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As fortune would have it, I wound up landing that job, and by early October I had set up shop in Nashville. It was only upon my return that I realized how much I had missed the Southeast for any number of reasons. Chief among them, I no longer had to root for Peyton and the Vols from the remote northwestern corner of our country. But one thing geography couldn’t change was the time it would take getting accustomed to rooting for them independently of one another.
In his first year in Indy, Manning and the Colts lost 13 games. The converse held true in Knoxville, as Tee Martin and the Tennessee Volunteers won 13 games, and in so doing, they brought home the National Championship that had eluded Peyton. Tee accomplished something else that season that Peyton never did — he beat Florida.
Still, Manning’s legacy never crossed my mind as I rooted for Tee, Peerless, Al and the boys. But it sure crossed the minds of the haters, as Tee Martin’s success was all the proof they needed to tag Manning as the guy who couldn’t deliver in the clutch.
Yes, that sentiment had already been out there. But once Tee cast off the Gators and led the Vols to the promised land, the floodgates officially opened. After all, Martin was a damn good college player, but he wasn’t half the quarterback Peyton Manning was. Which, in the minds of the haters, made it official. Manning, great though he may be, couldn’t win the big one.
This was obviously a sore spot for Vol Nation, as the haters’ argument centered upon Peyton’s three losses to Florida. And back in those days, there wasn’t a bigger burr in the big orange saddle than Steve Spurrier and his high-flying offense down in Gainesville.
An 0-3 record against Florida would have likely tarnished the Volunteer legacy of a lesser quarterback. But Peyton’s legacy in Knoxville has always been secure. Oh, sure, there’s a lunatic fringe that holds the Gator shortcomings against him, but 99.9% of Vol Nation sees the Florida blip for what it was: Tennessee simply being outmatched, both from a player and a coaching standpoint.
Simply put, Steve Spurrier had Phillip Fulmer’s number. Before finally beating the Gators in 1998, Fulmer had gone just 1-5 against Florida, despite going 35-2 against the rest of the SEC. So as disappointing as it was that Peyton never beat the Gators, it was also somewhat understandable. Especially when you consider that in addition to having Phil’s number, Spurrier also had one hell of a football team.
The Gators finished inside the top 10 in each of Peyton’s four years on Rocky Top, cracking the top 5 in three of those years, and winning it all in ’96. Florida dropped just six games in that span, and from 1994-96, they were SEC Champions three years running.
But Peyton didn’t exactly leave Knoxville empty handed. He and the Vols snapped Florida’s conference dominance when they won the SEC Championship his senior year. And while he may have lost each of his three starts against the Gators, he only lost three other games combined in his entire Volunteer career. What’s more, Manning posted an impressive 6-1 mark against key rivals Alabama and Georgia, the lone blemish coming against the Tide in just his third-ever start for Tennessee.
When the dust settled, Peyton Manning held just about every school record there was, not to mention the all-time SEC record for wins. He left Knoxville the most beloved Vol ever, attaining a level of fan worship that even the most revered of Volunteer legends couldn’t touch. Men like Doug Atkins, Johnny Majors and Reggie White, as popular as they were, didn’t generate but a fraction of the fanfare that Peyton did. Which is remarkable in and of itself, but even more so when you consider that Doug, Johnny and Reggie were all local boys. Our guys. Tennesseans through and through.
So how did a privileged kid from New Orleans manage to outdo such in-state legends? An argument can be made that it was actually because Peyton wasn’t one of us.
During his senior year in high school, most believed it was a foregone conclusion that Manning would play his college ball at Ole Miss. The place where his southern belle mom reigned as homecoming queen while her man Archie, who played a little quarterback himself, broke record after record before transitioning into a successful NFL career.
Oxford. The quaint, little town dripping with a sophisticated brand of southern charm seemed a fitting place, indeed, for the modest and likable quarterbacking savant who was born into football royalty.
But Peyton shocked the world by choosing The Strip over The Grove, and when he did, the “scruffy little city” had pulled off yet another coup. And if that wasn’t something to crow about, then what was? And let’s face it. We love to crow around these parts.
But as great as that chest-thumping session was, the second one might have been even better. For Peyton didn’t just choose Knoxville once. He chose Knoxville a second time when he elected to come back for his senior year.
That’s right, world. The can’t-miss kid with the golden arm who was projected to be the top overall pick in the NFL draft decided he wanted to spend a little more time in Volunteer orange. Right here in Knoxville.
And y’all thought he was going to Ole Miss. Please.
Throw in his record-breaking performances on the field, and his humble, appreciative and polite demeanor off of it, and you had a kid that every dad in the state wanted his daughter to marry.
What’s that? You didn’t have a kid at the time for Peyton to marry? No problem. All you had to do was have one real quick and name him Peyton. Or her. The name works both ways, you know. Which apparently you did. Because in 1997 the name Peyton rose out of nowhere to become the 51st most popular name in the state.
Yeah. Tennessee’s love for Peyton Manning is a transcendental one. And as great of a player as he was, it just might have been his unmistakable love for us that elevated him above every other of our pigskin heroes.
So when the world started telling Peyton that he couldn’t win the big one, Knoxville had his back. Because not only did he have a record-breaking career at Tennessee, not only did he choose Knoxville time and time again, he was also starting to get belittled time and time again. Peyton Manning was being slighted. A feeling Knoxville knows all too well. One we don’t like one bit. So the people of Knoxville did what the people of Knoxville do.
We fought. This time, for Peyton. And that’s why his games mean so much to us. At least that’s what I believe. They’re part of the fight we insist on waging. Peyton Manning may not have been a native Tennessean, but he had somehow become the very embodiment of who we are.
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