Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, And The War Of 1812: Remembering History As It Happens

When we talk sports in 2010, we lament the good ole days. Back when pride mattered, we say.

Back when football teams triumphed on the strength of pure grit, NBA enforcers could talk trash and send messages without worrying about technicals and fines, and when baseball players didn’t need steroids to keep America interested in our pastime. When Montana’s 49ers turned the West Coast offense into an art form, Kirk Gibson stole America’s heart, and everyone in the country was either a Celtics or Lakers fan.

But watching Peyton Manning and Tom Brady Sunday, something became clear.

These ARE the good ole days.

Go back through every rivalry in every sport, and tell me there’s anything better than Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. Brady and Manning are the Magic and Bird of 2010. Or Ali and Frazier, maybe. Or John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors. Or Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino. It’s not just that they’re two of the greatest we’ve ever seen, but like any of the greatest rivals in history, they bring out the best in each other. And just because this scene is totally awesome...

When we look at individual superstars, one of the easiest benchmarks for “true” greatness is that at some point, we don’t really hope for greatness. After a while, we expect it. Like Jordan at the end of big games. Everyone knew he was taking the shot, and we fully expected him to make it.

That’s why we remember him as the greatest. Nobody delivered better than MJ.

It’s the same thing with the best rivalries in history. After a while, when the Celtics and Lakers played in the ‘80s, you just knew something memorable was going to happen. It’s the hallmark of something truly special. And watching the Patriots and Colts battle on Sunday, there was no question that it’d come down to the final minute.

Even as New England took a 14-point lead in the first quarter, and even as they held onto that lead heading into the fourth. When Tom Brady and Peyton Manning play, it always comes down to the end. We know this, and by now, it’s not even surprising.

While the rest of the NFL twists in the winds of parity’s new era, Manning and Brady give us a taste of nostalgia. With a rotating cast of supporting actors befitting the NFL’s new millennium--Marvin Harrison and Marcus Pollard becomes Reggie Wayne and Jacob Tamme, Troy Brown becomes Deion Branch, then Wes Welker, and then Deion Branch again--Manning and Brady keep putting on a show that takes us back to the greatest rivalries we’ve ever seen.

If this sounds self-explanatory or redundant, then take a second to think about it. Everyone concedes that these two guys are as good as anybody in football, but just think about how good. And how unbelievably symmetrical their greatness has been.

They’ve each won Super Bowls. They’ve each had two of the best statistical seasons we’ve ever seen from the quarterback position (Manning in 2004, Brady in 2007). They’ve each had teams flirt with perfect seasons--in Manning’s case, the Colts probably could have done it in 2009 had Bill Polian allowed them to try. And the same way Peyton Manning has turned guys like Austin Collie and Reggie Wayne into credible threats in the passing game, Brady has made Wes Welker and Deion Branch look like superstars.

There’s a notion that a choice between Brady and Manning comes down to “what you want from your quarterback,” but when you look at that stats and the way their careers have evolved, we’re pretty much talking about a choice between Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro. Looking from a distance, they’re the same. People can compare the two all day long, but in either case, the strengths are nearly universal, and we’re all just lucky to watch this unfold.

It’s not a matter of “what you want” from these two, but what it’ll look like. Will your historically great quarterback wear number 18 or number 12? Will he be guarded with his private life (Brady) or gregarious in the limelight (Manning)? Will he change plays at the line (Peyton) or trust his schemes (Tom)? Will he sport the close-crop Supercuts special (Manning), or, uhh.... This:

Brady’s Bieb-tastic hair aside, we’re looking at two careers that defy distinction. In the same way choosing between Magic and Bird seems beside the point, a debate over Manning and Brady doesn’t really do either one of them justice. You’re better off reliving the rivalry.

September 30th 2001: Patriots 44-Colts 13. The first matchup between Brady and Manning came with the Patriots 0-2 playing at home, and the Colts coming in at 2-0 to face a quarterback making his first career start. Tom Brady wasn’t exactly spectacular that day--if you told anyone he’d throw 50 TD’s and 4,800 yards six years later, you’d have been committed to an insane asylum--but he calmly managed the Patriots offense (13-23 168 yards) as the new starter, avoiding turnovers, and taking the first step to turning around New England’s season. Peyton had 195 yards, one touchdown, and three interceptions.

October 21st, 2001: Patriots 38, Colts 17. Yeah, I bet you forgot that the Colts and Patriots used to be in the same division. If that’s not the best “What if” of the past ten years, I’m not sure what else qualifies. Can you imagine if the madness continued? Anyway, in the rematch here, Manning fared better (335 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT)... But so did Tom Brady, with 202 yards and 3 TDs. As the Colts limped to 6-10 record in 2001 and New England took off on one of the more memorable Super Bowl runs in history, it’s fair to say Round One went to Brady.

November 30th, 2003: Patriots 38, Colts 34. A goal line stand by the Patriots robbed the Colts in the rivalry’s first true classic matchup. Peyton threw for 278 yards and 4 TDs to carry the Colts, while Brady had 232 yards, 2 TDs, and 2 Ints to power the Patriots. Ultimately, though, New England’s defense won it in the end, and if anything, you’d have to call this one a draw. And one of the best games of the entire season, so, um, everybody wins. A theme for this rivalry, I think.

January 18th, 2004: Patriots 24, Colts 14. Ah, yes. The first game where Tom Brady was undeniably superior. While Peyton Manning was harassed into 4 INTs and one of the worst games of his entire career, Brady calmly hit for 237 yards, leading the Patriots down the field for and early touchdown, and later, five Adam Vinatieri field goals that kept New England comfortably in the lead for the entire game. The score makes this game look much closer than it ever was, and the stats don’t really capture quite how helpless Manning looked, or just how commanding Brady was.

September 9th, 2004: Patriots 27, Colts 24. Another classic Brady-Manning game, and another win for Tom. Manning had 256 yards and 2 TDs, but one of those came in the closing seconds to Brandon Stokely. Brady, on the other hand, passed for 335 yards and 3 TDs, looking like the best QB on the planet.

January 16th, 2005: Patriots 20, Colts 3. Keep in mind, this was Peyton Manning’s best season ever, where he passed for more than 4,500 yards and threw 49 touchdowns. When the Patriots reduced him to an impotent mess in the playoffs--again with Tom Brady calming guiding his offense up and down the field on the way to victory--the argument for Manning over Brady seemed more hollow than ever. Except...

November 7th, 2005: Colts 40, Patriots 21. Just when it looked like New England owned Manning and the Colts, Peyton came into Foxborough and unleashed an ass-whooping for the ages. Brady still put up fine numbers here (265 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs), but with Manning leading the way (321 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT), the Colts knocked the Patriots in the face, and the Manning-Brady debate had new life.

November 5th, 2006: Colts 27, Patriots 20. When the Colts lost to the eventual Super Bowl champs in the previous postseason, the Brady advocates had more ammunition than ever. “Yeah, Peyton has better stats,” they said, “But look at how they play when the games count.” But this game counted, and Brady finished with 4 INTs and 0 TDs, while Peyton hit for 326 and 2 touchdowns. A prelude to...

January 21st, 2007: Colts 38, Patriots 34. And this is the first game when it began to look like we were looking at a rivalry we’d all remember for a long, long time. Brady and Manning played each other to a stalemate, but in the end, 350 yards from Peyton and a crucial late-game drive gave the win to Indianapolis. The Patriots led 21-3 early on, but 455 yards on Indy’s final eight drives gave Peyton and the Colts their first trip to the Super Bowl, capping one of the most memorable AFC Title Games in history. And suddenly, all the “Brady’s more clutch” people were at a loss for words, and a few weeks later, Manning was hoisting the Lombardi trophy.

November 4th, 2007: Patriots 24, Colts 20. A year later, and it was time for Brady to answer. Not only did he guide the Patriots to a perfect season, but while everyone had seen Peyton’s Super Bowl as a coronation of sorts, Brady used 2007 to remind everyone that the throne was still very much up for grabs. In this one, the Patriots remained undefeated, Brady had 3 TDs to add to his soon-to-be record total (one better than Peyton’s 2004 year), and another classic game ended with Peyton looking dazed on the sidelines, and Brady walking off victorious. So much for that coronation.

November 15th, 2009: Colts 35, Patriots 34. After Brady and the Patriots choked as heavy Super Bowl favorites in 2008, and Tom Brady suffered a season-ending knee injury in the first game the following season, Manning again took back control of the rivalry. He was the NFL’s MVP, and when the two teams met again in 2009, the game was decided by a fourth down call from Bill Belichick. Rather than risk giving Manning the ball, the Patriots tried to end the game with a fourth down conversion. When they failed, Manning got the ball, and just as Belichick had feared, calmly led the Colts to a game-winning touchdown. Another classic game decided by another clutch performance, this time by Manning.

And then there was Sunday’s matchup, with Brady picking apart the Indianapolis defense for nearly three quarters, and the Patriots looking as unstoppable as ever. But it’s never that simple with these two. Nobody wins that easily at this point. Both Manning and Brady are so good, you can never really count ‘em out. So as good as Brady looked, it was kind of perfect that Julian Edelman dropped a touchdown that would have sealed the win, allowing Manning to engineer yet another comeback, bringing Indianapolis back from a double digit deficit, within range of a tie in the final minute.

Then, with Indianapolis poised to tie with a field goal or win with another of Peyton’s last-second touchdowns, Manning coughed up an interception, and Patriots fans exhaled. “Tom Brady wouldn’t have made that throw,” they said. Because when the Patriots and Colts play, it’s always about Brady and Manning, and the torch gets passed back-and-forth with each battle.

But saying “Brady wouldn’t have made that throw” is insane. Because for so many other things Manning does, you would say, “Brady couldn’t have made that throw.” Their strengths aren’t the same, but when you step back and look at the bigger picture, the results are so similar that you can’t choose one without shortchanging the other. That’s why the “War of 1812” will never end. As the years pass, it only gets harder to pick a winner.

I didn’t grow up in the 1980s, but I imagine this is how Bird and Magic worked. One year, Bird’s better. The next, it’s all about Magic. Then the Celtics strike back, and it shifts again. As nostalgic as sports fans can be, we can be just as reactionary. It’s part of the charm.

But looking at Brady-Manning over the years, it’s hard to choose a favorite. Each of them has done everything we always said they couldn’t. Peyton has come through in the clutch, Brady has put up the insane statistics we always reserved for Peyton. Distinguishing their careers misses the point. Like Bird and Magic, DeNiro and Pacino, McEnroe and Connors, and every other pair of legends that have been intertwined throughout history, when you look back at everything that’s happened, the symmetry of their brilliance is as indelible as anything either of them will ever accomplish as individuals.

The good ole days are here, and Brady-Manning is as good as any rivalry we’ve ever seen.

We probably won’t fully appreciate until it’s all over, when we’ll look back and realize just how perfect these two quarterbacks have been, and for how long. For now, though, we can at least appreciate the show they give us every time they play. It’s not a surprise anymore. When Tom Brady and Peyton Manning play, you just know that you’re getting a memorable ending. And in the end, we’re watching history. In the ultimate team sport, we have these two individuals that always bring out the best in each other, giving us a show that one day, we’ll tell our kids about.

Sunday’s game was just another chapter. And as far as sports goes, what more can we ask for?

You know, other than a rematch in the playoffs...