Battle Between Football’s Leading Brothers Rages On

The Manning family, considered by some to be NFL royalty, has produced three NFL quarterbacks: Archie and his two sons, Peyton and Eli. While Archie was a great quarterback from 1971 to 1984, his sons' careers have completely dwarfed his own, as both Manning brothers have become stalwarts of the NFL. 

Their careers have been similar in a number of ways. Both were drafted number one overall, Peyton in 1998, Eli in 2004; both have won Super Bowls, one for Peyton and two for Eli; and both have shown a remarkable ability to lead their team to fourth quarter comeback victories. Naturally, fans of Peyton's former Indianapolis Colts and current Denver Broncos, of Eli's Giants and of the NFL in general have been debating over which Manning is superior since Eli entered the league in 2004.

Peyton has beaten Eli all three times they have faced each other, including in a 41-23 Bronco victory over the Giants on Sept. 15.

Statistically, Peyton's career passer rating of 96.1 overshadows Eli's 82.5. Peyton's touchdown-to-interception ratio, often cited by analysts as the most telling quarter back stat of them all, is 445-209, a ratio better than 2:1. Eli's ratio is 216-152. 

In context, Tony Romo and Philip Rivers, quarterbacks who for various reasons are often not considered as good as Eli, both have TD-INT ratios around 200-100.

Though Eli may have two Super Bowl championships to Peyton's single title, Peyton has won four awards as the league's most valuable player MVP's while Eli has none.

However, Eli's success in the playoffs cannot be denied.

"Peyton is better during the regular season; Eli is better in the playoffs," said Josh Zimmer, a junior. It's a sentiment that several other Ramapo students share.

"Eli has been better in the clutch," another Ramapo junior, Mike Puzino, said, "and I would trust him more than Peyton with the game on the line." 

Some students believe that Peyton is incomparably better than his younger brother, like Joe DeFillipo, a senior.

"Peyton is indispensable to his team," he said. "Just look at the Colts when he missed the whole year, they went 2-14. Peyton is one of the all-time greats."

As long as these two star quarterbacks are in the NFL, the Manning versus Manning debate will rage on.  

jstewar1@ramapo.edu