The Face Of The NFL

By Alex Cohen-Smith

As we near conference championship weekend and start to turn our eyes toward the Super Bowl we are seeing the the face of sports in the United States once again make a run at the Super Bowl. And no, I’m not referring to Brett Favre. I promise. I’m in fact making reference to Peyton Manning, who slowly but surely has established himself as the favorite son of football.

It might have something to do with his game on the field. Since taking over the starting quarterback job as a 22 year old rookie in 1998, Peyton has brought the Indianapolis Colts out of the NFL’s doldrums and established them as one of the league’s premier teams for over a decade. During his 12 years as a starter Peyton has never missed a start, never thrown less than 26 touchdowns or thrown for less than 3,700 yards. His 2009 MVP award made him the only player in NFL history to have four MVP’s to his credit. Of course, we can’t forget about Peyton’s performance in Super Bowl XLI, which earned him the trophy he really coveted, the Vince Lombardi trophy.

It also might have something to do with his personality. When Peyton came into the league, he was known for being relatively quiet and not doing much else besides his job. Today, Peyton is one of the faces of Direct TV, Gatorade, Reebok, MasterCard and Sprint among many other well known companies. According to survey done by Street & Smith’s Sports Business Daily of 56 sports marketing and media execs, Peyton is the most marketable player in the NFL. Tom Brady came in a close second, but the rest of the competition was far behind the two gunslingers.

Even as a New Yorker, I love Peyton Manning. His commercials are absolutely hilarious. If you haven’t seen his MasterCard commercials I recommend browsing a few like this one. And yet as hilarious as he is off the field, on the field he is the consummate professional. Getting the job done year in and year out is what Peyton does best.

His Colts team is known for brandishing an invisible defense, the kind that forces Peyton to score a touchdown every time he’s on the field in order to stay in the game. Peyton does just that. This year he lost Marvin Harrison, a man he completed 935 passes to over his career. He lost his number 2 receiver in the first game of the year. His starting RB averaged a subpar 3.8 yards per carry. Yet this Manning still had enough in the tank to go out and win the MVP and bring his team now one step away from making the Super Bowl.

Peyton is now officially the face of football. He’s right up there with Lebrons and Jeters of the world and who knows? Another Super Bowl win this year and Peyton could place himself alone on top of the list as the face of sports. As cool as it would be to see my buddy Darrelle Revis to pick Peyton off six times, the realist in me seeing the Colts having a nice week off before their trip down to Miami for the Super Bowl