Now, it’s Joe Montana. His hands are so arthritic he sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night screaming. The former 49ers star has had roughly a half-dozen surgeries on a knee and can no longer straighten that leg. He has had three neck fusion surgeries. He is 59 years old and can no longer do many of the activities he and his family enjoy.
And it was Kenny Stabler. Pathologists and researchers say a brain autopsy on the late Raiders quarterback showed signs of CTE, the degenerative disease linked to concussions and found in many other deceased NFL players.
This column isn’t meant to dredge all that up again, although I had to laugh the other day when NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said, “The concussion issue is something we’ve been focused on for several decades.”
Yeah, mostly by ignoring it, debunking scientific research, and by the league trying to cover its derriere. Whenever Goodell opens his mouth, what do you figure the baloney quotient is?
But, again, that’s not today’s point.
We don’t have a dog in the hunt at Super Bowl 50. When the clock hits 0:00 and the confetti starts to fly, it will matter little to me whether the Carolina Panthers or Denver Broncos win.
Either way, though, winner or loser, I hope this is Peyton Manning’s last game.
On second thought, maybe I should care which team wins, because a title for Denver might facilitate such a decision by Manning. Being on top might make it easier for him to formulate an exit strategy.
We have no idea really what Peyton is thinking. He’s been asked the question hundreds of times in the days leading up to today’s game and hasn’t indicated he’s leaning one way or the other.
Heck, the spreading speculation this past week was a report that the St. Louis, er, I mean, Los Angeles Rams might be interested in acquiring Manning if he and the Broncos should come to a parting of the ways. Peyton Manning, trade bait?
What would you be willing to trade for a guy who has had major knee surgery to repair multiple injuries, four neck surgeries including one for a spinal fusion, who has already been told he’ll eventually need a hip replacement after his playing days end, and who faces the possible need for further neck procedures? For a player who will celebrate his 40th birthday next month after a season during which he missed seven starts with a torn plantar fascia near his left heel, adding his foot to a three-year tally that includes ankle, thigh, shoulder, and rib ailments?
Manning is a gangly 6-foot-5 and has always looked a bit disjointed running on and off the field. Watch him run these days, though, during his 17th NFL season, and he mimics an erector set in need of oil.
Yeah, you might counter, but we’re talking about one of the greatest and most cerebral quarterbacks in NFL history ... 72,000 career passing yards ... a former Super Bowl champ and MVP ... just two seasons removed from a 55-touchdown year ... in the Super Bowl today for a fourth time.
Well, yes, but that Peyton Manning isn’t necessarily the current Peyton Manning.
In this injury-abbreviated season, Manning has nine TD passes against 17 interceptions — the Carolina defense he faces later today is among the NFL’s best at forcing turnovers — and his 67.9 passer rating is by far the worst of his career. His arm strength is a mere shadow of its former self.
That those diminished skills haven’t led to diminishing returns this season in the win-lose column is almost solely the doing of Denver’s fantastic defense.
There have been other occasions in the recent past when I thought Manning was done, one being when he missed the entire 2011 season following neck surgeries, and he has come back to prove us wrong.
Peyton isn’t perfect. There was a rather crude incident as a collegian and, now, there’s an ongoing investigation into a report that he may have been involved in the purchase/use of human growth hormone during his 2011 rehab.
Take that or (as he insists) leave it, Manning is as popular and as recognizable as any athlete. His personality should translate into a limitless future without a helmet. And there is little if anything left for him to prove on the field.
I sense, for whatever reason, it will be hard for him to just walk away. There is ego and the love of sport and competition involved. But to go on just for the sake of scratching that itch — the so-called legacy — seems reckless when weighed against recent injuries and his health at age 50, 60, or 70.
Of course, it’s his call.
Joe Montana played in the NFL for 16 seasons and retired at age 38. He’ll be out at the 50-yard line today to handle the Super Bowl coin flip before an adoring San Francisco crowd.
Maybe, if he has a minute, Joe Cool might tell Peyton Manning how he’s feeling these days.
Contact Blade sports columnist Dave Hackenberg at: dhack@theblade.com or 419-724-6398.
First Published February 7, 2016, 5:19 a.m.
