Over the years, Peyton Manning has to Demaryius Thomas and Thomas Santi, Marvin Harrison and Gijon Robinson, Knowshon Moreno and seemingly every possible player except … Peyton Manning.
Yes, it sounds crazy that Manning could break Brett Favre’s career touchdown record — he trails Favre’s 508 by two — by somehow completing a pass to himself. Notably because it is, indeed, crazy. Then again, as Manning pointed out, “A great trivia question is — what future Hall of Famer did Brett Favre throw his first Packers completion to?”
The answer? Brett Favre.
Yes, the eager kid quarterback filled in for Don Majkowski in a 1992 game, and his pass was batted into the air and caught by Favre — who was promptly tackled for a seven-yard loss.
“So yeah, those ones that are kind of batted up in the air, the quarterback coach does tell you to bat them down, which would probably going to net more yards (than) if I were to catch it,” Manning said. “I think I’d take the incompletion over the minus-5 yard loss.”
But throwing a pass to yourself for a touchdown? It has been done, and sure enough, by Manning’s fellow one-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback Brad Johnson (that’s painful to write). In 1997, with the Vikings, a Johnson pass was batted in the air and quickly corralled by the quarterback who then anxiously pranced behind blockers for a seven-yard touchdown run (well, catch).
According to a recent post on the , that’s the only time in NFL history that a quarterback threw a pass to himself for a touchdown.
Still, if the 2007 Rockies can make the World Series, anything is possible. Implausible, sure, but not impossible.
“I know I’ve batted a number of them down that have been batted up before,” Manning said. “I’ve caught a pass from a running back before. I thought I was going to score but I got like four yards. It was disappointing. So disappointing. It was in college (in 1997). I can’t say I’ve ever caught one before; I think I’ve batted a lot of them down before. I can’t say that I have.”
But you actually have! , the Colts played at Tennessee in a game some writers described as the biggest in Manning’s regular-season history to that point. Both teams were vying for a division title — both would finish 12-4 and both quarterbacks, Manning and the late Steve McNair, would share the MVP title. In that game, the Titans made a furious 14-point fourth-quarter comeback, cutting the score to 29-27.
Indianapolis had the ball with 0:57 seconds left, third-and-8 on its own 21-yard line. Manning’s pass was, yup, batted into the air. As we know, Manning is wont to bat it down, but this situation epitomized what makes Peyton Peyton. See, by catching the ball and being tackled, even for a 2-yard loss, the clock kept ticking and he forced the Titans to use their final timeout, with 50 seconds remaining.
The Colts punted, and the Colts won.
Data tracking back to the 1970 NFL merger shows there have been 25,931 touchdown passes thrown. So I suppose the odds of Manning throwing his record touchdown to himself are are 25,931- to-1, or 0.000038 percent, or to quote Lloyd Christmas from “Dumb and Dumber” —
Benjamin Hochman: bhochman@denverpost.com or
