stop and ask a question," said guard Louis Vasquez. "Usually when guys are in the locker room, it's time to take a break, but his mind's always going."
Scenes like these are common in Denver since Manning joined the team in 2012. This season, at age 37, Manning threw for the most yards in NFL history with 5,477 yards. He did it with a mixture of natural talent and preparation. Lots of preparation.
"I don't think Denver had any idea of what you get in Peyton Manning. You have to stimulate him mentally or you'll lose him," said former NFL quarterback Rich Gannon, now an analyst for SiriusXM Radio. "Equipment guys, trainers, video guys, coaches—everyone has to be on edge."
The practice field is Manning's main laboratory for overbearing behavior. Manning often doesn't wait for the Broncos' assistant coaches to correct the players' mistakes—and that doesn't apply to just the offense.
Safety David Bruton said Manning can get irked when a special-teams player drops a punt on another field, off in the distance. "Or even if we miss blocks during the kicking phase of practice," Bruton said. Manning won't even tolerate mistakes that fail to take advantage of his mistakes: Bruton said the quarterback will get perturbed if a defensive back fails to catch Manning's own potential interception.
"The important thing to remember is that he's not mad at you. He just gets frustrated," Hillman said. "He's trying to make us pay attention to details."
Watch the first episode of "Sports & Cats," a new hard hitting series that combines two very popular subjects: sports and cats. This week, WSJ Sports Columnist Jason Gay previews Super Bowl XLVIII with guests Geoff Foster and Baxter the Cat.
Gannon, who as a CBS analyst gets to watch practices, said Manning runs the best Friday practices he has seen. (In the NFL, Friday is typically the last practice day before the game, and the most competitive one.) In one practice Gannon saw earlier in Manning's career, a pass hit a receiver in the chest. Manning yelled, "We do not drop balls on Friday!" At another practice, a player ran the wrong depth on a pass route. On the way back to the locker room, Manning rushed over to the receiver to address the mistake before a coach could.
"A coach was probably sitting right there, but at the end of the day, who is steering the ship? It's Peyton," Gannon said.
At practice, the Broncos have a drill in which, as an experiment, players will switch to positions they don't ever play. On one occasion, tight end Jacob Tamme was playing a deep wide receiver, which a blocking tight end like Tamme wouldn't dream of playing. Before the play, Manning saw a coverage from Denver's defense and adjusted Tamme's route. Tamme failed to execute the route perfectly. Manning was angry. Tamme replied, "I haven't run a route like that in six years." Manning didn't accept the excuse.
"There was a quick burst of correction," Tamme said, laughing, "and then it was onto the next play."
This ceaseless attention to detail extends to the film room, too.
Peyton Manning makes his teammates better and leads them to Super Bowls. There's just one problem: he's annoying. Kevin Clark joins Lunch Break to talk about why. Photo: Associated Press
Most NFL teams watch their opponents' three previous games to get a handle on their tendencies. That isn't quite enough for Manning, especially in the playoffs. One coach said that before the team's AFC Championship Game against the New England Patriots this month, Manning joined the coaching staff to watch video. They kept watching games until they figured there were no more to watch. So Manning said they should watch a Patriots-Rams game—the Patriots-Rams Super Bowl from 12 years ago.
Manning's devotion to film study and game-plan ideas keeps the rest of the team up at night. He records voice memos with stray thoughts and sends them to coaches late into the night so everything can be sorted out early in the morning. "He's really taking advantage of modern technology," said quarterbacks coach Greg Knapp. "You'll get a message that says, 'Let's do this drill tomorrow; I think my left foot needs to open up more.' I have my own ideas that he wants to do but he'll give me that and I'll say 'Good idea!"'
Manning's use of modern technology is legendary. Last month, a photo of Manning multitasking went viral. He was watching plays on his iPad…while soaking his ankle in a cold tub…with a helmet on. Manning was injured that day, so he listened to the radio of the play calls in his helmet headset while practice went on without him. He refused, teammates say, to be out of the loop for a second.
Dave Magazu, Denver's offensive line coach, said Manning makes everyone smarter with his challenges. He recalled a game when the opposition's defensive front was giving the Broncos a problematic formation. "So I said, if they give us this look again, check [change the play] to this," Magazu said. "The look comes back, we check to it, we screw the whole thing up."
Manning bided his time before strolling over to Magazu and sarcastically saying "nice check."
Magazu said he had no choice but to yell at his offensive line for putting him in a bind with Manning.
