INDIANAPOLIS — The numbers tell it all — 227 consecutive starts, 11 playoff appearances, 11 double-digit winning seasons, eight division crowns, two AFC titles and one Super Bowl championship.
Peyton Manning has quarterbacked the Indianapolis Colts every Sunday since Sept. 6, 1998. He won’t this weekend.
Manning will be in street clothes when the team opens the season at Houston, still recovering from neck surgery while Kerry Collins starts in his place.
“It’s going to be a little different without Peyton,” coach Jim Caldwell said. “He’s one of a kind. When you look across our league, most teams have had quarterbacks that have missed time. Ours has just been highly unusual.”
The streak is the second longest in history among NFL quarterbacks behind only Brett Favre, whose 297-game run — 321 including the postseason — ended last season just before he called it a career.
“To say I am disappointed in not being able to play is an understatement,” Manning said. “The best part about football is being out there on the field playing with my teammates. It will be tough not to be out there playing for the organization and our fans. I simply am not healthy enough to play, and I am doing everything I can to get my health back. The team will do fine without me, and I know for sure that I will miss them much more than they miss me.”
New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning, Peyton’s younger brother, now holds the longest active streak for a quarterback with 110 starts, including postseason play.
Peyton Manning, 35, had neck surgery to repair a nerve May 23, but the recovery has taken much longer than the expected six to eight weeks that would have put him back on the field for the start of training camp. Instead, he started camp on the physically unable to perform list and wasn’t activated until Aug. 29.
The Associated Press
