Peyton Manning Week: His Impact on Indianapolis Extends Far Beyond Football

Quarterback Peyton Manning made it hip to be an Indianapolis Colts fan in a Hoosier hysteria city previously known for basketball and the Indy 500. But he’s meant so much more to the community, where his name is still on a children’s hospital and his PeyBack Foundation continues charity endeavors that have, as one former mayor put it, “made Indianapolis a better place to live.”

INDIANAPOLIS — Before Peyton Manning arrived in 1998, the Hoosier state’s heartbeat for sports pounded for basketball and the Indianapolis 500.

Twenty-two years later, the downtown Indianapolis skyline has dramatically changed with the 2008 addition of cavernous Lucas Oil Stadium, commonly referred to as “The House That Manning Built.” It’s fitting that Manning’s half-ton bronze statue, unveiled in 2017, stands tall in the stadium’s Northeast plaza facing South Street.

Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay was going to have a new stadium built at some point, but the team’s success in the Manning glory years — which included a Super Bowl XLI win in 2007 — sped up the process.

On the Northside, there’s the Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital at Ascension St. Vincent. Manning still visits and promotes that venture with amusing local TV commercials. His PeyBack Foundation, created with wife Ashley, has contributed more than $14 million in grants and programs since its 1999 inception, not just in Indiana but also in Colorado, Tennessee, and Louisiana.

It’s an understatement to say Manning changed the Indianapolis sports landscape. He brought the NFL culture to life. Tailgate lots are full for Colts games now. Before the Manning era, Irsay’s franchise had never hosted a home playoff game in the city. There was just a taste of success with three postseason berths in 14 years, the most notable when “Captain Comeback” quarterback Jim Harbaugh led the team to two road wins before an AFC Championship Game loss at Pittsburgh.

Manning’s first playoff game came in his second season, when the Colts went worst to first, from 3-13 to 13-3. And it was finally the first postseason appearance at home in Indianapolis in the old RCA Dome.

But for an enhanced perspective on the city's big picture, go back to what Indianapolis was in the 1960s. Sports Illustrated’s award-winning writer Peter King cited Hoosier native and talk show icon David Letterman, who at the 2017 Manning statue unveiling referred to how Indianapolis used to be “like a minimum-security prison with a racetrack.”

King also filed this Letterman description: “People would say, ‘Dave, we’re planning a trip to Indianapolis, what should we do?’ This was years and years ago. I said, ‘This is what I’d do if I was going to Indianapolis. I’d rent a car and go to Chicago.’”

Not anymore. And while Manning’s off-field community contributions deserve every word of praise, the origin of the metamorphosis gained momentum with No. 18 as a polarizing quarterback whose cerebral acumen gave him the most freedom at a line of scrimmage of any passer in his era.

The late Hall of Fame defensive end Gino Marchetti of the Baltimore Colts made an immediate comparison when watching Manning play.

“The way he walks, the way he looks, his facial expression behind the face mask,” Marchetti said. “I told my wife he looks like, acts like and throws like Johnny Unitas. That’s probably the best compliment I could ever give him.”

Although Manning concluded his NFL career with so many records and is still the league’s only five-time MVP, he didn’t consider himself worthy to be mentioned in the same breath as Unitas.

Manning thought it appropriate that he wore No. 18 and Unitas donned No. 19, “because Johnny Unitas is always one more than me.”

Tony Dungy, who became the first black head coach to win a championship when the Colts and Super Bowl XLI MVP Manning beat the Chicago Bears in 2007 in Miami, understands why the quarterbacks are compared.

More than the statistics, Manning was the ultimate field general, just like Unitas defined the position back in the 1950s and 1960s. Manning was given the latitude to choose from three series of plays that offensive coordinator Tom Moore would suggest. Audibles became the norm, based on Manning’s read of the defense. That he knew every player’s responsibilities on each play proved essential in two-minute, hurry-up mode. And trying to match wits with him usually proved futile.

“He’s like Unitas,” Dungy said. “In that era, those guys did so much. So much of it was on the field. Unitas with the audibles and the two-minute drill and calling the plays. Then you had a whole generation of quarterbacks who were like (Joe) Montana and (John) Elway who were great, but it was like, ‘Give me the plan and I’ll execute it.’ With Peyton, he was a throwback of being responsible for the success and taking that responsibility on his shoulders. He did more for our offense than any quarterback in this era.”

Retired center Jeff Saturday, with whom Manning shares the distinction of most quarterback-center games in league history at 170, remembered how much effort No. 18 expended on a weekly basis.

“We used to call him ‘Coach Manning’ and used to bust him up about how hard he worked,” Saturday said. “He showed up early. He left late. He led by example. He never expected you to give anything that he wasn’t going to give himself.”

Manning worked for those marks commonly listed. Nobody has made more Pro Bowls than his 14. When he retired with Denver after winning his final game for a second ring in Super Bowl 50 in 2016, his 71,940 passing yards ranked first. He’s since been passed by New Orleans’ Drew Brees and New England’s Tom Brady. In 2013 with the Broncos, Manning reclaimed single-season records with 5,477 passing yards and 55 TD passes. That latter mark might never be broken — it’s five more than Brady and Patrick Mahomes.

Manning and Hall of Fame wide receiver Marvin Harrison are the most prolific passing duo in history with 953 completions for 12,756 yards and 112 TDs.

But, again, Manning deserved to be defined by more than numbers.

When Marv Levy accepted an invite from Colts president Bill Polian to visit the team complex, the retired Buffalo Bills coach saw first-hand how Manning went about his business.

“His preparation, that man never thought he had it made,” Levy said. “I was blown away. His work ethic was beyond belief. And it was consistent work ethic.”

Jim Mora, Manning’s Colts coach from 1998 to 2001, remembered a fierce in-game intensity.

“Everybody respected Peyton,” Mora said, “but I tell you what, he was a fabulous competitor. Nobody I’ve ever been around has wanted to do more of what it takes to win. He worked at it. He does what it takes to win. And because of that, he infects the people around him.”

Then Manning channeled that work ethic off the field. Phil Richards, formerly a longtime Colts beat writer for The Indianapolis Star, put Manning’s legacy in perspective by comparing him to two other icons.

“For my money, (NBA Hall of Famer) Oscar Robertson and the tragically under-appreciated (Negro league baseball star) Oscar Charleston are the best athletes to come from Indianapolis,” Richards said in 2013. “Peyton Manning is the best to play for it.

“Still, if you want a read on Manning’s true impact, look at Lucas Oil Stadium and the Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital. They wouldn’t exist without him.

Manning raised millions. Whatever it took. When St. Vincent needed help with its Gala, its biggest annual fundraiser, Peyton called his pals. Bob Costas emcees. Kenny Chesney plays. The grants arm of Manning’s Peyback Foundation has distributed (millions) to kids programs and it’s still giving.”

Former Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson added, “An appropriate accounting of (Manning’s) contributions would have to reach the conclusion that he made Indianapolis a better place to live.”

Former Colts director of media content Craig Kelley considered Manning the most unique player he has ever been around.

“His encyclopedic memory was truly something to witness,” Kelley said. “Peyton’s recall for detail and his ability to process what he saw often made me think if there were a football version of the movie A Beautiful Mind, it would have to be made about him.

“There are race horses, and then there is Secretariat. Peyton is Secretariat.”

Retired quarterback Peyton Manning gives a thumbs up after being inducted into the Indianapolis Colts Ring of Honor in 2017 at Lucas Oil Stadium :: Thomas J. Russo/USA TODAY Sports

(Phillip B. Wilson has covered the Indianapolis Colts for more than two decades and authored the 2013 book 100 Things Colts Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die. He’s on Twitter @pwilson24, on Facebook at @allcoltswithphilb and @100thingscoltsfans, and his email is phillipbwilson24@yahoo.com.)