Peyton Manning was a hardworking quarterback during his NFL career, every bit as dedicated as he was talented. This was evident throughout his playing days, especially during his early years with the Indianapolis Colts. And who better to recall and explain his growth than his Hall of Fame coach, Tony Dungy?
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As Dungy thought back on those good years with Manning during his latest podcast appearance, he remembered that Peyton was an aggressive player when he first arrived with the team in 2002. In fact, he threw 28 interceptions in his 1998 rookie season, a record that still stands today. Manning continued to throw plenty of interceptions from 1999 to 2001 before Dungy’s arrival: 81 in total.
However, once Dungy came in, he focused on adding defensive talent to support Manning. After doing so, he began teaching the young quarterback that he didn’t need to air it out all the time. But that lesson didn’t truly sink in until the 2004-05 season.
“In 2005, I think I kind of convinced Peyton, you don’t have to take big risks,” Dungy remembered on Not Just Football. “The defense is going to be as good. It was ‘04 actually, and he threw 49 touchdown passes with only 9 interceptions. And that’s when I knew, yeah, we’re on point. He believes, and we’re going to be just fine.”
Manning actually threw 10 interceptions that season, but props to Dungy for remembering the 49 touchdowns. Regardless, the lesson stuck with his quarterback, and he continued to follow it for seasons to come. From 2004 to 2008, when Dungy was with the Colts, Manning threw 84 interceptions, almost the same number he had before Dungy arrived, but in twice the amount of time.
This newfound, risk-averse style of play perhaps came from his intense preparation and study of the game. As Dungy reminisced about his days with the Colts, he recalled a time when Peyton went a bit overboard in his prep for Super Bowl XLI against the Chicago Bears in 2007.
“He comes in with about 7 pages of a legal pad, ‘We’ve got these plays, we can do this. I saw this, I was watching the Chicago defense, we can do this.’ I was like, that’s about 30 new plays, I don’t know if we can handle all that, but take your top 5 and we’ll figure it out,” Dungy said.
Manning saw this as a compromise and agreed with his coach. But as he was leaving the room, Peyton surprised Dungy by bringing up the weather forecast ahead of the Big Game.
“Then, as he’s going out the door, he says, ‘Oh, and by the way, I was checking the 14-day forecast, and it might rain. We oughta practice with wet balls this week,’” Manning told Dungy.
The head coach thought his QB was crazy. After all, there had been 40 Super Bowls played at the time, and it had never rained in a single one.
But, of course, as we know, Manning’s preparations would eventually pay off. Super Bowl XLI ended up being played in Miami, and it’s still the only time we’ve ever seen the Big Game played in a downpour of rain.
“Of course, you know, it poured the whole game. It rained, but he was that far ahead of it. That was him in a nutshell.”
This all goes to show how much of an extra effort Manning made throughout his career. When he wasn’t practicing on the field, he was constantly looking for advantages off of it in the film room. This drive led him to a Super Bowl victory in ‘07 against the Bears, where he threw for 247 yards and a touchdown. Manning was named the game’s MVP.
Without Dungy’s guidance, though, we may have never seen Manning turn into the athlete he became. He was a risky player who loved to try to complete tough passes when he was young. But he eventually turned into a savant under Dungy, picking apart defenses with death by a thousand paper cuts.
