Peyton Manning has informed the Denver Broncos that he will retire from the National Football League, according to the team’s official website Sunday. The team’s verified Twitter account said that the Broncos congratulate Manning for his “magnificent 18-year NFL career.”
Manning, along with Broncos President and CEO Joe Ellis, General Manager John Elway and head coach Gary Kubiak, will hold a news conference Monday at 1 p.m. ET.
Though Elway — a man who, incidentally, retired from the Broncos after winning a Super Bowl himself (actually, two) — had said there was no deadline for Manning to make his decision, it’s a safe bet the team wanted its answer, if it didn’t already have one, by March 9.
That’s when the league’s calendar year — and thus, its free agency period — begins, and if Manning had remained on the roster, the $19 million salary for his final contract year would have been guaranteed. That could have complicated negotiations with a host of free agents, including backup quarterback Brock Osweiler, who went 5-2 in Manning’s absence last season.
But barring any unforeseen controversies, Manning’s story will predominantly be pulled from his days on the gridiron. He holds more records than City Hall and is a lock to join the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, five years from now.
The five-time MVP is one of only two quarterbacks to beat every team in the NFL (Brett Favre is the other). He’s the only quarterback to win Super Bowls with two teams, and he holds records for most career touchdown passes (539), most passing yards (71,940), most touchdowns in a season (55), most passing yards in a season (5,477), most wins (200) and most games with 300 or more yards passing (93), to name a few.
There, he picked up where he had left off, playing every game for his first three seasons, while completing almost 68% of his passes and throwing for an average of at least 291 yards per game. He also threw 131 touchdowns in that time and set the record for most touchdowns in a season in 2013.
If there has been any gripe against Manning, it’s that he’s sometimes faltered when the lights were their brightest.
Despite helming four stellar University of Tennessee teams from 1994 to 1997, he neither beat the archrival Florida Gators nor skippered the Volunteers to a national championship in his college career. Doing either might have secured him a Heisman Trophy (Charles Woodson edged him out in 1997). It probably didn’t help his case that his backup for two of those years, the arguably less talented Tee Martin, managed both feats after the Colts took Manning as the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft.
It’s perhaps fitting then that Manning snared his second Super Bowl after playing the worst football of his career. Not since his rookie season had Manning completed less than 60% of his passes, and his touchdown-to-interception ratio of 9-to-17 earned him a quarterback rating of 67.9, landing him 34th in the league.
Though the stout Denver defense would rightfully take the majority of the credit for the Broncos’ 24-10 win in Super Bowl 50, Manning’s subpar season isn’t likely to earn much attention from historians. What will matter, especially as far as Canton is concerned, is that he retired with more wins than any other quarterback and with a Vince Lombardi Trophy in hand.