Peyton Manning: The Two-Time Super Bowl Champion Choke Artist

Peyton Manning of the Denver Broncos is the only NFL quarterback to win Super Bowl titles with two different teams. And he once had a choke artist label.

Man, Peyton Manning is such a choke artist!!! He always folds when the big game matters.

After all, what else can you say about a two-time Super Bowl champion who has a 14-13 playoff record and the most game-winning drives in NFL history?

He clearly couldn’t win the big game, evidenced by the fact that he is the only quarterback to win two Super Bowl championships with two different teams.

He was definitely a choker in the big game when he won the Super Bowl MVP in 2007 and led the greatest comeback in Conference Championship history that same year.

Even in 2008, when he played hurt for the first seven games and his team dug a hole at 3-4, he was such a choker when the Colts had to win every one of their next eight games to reach the playoffs and he had an MVP season in the process of doing that. The choking that year especially came through in the second-to-last game against the Jacksonville Jaguars when both teams were playing for a wildcard spot and he completed his first 14 passes for two touchdowns en route to a victory.

He also was a huge choke artist when he became the first quarterback in NFL history to have a perfect quarterback rating for two straight playoff games back in the 2003-2004 season.

His choking even goes back to college. How else could you explain one of the greatest performances in SEC Championship game history when he led his Vols back from a two-score deficit to beat the Auburn Tigers by throwing for 400 yards and four touchdowns? Or how about when he torched the Vols’ arch-rival, the Alabama Crimson Tide, for three straight years and had a 3-1 bowl game record?

By now, you must be aware that this article is entirely sarcastic. It is a complete indictment against everybody who ever said that Manning cannot win the big game. We will look back in history and realize that was once said about a two-time Super Bowl champion. That’s ridiculous.

Sure, Manning has had some bad performances in big games, and yes, his stats are worse in the playoffs than the regular season. You know what other quarterback can say that? Every single one in the history of the NFL.

I concede that he didn’t win a national title in college. As a starter, neither did Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Brett Favre, John Elway, or Roger Staubach.

So to everybody who ever claimed him to be a choke artist, what is your argument at this point?

The narrative from those people will undoubtedly be the fact that he did not need to do anything to win this Super Bowl because his defense carried him. Okay, I can buy that.

But when he threw for 333 yards in his Super Bowl loss to the Saints in 2009-2010, more than 400 yards in a playoff loss to the San Diego Chargers, saw his kicker miss two field goals that cost him two playoff games, and led a game-winning drive in 2010-2011 only to see his defense give up one right back, all we heard from you guys that the stats don’t matter, it just matter whether his team wins or loses. So which is it?

The same thing was said about him when he had 400 yards and four touchdowns in a loss to Florida in 1996 and put up 36 points in a loss to them in 1995, only to see the defense put up 62 points. But all that mattered then to his detractors was that his team lost, so he was held accountable.

Fine. Then when his team wins a Super Bowl, he should get the credit, no matter what type of game he played.

After all, do those of you trying to make the case that his defense carried him this year grant the same criticism to Tom Brady after he had terrible numbers in his first Super Bowl run and even rode the bench in the AFC Championship game that year? Do you hold it to John Elway with his atrocious numbers in his first Super Bowl win?

If Manning retires, he will go down with 200 total wins, the most ever by a quarterback, along with every single passing record imaginable in NFL history. Add in two Super Bowl Championships with two different teams, and your choke artist label looks pretty stupid now.