Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Peyton Manning remade in orange.
That's something I can live with.
In the last few months I've written a couple of columns about the circus that was Tim Tebow in Denver. So I decided before I started crowing about Manning signing with my favorite team the Broncos, I had better examine just how far onto Tebow's circus bandwagon I had climbed.
For those of you who can't remember or didn't read those columns I'm happy to report both doses praised Tebow for his personal life and his leadership but still expressed more than a little skepticism about his passing game, which I feel is the final measure of an NFL quarterback these days.
So with the assurance that I hadn't completely gone into the bag for Tebow, let me gush a little bit about Manning.
Yes, Peyton Manning has got a passing game. He was torturing NFL defenses with it before Tebow was out of grade school and now he's a Bronco.
I've admired Manning's style, work ethic and football smarts since his first year at the Colts. I never really considered the idea that Denver would go after him when Indianapolis dropped him after he missed all last season after neck surgeries. When it became apparent John Elway and crew were serious about courting him I got excited like I haven't been over a news story in a long time.
After he helped the Broncos recover from a 1-4 start and win a playoff game for the first time in years, Tebow had burrowed into the hearts of most Bronco fans. Even I was suffering from Tebowmania, I'll admit it.
That fact meant it was going to be impossible to get rid of him without a fan uprising unprecedented in Broncoville. So Elway snagged the only player who could possibly make the Broncomaniacs go deaf, dumb and blind as Tebow, the elephants, the trapeze artist and the fat lady were sent down the road to the New York Jets.
Former Jets quarterback "Broadway" Joe Namath hates the trade. Could be because he recognizes that the Jets paid a lot of money for a quarterback that may never be a starter again. Or it could be that Joe is worried that he'll lose his place in Jets lore as the biggest media sensation they ever experienced.
We'll leave Namath and the Jets fans to the pages of the celebrity magazines and Bronco fans will wait and rejoice on the cover of "Sports Illustrated" after Peyton and the Broncos win their second Super Bowl together.
Karl Terry, a former publisher of the Quay County Sun, writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at: