ON PEYTON MANNING: A LEGACY THAT BREATHES LIFE INTO OTHER CHAMPIONS

"Give what you have.  To someone it may be better than you dare to think."  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow






ON SATURDAY...
There was talk of LEGACY... 
MAN OF THE YEAR... 
CHAMPION...and 
the NFL MVP.

But that was before Peyton's  team was annihilated on Sunday.

This year, I  must admit, I only watched Super Bowl XLVIII because of Peyton Manning.  The fact that he was in the game made me host a small party. I hoped it would be a proud Mama moment at the end of the game as he evened  the sibling score of two Super Bowl rings. 


That seems so silly, I know. It is only a game. It is so like a  woman to watch only because you hope for the quarterback.  But you have to understand that this was the man whose shirts my football loving son wore. This was the man we stood in line to get autographs from when my son was young. This was the man who played football in our backyard during training camps at Rose Hulmann  in Terre Haute when my football son's dreams were not yet won.  

I watched the Super Bowl game to watch the man Peyton play.
(I had a secret camaraderie maybe because I had immense admiration for the bravery this man displayed as he dared to stare down a defensive line after his neck surgery, the same painful one that I endured.)

Annihilated...Smashed...Crushed

It was a super season quicksand sinking game before the second quarter. 

It was marred. It wasn't seamless. It was a rough  pigskin mess.

It wasn't the usual display of Peyton's perseverance paid off; we kept waiting for the turn up field. 

It was bad to the bone, bared before millions.

fansided.com

But I DARE to say a brave baring before millions: Sitting on the sideline bench with his helmet donned, chin down, and eyes lowered, he wiped a tear from his cheek.

And this IS the stuff of legacy.  This is the message I want  passed down to my son. Not this particular game or even so much this man's name. Not his startling statistics but rather his life logistics.
   

If you know anything about this man at these game moments, Peyton came at this game ready: He read, researched, analyzed, planned, coordinated, and implemented. And  yet LOST.




So forget the number and title legacies and remember our lives are legacies to be lived out loud. This man displays strength of spirit.

Be ready in season and out with passion and a full heart and forgiveness and without pointing fingers or collecting shame.


Peyton bares the responsibility to leave a legacy. When it is our job to leave a legacy, we have to work at leaving a good one.  Work at it with all your being. Put on the full armor before every game time, not just the big ones. 

Then once we gear up we can STAND in EXPECTATION at the line!
.
No competitive athlete expects to lose but he knows it is within the realm of the game.  By the nature of a game, not everyone comes out on top.

dailymail.com

So if you dared to watch, Peyton's Super Bowl XLVIII game display readied us for life. 

Even when he lead with full expectation to win and the world seemed to be at his back, he fell flat.  






We may fall hard even when we are most prepared.  We may be surprisingly sacked face down on the ground only to have to get up to face a brutal sea of swarming hawks again and again. We may miss the message and run forward when others expected us to pitch from some other place. We may not communicate our next move well, leaving others to question and wonder what we are thinking. Others may dare to even question our usefulness and  impact.

In life, there is more than one way to win as I expect Peyton has figured out by now.  The warrior with the least points can still be the winner. Legacy leavers define winning differently. They define the winning moments; they are not defined by winning moments.


And a legacy leaver is a winner who is often defined by his worst moments. A winner is defined in the moments after their greatest pursuit. When the accolades have stopped being flung and Saturday's mentions of MVP award have turned to Sunday's shards of shame, a winner is defined by that to which he clings. 




And Peyton defined his legacy in those moments for my son, for all the sons of football.

He STOOD and clung to his EXPECTATIONS.

usatoday.com

He stood before cameras and tapes and said he expected more from himself.  He expected the fierce play of the other team.  He expected to be placed here in front of questions and concerns, win or lose. He gave what he had and it was not enough. He expected to give a better performance.  When his chin dropped and his lips pursed together, he didn't point fingers or slink away in a tantrum of turmoil and anger, as we expect others to do after a loss. 

And this is exactly the legacy I expected: He didn't give his heart away. He still raised his banner of no excuses, sacrifice, commitment, honor, brotherhood.

HE KEPT HIS PASSION TO PLAY.


Because legacy leavers are those that push forward despite the score. They play for more than one game, one super win.

Legacy leaders redeem their team even when they can't redeem the score.  They are less afraid of looking bad and more afraid of not looking brave.  They look defeat in the face and plan to kick its pigskin off at the next chance. 

Because this is more than a game to them.  It represents who they are in life. 

People sarcastically commented that his reputation is still in tact, as if he feared he would lose it. Legacy leaders fear not measuring up to their own standards, regardless of the measures others place on them. 


And his legacy is exactly as EXPECTED. He joined my senior son, my second round high school football playoff defeated son, in knowing that we are only truly defeated in the game and life when our heart and soul can't get up any longer. We are only defeated when we throw the towel in with accusations and excuses, when we play the blame game on everyone else. We are never defeated, down and truly out, until we proclaim we are.

So Peyton, we all have to look up and rewind the tapes a time or two and then throw them in the box of history where they belong, if we want to get ourselves off the floor. Stats can be pulled out of the hat like records in a box and played over and over, but then they are broken and forgotten. 

YET, a legacy lives beyond the books. A legacy hands down memorabilia that is elusive but life altering.  

A legacy breathes life into other champions.

AND THAT I EXPECTED  FROM HIM, WIN OR LOSE.