thedrifter
02-04-07, 07:58 AM
February 4, 2007
Super Bowl XLI
After Many a Trying Time, Manning Reaches a Defining Moment
By LEE JENKINS
MIAMI, Feb. 3 — On a rainy Friday night in November 1991, in a small farming town on the eastern edge of Louisiana, Peyton Manning had his first brush with the Big One.
It went surprisingly well.
Manning played that night without the weight of expectations. He was a sophomore at Isidore Newman School in New Orleans, a first-year starting quarterback trying to take his team to the state semifinals for the first time in two decades.
Playing at Kentwood High School, Newman trailed by 3 points late in the fourth quarter. On the final possession, Manning drove the team 90 yards through the drizzle. With 1 minute 26 seconds left, he called for a slant route.
The pass was intended for Michael Keck. It was tipped by a Kentwood defender. The play looked broken. But Newman receiver Julian Billings flashed across the back of the end zone and snagged the loose ball for a touchdown.
Newman won. Manning rejoiced. He was 15 years old and had stared down the Big One. “It was incredible,” said Nelson Stewart, then a defensive tackle at Newman. “Peyton took us somewhere we had never been.”
To throw a tipped pass and have it caught for a game-winning touchdown in a playoff game is the ultimate stroke of football fortune.
In some ways, Manning has been paying for it ever since.
For most of the world, the Big One is a term that refers to an earthquake or a hurricane, some kind of impending natural disaster. For Manning, it refers only to football games.
Big Ones do not have to be championship games or even playoff games. They can come against the New England Patriots or the Florida Gators or the Northeast High School Vikings. But the season generally has to be on the line, and Manning usually has to lose.
The Biggest of the Big Ones will be played Sunday, when Manning and the Indianapolis Colts face the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI at Dolphin Stadium. Compared with this, all of the other Big Ones suddenly look small and insignificant.
Manning has won championships before — his district in high school, his conference in college, his division in the N.F.L. But he was always aiming for something more, whether it was a state title, a national title or a Super Bowl.
Never in his life has he experienced that season-ending, trophy-kissing, confetti-streaming, cheerleaders-crying victory that defines football players, especially quarterbacks.
Manning’s struggles in N.F.L. playoff games and marquee college games are well chronicled, but his trouble with the Big One goes back much further. For the past 15 years, the Big One has teased and tormented Manning in a variety of excruciating ways.
Manning’s relationship with the Big One started to sour the week after Newman beat Kentwood. Trailing Haynesville High School by 6 points with 30 seconds left in the state semifinals, Manning threw a game-ending interception at the Haynesville 20-yard line.
There was no shame, and certainly no reason for concern. Manning had two more years at Newman. He would surely be back in the Big One.
But the next year, in the 1992 state quarterfinals against Pickering, Manning stood on the sideline and watched an exchange student from Madrid kick a 41-yard field goal with three seconds left to boot him out of the playoffs.
The kicker, Manuel Pastor, had missed an extra point and a 36-yarder. But he told reporters that he prayed to God before his final attempt.
“We had it wrapped up,” Stewart, now Newman’s head coach, said. “And they kicked a prayer.”
It was the first of many special-teams plays that would break Manning’s heart. In 1993, Manning’s senior year, Newman played in the second round of the state playoffs at Northeast High School. The Northeast field sits in the woods outside Baton Rouge, surrounded by nothing but pine trees.
Everyone who was in the pines that night remembers the size of the crowd. Some fans had to park more than a mile from the field. They stood three-deep on the sideline. “You couldn’t even tell who was on your team,” Tony Reginelli, then the Newman coach, said.
On his sideline were several Southeastern Conference recruiters; they were watching Manning. On the opposite sideline was Doug Williams, the 1988 Super Bowl most valuable player, who was the head coach at Northeast.
“Peyton had thrown three interceptions all year,” Williams said. “But we blitzed him like crazy, and he threw three in the first half.”
Newman trailed in the fourth quarter, but the game was still within reach for Manning. On a punt deep in its own territory, Northeast bungled a snap. Newman broke free for the block. Manning was going to get the ball inside the 20-yard line.
But with all the people on the sideline, Newman had mixed up a substitution. Twelve players were on the field. A flag was thrown. Northeast was given a first down and drove to clinch the game. “After that,” Reginelli said, “I retired.”
No one at the University of Tennessee cared about Manning’s high school agonies, but a disconcerting pattern had been established. Manning almost always excelled in the Big One. He just could not win it.
At Tennessee in the mid-1990s, the Big One was always played in September, always against Florida. During his four-year career, Manning ravaged the Gators for 1,198 passing yards. He also lost all four games he played against them.
Each loss ruined a chance at a national title. In 1995, Tennessee lost only once, blowing a 16-point lead to Florida. In 1996 and in 1997, the Volunteers lost only twice, with Florida dealing them their first defeat each season.
“It wasn’t Peyton,” said Tee Martin, Manning’s backup at Tennessee. “They outrecruited us, they outplayed us — they beat us in every aspect of the game. It was a hump we had to get over as a program.”
Martin occupies a unique place for Manning. Martin was never as productive a quarterback as Manning, but he was able to win the game that Manning could not. He was able to win the Big One.
The season after Manning graduated, 1998, Martin led Tennessee to the national championship. The Volunteers beat Florida that year, when Gators kicker Cooper Collins missed a 32-yard field goal in overtime.
“It was big for all of us,” Martin said. “I remember Peyton being very excited and very supportive.”
Manning made the playoffs in his second N.F.L. season with the Colts and lost to Tennessee by a field goal. The next season, the Colts made the playoffs again and lost to Miami by two field goals. Then they lost to the Jets in the 2002 playoffs by a more pronounced score — 41-0.
After that, Manning was formally introduced to Bill Belichick, coach of the Patriots. Undone by Massachusetts snowstorms and Belichick defenses, Manning lost to New England in the 2003 and 2004 playoffs. The Big One became cliché.
Then it became comical. The Colts were clearly the best team in the N.F.L. in 2005, but they lost their first playoff game when place-kicker Mike Vanderjagt missed a 46-yard field goal against Pittsburgh.
All of which brought Manning to Jan. 21, down by 18 points against the Patriots. With one feverish comeback, and one signature touchdown drive, Manning finally did it. Fifteen years after beating Kentwood in the rain, he won a Big One.
Reginelli, his high school coach, watched it unfold from a bed at Touro Infirmary in New Orleans. He had a heart attack three days before the game and, to make it through the fourth quarter, he had to ask for a sedative.
When it was over, he called Manning with some advice for the Super Bowl. He must have been thinking about the exchange student from Madrid, the 12-men-on-the-field penalty in the pines, the Vanderjagt miss and all the other 3-point losses.
“I told him to have a great week,” Reginelli said. “And I told him to watch out for those special teams.”
Ellie
Super Bowl XLI
After Many a Trying Time, Manning Reaches a Defining Moment
By LEE JENKINS
MIAMI, Feb. 3 — On a rainy Friday night in November 1991, in a small farming town on the eastern edge of Louisiana, Peyton Manning had his first brush with the Big One.
It went surprisingly well.
Manning played that night without the weight of expectations. He was a sophomore at Isidore Newman School in New Orleans, a first-year starting quarterback trying to take his team to the state semifinals for the first time in two decades.
Playing at Kentwood High School, Newman trailed by 3 points late in the fourth quarter. On the final possession, Manning drove the team 90 yards through the drizzle. With 1 minute 26 seconds left, he called for a slant route.
The pass was intended for Michael Keck. It was tipped by a Kentwood defender. The play looked broken. But Newman receiver Julian Billings flashed across the back of the end zone and snagged the loose ball for a touchdown.
Newman won. Manning rejoiced. He was 15 years old and had stared down the Big One. “It was incredible,” said Nelson Stewart, then a defensive tackle at Newman. “Peyton took us somewhere we had never been.”
To throw a tipped pass and have it caught for a game-winning touchdown in a playoff game is the ultimate stroke of football fortune.
In some ways, Manning has been paying for it ever since.
For most of the world, the Big One is a term that refers to an earthquake or a hurricane, some kind of impending natural disaster. For Manning, it refers only to football games.
Big Ones do not have to be championship games or even playoff games. They can come against the New England Patriots or the Florida Gators or the Northeast High School Vikings. But the season generally has to be on the line, and Manning usually has to lose.
The Biggest of the Big Ones will be played Sunday, when Manning and the Indianapolis Colts face the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI at Dolphin Stadium. Compared with this, all of the other Big Ones suddenly look small and insignificant.
Manning has won championships before — his district in high school, his conference in college, his division in the N.F.L. But he was always aiming for something more, whether it was a state title, a national title or a Super Bowl.
Never in his life has he experienced that season-ending, trophy-kissing, confetti-streaming, cheerleaders-crying victory that defines football players, especially quarterbacks.
Manning’s struggles in N.F.L. playoff games and marquee college games are well chronicled, but his trouble with the Big One goes back much further. For the past 15 years, the Big One has teased and tormented Manning in a variety of excruciating ways.
Manning’s relationship with the Big One started to sour the week after Newman beat Kentwood. Trailing Haynesville High School by 6 points with 30 seconds left in the state semifinals, Manning threw a game-ending interception at the Haynesville 20-yard line.
There was no shame, and certainly no reason for concern. Manning had two more years at Newman. He would surely be back in the Big One.
But the next year, in the 1992 state quarterfinals against Pickering, Manning stood on the sideline and watched an exchange student from Madrid kick a 41-yard field goal with three seconds left to boot him out of the playoffs.
The kicker, Manuel Pastor, had missed an extra point and a 36-yarder. But he told reporters that he prayed to God before his final attempt.
“We had it wrapped up,” Stewart, now Newman’s head coach, said. “And they kicked a prayer.”
It was the first of many special-teams plays that would break Manning’s heart. In 1993, Manning’s senior year, Newman played in the second round of the state playoffs at Northeast High School. The Northeast field sits in the woods outside Baton Rouge, surrounded by nothing but pine trees.
Everyone who was in the pines that night remembers the size of the crowd. Some fans had to park more than a mile from the field. They stood three-deep on the sideline. “You couldn’t even tell who was on your team,” Tony Reginelli, then the Newman coach, said.
On his sideline were several Southeastern Conference recruiters; they were watching Manning. On the opposite sideline was Doug Williams, the 1988 Super Bowl most valuable player, who was the head coach at Northeast.
“Peyton had thrown three interceptions all year,” Williams said. “But we blitzed him like crazy, and he threw three in the first half.”
Newman trailed in the fourth quarter, but the game was still within reach for Manning. On a punt deep in its own territory, Northeast bungled a snap. Newman broke free for the block. Manning was going to get the ball inside the 20-yard line.
But with all the people on the sideline, Newman had mixed up a substitution. Twelve players were on the field. A flag was thrown. Northeast was given a first down and drove to clinch the game. “After that,” Reginelli said, “I retired.”
No one at the University of Tennessee cared about Manning’s high school agonies, but a disconcerting pattern had been established. Manning almost always excelled in the Big One. He just could not win it.
At Tennessee in the mid-1990s, the Big One was always played in September, always against Florida. During his four-year career, Manning ravaged the Gators for 1,198 passing yards. He also lost all four games he played against them.
Each loss ruined a chance at a national title. In 1995, Tennessee lost only once, blowing a 16-point lead to Florida. In 1996 and in 1997, the Volunteers lost only twice, with Florida dealing them their first defeat each season.
“It wasn’t Peyton,” said Tee Martin, Manning’s backup at Tennessee. “They outrecruited us, they outplayed us — they beat us in every aspect of the game. It was a hump we had to get over as a program.”
Martin occupies a unique place for Manning. Martin was never as productive a quarterback as Manning, but he was able to win the game that Manning could not. He was able to win the Big One.
The season after Manning graduated, 1998, Martin led Tennessee to the national championship. The Volunteers beat Florida that year, when Gators kicker Cooper Collins missed a 32-yard field goal in overtime.
“It was big for all of us,” Martin said. “I remember Peyton being very excited and very supportive.”
Manning made the playoffs in his second N.F.L. season with the Colts and lost to Tennessee by a field goal. The next season, the Colts made the playoffs again and lost to Miami by two field goals. Then they lost to the Jets in the 2002 playoffs by a more pronounced score — 41-0.
After that, Manning was formally introduced to Bill Belichick, coach of the Patriots. Undone by Massachusetts snowstorms and Belichick defenses, Manning lost to New England in the 2003 and 2004 playoffs. The Big One became cliché.
Then it became comical. The Colts were clearly the best team in the N.F.L. in 2005, but they lost their first playoff game when place-kicker Mike Vanderjagt missed a 46-yard field goal against Pittsburgh.
All of which brought Manning to Jan. 21, down by 18 points against the Patriots. With one feverish comeback, and one signature touchdown drive, Manning finally did it. Fifteen years after beating Kentwood in the rain, he won a Big One.
Reginelli, his high school coach, watched it unfold from a bed at Touro Infirmary in New Orleans. He had a heart attack three days before the game and, to make it through the fourth quarter, he had to ask for a sedative.
When it was over, he called Manning with some advice for the Super Bowl. He must have been thinking about the exchange student from Madrid, the 12-men-on-the-field penalty in the pines, the Vanderjagt miss and all the other 3-point losses.
“I told him to have a great week,” Reginelli said. “And I told him to watch out for those special teams.”
Ellie