I haven't followed much football this year at all and I think it's because one of the greatest players (and our personal favorite) retired last March.
I recently asked the kids to bring me some clothes for Goodwill that didn't fit anymore and Rylan brought me a Colt's Manning jersey.
And Dave said I needed to blog this because most Sundays you could find Dave in either a Manning #18 Colts or Broncos jersey.
Manning started in the NFL in 1998, the year we were married.
Troy also started a Fantasy Football League that year.
The night of Troy's 1999 fantasy league draft, Dave was working for Mr. Blair (now Logan's sports med teacher) at a health care physical clinic (they used to do physicals at the high school before fall sports began).
There was no texting or face timing, and maybe there were cell phones, but we didn't own one yet, but Dave begged me to attend the draft on his behalf, and told me that he really wanted Peyton Manning for the first round if nobody picked him first. He sent me off with a magazine that listed the players he wanted in order.
So it was me and probably 8 men (many of whom still play in Troy's league and 3 of them that are on Dave and Troy's bowling team) at Abby's Pizza in Wenatchee. I didn't know much about football or anything about how fantasy football worked, but we each picked a number out of a hat and that was our order of selection.
I luckily picked #1 out of the hat, selected Peyton first thing, and Dave's "Manning as QB" era began.
Dave won some money each of the 18 years he had Manning on his team.
(In 2011 Manning had neck surgery and was out for a year. Troy's league rule was that you had one "keeper"so Dave kept Manning as his backup QB so that he could have him as his keeper for the next year. Drew Brees was his pick for quarterback this season).
Dave's team has always been "Little Lea's Ballhogs".
Ry and Logan in their Colt's jerseys.
On March 7, 2012, after 14 years with the Colts, he was released.
I can remember watching this with Dave.
He signed with Denver later this summer and so we started following his career as a Bronco.
And bought a new Manning jersey.
Samee was texting with Dave about Peyton Manning's 7 touchdowns and 462 yards while she was in the early stages of labor.
He texted her back to keep bouncing on her yoga ball.
September 5th, 2013 vs. Baltimore
Dave, Logan, and Ry went and watched Manning and the Broncos play the Seahawks in 2013.
He texted me from Just Sports that he was buying these for the boys to wear.
Pre-Game warm up.
The game was close at the end and a Seahawks fan picked up Rylan so he could watch from Manning from his shoulders on one of the last drives.
We were so happy when the Broncos won Superbowl 50 in 2016.
And we were equally happy that Manning decided to retire exactly 4 years later from his release from the Colts after 18 years in the NFL.
We've loved watching Peyton on the field for 18 years, but have also loved his appearances on Saturday Night Live, with his brother Eli for Football on your Phone, and commercials (Nationwide is on your Side).
Some of his records:
Most Touchdown Passes (539)
Most MVP Awards (5)
Most Passing Yards (71,940)
Most Victories for a starting QB (136)
Most Pro-Bowl Selections (14)
Most 400 yard games (4)
Most Passing Touchdowns in a season (55)
Most Passing First Downs (289)
No comments:
Post a Comment