For a few hours Monday night, Peyton Manning wasn't the most important man in Indianapolis. That distinction briefly belonged to Santa Claus as the Indianapolis Colts' quarterback pushed aside talk of the NFL record he is pursuing and sat on Santa's lap.
"Nobody is ever too big to sit on Santa's lap," Manning said.
Not even the guy who is pursuing a mark that has stood as one of the NFL's top quarterback achievements for 20 years. Manning, whose team plays the Texans on Sunday in Houston, needs only four touchdown passes to tie the record set by the Miami Dolphins' Dan Marino in 1984. In addition, Manning needs only two touchdown passes to break John Unitas's 45-year-old record of passing for at least two scores in 13 straight games to open a season.
What Manning, 28, has done in his seventh season with the Colts has evoked comparisons with the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history. "He ranks right up there with the very best of them," said Ted Marchibroda, the former head coach of the Colts and Baltimore Ravens who has been associated with the NFL as a player, a coach and broadcaster for almost 50 years.
"He's extremely accurate. Rarely does he miss anyone open, and he always seems to hit his receivers in stride. Boyd Dowler [a former Redskins receiver] once told me that Sonny Jurgensen always hit him on the right [proper] foot. In other words, he didn't have to break stride and it was always an easy catch. That's what Peyton does."
Manning's detractors say he is fortunate to be playing in a season in which game officials have been told to crack down on contact downfield after the first five yards, opening up the passing game around the league. Of course, that rule was in place during Marino's record-setting year, too.
"It's had an impact as far as quarterbacks and offensive play and how receivers have been able to get a lot of free releasing from the line," Marino said. "But with his offense and the talent they have, they've just got everything going right now. He would have been able to do this regardless of the rules changing or not."
Manning will play 10 of 16 games in domed stadiums under ideal conditions, without worrying about wind, cold or a wet football; Marino played in only one dome in 1984. In the playoffs, Manning will have to win outdoors in January in Pittsburgh, or New England, where the Colts lost in the AFC title game in bitter cold last year.
Manning, who has thrown for at least five touchdowns in a game four times this season (including Indianapolis's 49-14 victory over the Texans on Nov. 14), was atypically terse this week when the topic of the record came up.
"Everybody knows what I'm about," he said. "I'm about trying to help our team win."
Manning's admirers say that even if he is often playing indoors, his numbers are extraordinary. No one else has come close to his 44 touchdown passes this season, with Minnesota's Daunte Culpepper (who will play in 12 domes) a distant second with 30 scoring passes and 3,459 yards.
"He's on fire, my hat's off to him," Culpepper said this week. "I think [the rule emphasis] has opened up things some, but I won't say a whole lot because there's still a lot of contact down the field that isn't called. But that's football."
The Colts run a no-huddle offense, which gives Manning great latitude to change plays called in to his headset from Tom Moore, his only offensive coordinator in his entire pro career. Unlike most quarterbacks of the modern era, Manning essentially is calling his own plays as much as 80 percent of the time, another reason many believe he is the best player at his position in the league.
"He has magnificent confidence that spills over to his teammates," said Hall of Fame coach Marv Levy. "He is absolutely the most complete quarterback I've ever seen. His ability to think is among the best of them. He knows where he wants to go with the football, but he's also one of the best at looking off a player in the secondary and then killing him with a perfect throw. One more thing with Peyton. Boy, does he have some weapons."
As a byproduct of Manning's proficiency, the Colts are on track for an NFL first — having three receivers on the same team with 10 or more touchdown receptions. Marvin Harrison has a dozen touchdown catches and Reggie Wayne has 10. Brandon Stokley, a free agent acquired in the offseason and one of Manning's best friends, has nine. Tight end Marcus Pollard has six.
"People say, 'Aw, you've got all these [weapons],'" Manning said this week. "We have worked hard to get that. Obviously Marvin, the work he and I have done, is well documented. But Reggie and Brandon and I have put in the time in the months of March, April and May when nobody's around. It's paying off for us on Sunday."
Last week against Tennessee, Manning threw for 425 yards and had three touchdown passes (or more) in his eighth straight game, a 51-24 victory. The Colts have scored 40 or more points in four successive games, only the third time that has ever happened, and Manning has often been taken out in the fourth quarter in lopsided games. With a passer rating of 126.3 and only nine interceptions, Manning also is threatening Steve Young's single-season record rating of 112.8.
Marchibroda, who beat out Unitas for a roster spot on the 1955 Steelers, coached Hall of Fame quarterbacks Jurgensen and Jim Kelly and has been broadcasting Colts games on the radio over the last four years, believes Manning's quick release has a great deal to do with his success, along with an offensive line that has allowed only seven sacks.
"He also has a quick mind. He sees things in a hurry. He reacts immediately to what he sees. He has the quick release like Marino, and the ball gets there like a baseball line drive, even some of the deep stuff. There's tremendous preparation beforehand. He also loves to be involved in everything and loves to take command. He always seems to have the right play for the defense he's looking at."
As an assistant for George Allen with the Los Angeles Rams in the late 1960s, Marchibroda did a detailed film study of top quarterbacks. On his projector, with 32 frames of film per second, he calculated that quarterbacks such as Jurgensen, Joe Namath, Unitas, Roman Gabriel and John Brody released the ball after 12 to 14 frames. Years later, he tried it with Marino and counted eight to nine frames. Manning, he said, is in the same range as Marino.
"Most people when they drop back bring the ball down to their hip," Marchibroda said. "This guy doesn't do that. He's always in position to get rid of the ball in a hurry. His faking is also very good and very quick, and he gets himself ready to throw after a play-action fake as well as anyone I've ever seen. He's also a little faster than what you might think. He's just fast enough to get first downs."
Bill Polian, the Colts' president who drafted Manning, has other theories as to why his quarterback is making a mockery of the record book. The defense has improved significantly this season, he said, "because we're getting a lot of turnovers [31] and we're getting a lot of sacks [36]. The more times your quarterback has the football, the better the opportunity he has to score. Peyton also has to face so much more in the way of sophisticated defenses — nickel and dime coverage, zone blitzes. We didn't see a lot of these things 20 years ago."
Marino said he has asked Manning how he would try to defend himself and "he wouldn't answer it."
"If you can find ways to get pressure on him where if he's going to make a throw, at least you'll get a guy in his face who's going to force him to make a quick decision and make a throw," Marino said. "Or you do what New England did [last year in the playoffs] and sometimes you drop eight [into pass coverage] and rush three and every now and then you take a chance and make him be patient and try to make him beat you running the football, and don't give up the big play."
Marino also knows that Manning has ambitions beyond records. The Colts with Manning have never played in a Super Bowl, and Marino said he cherishes his 1984 records because they came in the only season in which he played for a championship.
"I was proud of the significance because it was in a year that we won," he said. "It was in the process of us as a group, as a team, having a really good year, and that's what Peyton is doing right now. That's what makes it special.
"I'm sure Peyton feels like he can go out there and do what he's doing and get everything accomplished with the weapons he has. You have that confidence that when you walk on the field, you're going to do whatever it takes to get it done, and that you are not going to get stopped."