A Look at the Career of Peyton Manning

Peyton Manning is one of, if not the best quarterback to play the game of football. He had an outstanding career in high school, college, and now the National Football League, breaking many records, and most recently winning a world championship.

Manning attended Isidore Newman High School in New Orleans. Starting three consecutive seasons, he passed for 7,207 yards and 92 touchdowns, going 34-5. In high school, Manning won the Gatorade Player of the Year for Louisiana.

Instead of attending his father's alma mater, Ole Miss, Manning decided to play at the University of Tennessee. During his college career, he became Tennessee's all time leading passer with 11,201 yards, 863 completions and 89 touchdowns, going 39-6 as a starter. Manning was 3-1 in his four bowl games. In the course of his college career, Manning won many awards, including:

-1997 Davey O'Brian Award (nation's top senior quarterback)
-1997 Johnny Unitas Award (nation's top quarterback)
-1997 Maxwell Award (nation's top player)
-1997 College Football All-American Team
-1997 James E. Sullivan Award (outstanding amateur athlete in the United States)
-1997 Today's Top VIII Award (awards 8 senior athletes)
-1997 SEC Championship MVP
-1997 Capital One Bowl overall MVP
-1997 2nd place in Heisman Trophy voting

Since his college days, his number(16) has been retired by the University of Tennessee, and a street near Neyland Stadium has been named Peyton Manning Pass.

Manning's NFL career has been one of the best ever by a quarterback. The Indianapolis Colts selected him number one overall in the 1998 NFL Draft. He has started every game in his career. He has only missed one play due to injury, even after receiving a broken jaw.

In the 1998 season the Colts went 3-13, but Manning made the biggest turnaround in NFL history by going 13-3 the following year (1999), after drafting runningback Edgerrin James.