Pro Football|Win or Lose, Manning Comes Out on Top

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - In the football home of his brother, Eli, Peyton Manning was playing with house money. That was the more logical, or legitimate, takeaway from a 37-year-old's opportunity to claim another Super Bowl two years after not knowing if he would play again.

Winning Sunday night's showdown at MetLife Stadium in order to maximize his credentials for others to adjudicate should have been beside the point. The very best athletes cannot afford to make their legacies a game-day obsession. In pursuit of greatness, what other choice is there than to live exclusively in the moment?

However difficult to do in a communications world of 140-character synopses, athletes like Manning must get to a place where they can make their own case for career fulfillment.

For two weeks before his Denver Broncos took on the Seattle Seahawks, Manning fended off or sidestepped variations on the question of what winning - or failing to win - a second Super Bowl would mean in the grand scheme of things. During one interview session, he was asked to name his top three all-time quarterbacks, a question he handled with the grace and agility he's never quite exhibited when pressured in the pocket.

'I don't have a list,' he said. 'I think I could describe the perfect quarterback. Take a little piece of everybody. Take John Elway's arm, Dan Marino's release, maybe Troy Aikman's drop-back, Brett Favre's scrambling ability, Joe Montana's two-minute poise and, naturally, my speed.'

He drew laughter with the punch line. But he also cleverly managed to make himself part of the conversation. For whatever it's worth, which is not much.

However unavoidable and fun, it's a fool's errand, an argument without end, to compare legends from different eras, teams, styles and situations. Whose standard, exactly, was Manning supposed to meet on Sunday night?

If Vince Lombardi spoke from the heavens and declared Super Bowl victories to be the ultimate arbiter, how could Manning prove anything by having two when Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw have four and Tom Brady has three?

'Because he had such a tremendous year, I mean, what else are you going to talk about Peyton Manning that's negative other than, 'O.K., we've got to go to his legacy,' ' said John Elway, who, as the Broncos' chief executive, brought Manning to Denver. 'So I don't think this game, one way or the other, affects his legacy, the way that he has played. He's going to be one of the all-time greats no matter what.'

Elway concluded his 16-season playing career in Denver by winning consecutive Super Bowls after losing his first three. He recruited Manning and rode him back to the big stage in Manning's 16th N.F.L. season. The first 14 were in Indianapolis, where Manning and Marvin Harrison practically built Jim Irsay's beloved Lucas Oil Stadium with their passing and catching hands.

In Indiana, Manning will forever be an icon. In Denver, he will ultimately be remembered as Elway's luxury rental. If anyone's legacy was in position to reach a new, exalted level - certainly in the Mile High City - it was Elway's.

A little more than two years ago, he walked out of a hushed Broncos locker room at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass, following a Saturday night playoff beatdown by Brady and the Patriots. He wore a long camel-hair coat and had a cellphone pressed to his ear as he passed by Tim Tebow, who was meeting with a disabled young man and his family as part of his foundation's good work.

Even in lopsided defeat, Tebow was at the height of his N.F.L. fame. Perhaps only Elway had the heft to jettison him soon after. Yes, Elway's replacement was a sure Hall of Famer. But who knew what, if anything, Manning had left after serious neck surgery and a year off?

Who knew how much Manning - when push came to shove and to sack - was even willing to risk after so many years?

'My brother, Cooper, dealt with neck surgeries and injuries as a high school and college player, and had to give up football,' he said during the week. 'I remember at the time, when Cooper got injured, they did a test on me and Eli. I would have been a junior in high school and Eli would have been a sixth-grader, or something. They said our necks weren't picture perfect and didn't look ideal, but they're stable enough to keep playing football.'

He added: 'I thought maybe I had been on borrowed time this entire time. I was fortunate to have 20 years of health to play football. If that was going to be the end of it because of a neck injury, I really, believe it or not, had a peace about it.'

It was about the time of the Super Bowl two years ago - Eli winning his second in Peyton's house - when Peyton was told by his doctor that his neck was sturdy enough to allow him to play.

'Now, it was simply a matter of performance,' he said. 'Could I get my strength back to play quarterback at the level I thought a team deserved?'

There were times when he couldn't answer the question, when progress was nonexistent or fretfully slow. At one point, he needed encouragement from his wife, Ashley, to push on. Then he needed another great quarterback like Elway to believe he could still be close enough to what he was.

Manning called coming to the stadium off Exit 16W in career year 16 'a pretty unique and ironic situation' after Eli's triumph at Lucas Oil Stadium two years ago. The argument could be made that the most quantifiable achievement for Peyton Manning Sunday night was a chance to pull even with Eli in the family Super Bowl standings.

His season - embellished Saturday with a record fifth Most Valuable Player award - had already been a storybook. Given the alternative, how could he complain, win or lose, after having house money to play with?

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