In the next few days Chris, Gene and I will give our picks and prognostications on Super Bowl XLIV, but I wanted to touch on a subject that has been stuck in my crawl for quite sometime and it involves my favorite non-Packer in the NFL: Peyton Manning. Maybe I talk to the wrong people and monitor the wrong social media channels, but I have long gotten the impression that people are growing sick of Manning.
Why?
One could argue the fact that he is in more advertisements than all other NFL players combined, which is true. But wasn’t it the same for Michael Jordan? What about (pre-scandal) Tiger Woods? Derek Jeter? The players who dominate their sports usually dominate advertising and marketing. Remember when Favre was everywhere when he was in prime from a non-news standpoint? Sure, Manning’s face is all over, but honestly there isn’t a vast lot of marketable NFL players in 2010.
People may be growing tired of him because of his ‘aww shucks’ demeanor and he is kind of dull. Well, would you rather have a good, clean, but dull Manning or say an exciting, flashy, but controversial player like Terrel Owens? Everyone loves someone who charismatic, but today it comes with a double-edged sword for most players. I still think the greatest celebration or insult you can give him an opponent after a big play is just acting like you been there before and it’s no big deal. Greats like Starr, Montana, Rice all did that and Manning does that as well.
Maybe the reason is that people are just sick of him always winning and breaking records? If that is the case, my response is simple – grow up. When did it become ‘uncool’ to cheer for someone who is successful? I am not expecting Patriots or Titans fans to cheer for Manning or if the Packers play the Colts I am going to secretly hope Peyton does well because that is lunacy. However, if your team isn’t a rival with the Colts or has them on their schedule this week you should consider it ‘cool’ to cheer Manning and be honored to be able to watch what will be one of the top-5 quarterbacks play when it is all said and done.
This season more than any other showed the greatness of Manning with no running game, unknown depth at receiver, new head coach, etc. All he does his lead his team to a 14-0 start, en route to a Super Bowl. There has never been anyone greater in game preparation to the point that he is literally an on-field coach. No one in the history of the game calls plays at the line like Manning and while he has done it for years it still astonishes me.
Since Manning is the best quarterback in the game, playing on the best team, maybe this makes me bandwagon-ish and I really don’t care if it does. I’m not going to run out and buy a #18 jersey or new Colts stocking cap, I just like watching winners. Guys like Manning are good for sports. They are leaders, teachers and role-models. They make it easy for us to root for them and there isn’t anything wrong with that.
However, when is comes the age that it isn’t cool to cheer for highly successful players or programs that are not your own? Remember when most of us were younger, we all had Michael Jordan posters up on are walls and that was fine because we were innocent kids. But as we got into our teenage years, through college and even into adulthood, it isn’t easy cheering for the best player or team in the game, if they aren’t your own, in front of your buddies.
Now, this doesn’t apply cheering for your rivals if your team is out of the race, as that is just sacrilegious. However, if you aren’t an alum from Florida St. or an SEC school, why hate on Tim Tebow and the Gators? I get questioned by a few people close to me as I openly cheer for Tebow. He’s had an outstanding career, a great teammate and leader by all accounts and doesn’t get into any trouble. What is wrong with that? I hate the excuse of ‘well he won’t make a good pro.’ I agree with that, but doesn’t mean you can’t root for a player like him to make it. His stance on certain issues like abortion turn people off as well, but how rare is it these days for athletes to take a stance on any widespread important issues?
Staying in college football, why do people hate on Ohio St.? I know this is a hard argument to cast in Big Ten country, but nationally people are down on Jim Tressel and the Buckeyes. Yes, the vest is drab and Tressel doesn’t excite many fans or the media with his interviews, but he runs a pretty clean program, which is rare for big-time programs it seems, and gives every indication that he will in Columbus until he retires. They may have choked in a couple title games, but I can’t hate on that.
Tim Duncan and the Spurs get a lot of the same flack as Manning and the Colts. Too good and too boring. When did championships become boring? I can’t stand the NBA, but Duncan is one of maybe three players in league I would watch for more than two minutes because he is just great at his craft and doesn’t have to let the world know about. I still have a vintage Wake Forest #21 jersey that always makes a few appearances on the beach in the summer months.
Chris (bitter Red Wings fan) will disagree with me, but Sidney Crosby is another great athlete that it is ‘cool’ to root for. For any of you out there who are big hockey fans like I am, watching Sid the Kid out there is a thing of pure art and is just as great off the ice. Like Manning he is in every commercial for the league and for once the league got it right by making him the face of their marketing. The Penguins are on national TV more times than not and that annoys people, but I don’t see why. Crosby is one of the only chances the league has to expand it’s audience and even a big hockey rube like myself would rather watch Crosby dominate than a close Vancouver-Colorado game.
They spend the most money, some of their players have done steroids, their fans are arrogant, but I found myself cheering for the Yankees this fall. Maybe it was guys like Jeter, Rivera and Posada that overshadow the flaws of other players and make baseball fun to watch (and yes, I did get sucked into that storyline). Mark Teixeira signed a huge contract, but never acted like it. As a lifelong Brewers fan, the memories from miraculous summer of 2008 are still fresh and I will always cheer for C.C. Sabathia. He embraced Milwaukee and I can’t blame him for leaving with that kind of money on the table. He made the Yankees somewhat easy to cheer for this fall and I kept it to myself because of the backlash that would have followed. Well, I am outing myself now and I’m ok with it.
So for everyone wavering on if it’s ‘cool’ to cheer Peyton Manning, I say go ahead and cheer as loud as you can on Sunday. Then again, I also argued why I’d like cheering for Brady and Belicheck before Spygate happened. Please stay clean Coach Caldwell.
-Adam Somers
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