John Elway: Peyton Manning will be greatest ever if he wins two more rings

Now that the Broncos have Peyton Manning at quarterback, the team is undoubtedly thinking Super Bowl. At age 36 and coming off of a season that was completely derailed by health problems, it is hard to predict what we will see from Manning in 2012 and how many effective seasons he has left. Peyton could retire today and go down as one of the best quarterbacks of all time. He has the ring and his stats over a 13-year span are as good as they come. But how can he be remembered as the greatest quarterback ever? John Elway knows a way.

“Winning championships, that’s the only way,” Elway told Albert Breer of the NFL Network. “If he wins two more championships, he’ll be, without a doubt, the greatest quarterback ever to play the game. He’s got the numbers, he has the stats, those will never change, they’ll just get better and better.

“But for us to make Peyton the greatest quarterback that’s ever played, what will separate him, because now he’s in the conversation, if he wins a couple more before he’s done, then he’ll be right at the top of the list.”

Um…duh. If Tom Brady wins two more Super Bowls he’ll be on his own planet with nobody else but Bill Belichick to occupy it with him. If Peyton’s brother Eli wins two more Super Bowls he will be among the discussion of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. If I make a billion dollars by the end of the summer I’ll be a billionaire by the fall. If Missy Franklin wins 30 gold medals in her Olympic career we can officially say, “Step aside, Michael Phelps.”

If anyone knows something about winning championships late in their career it’s Elway. He earned his two rings at ages 37 and 38. His reasoning makes sense, it just happens to be the most obvious statement we’ve heard the entire offseason.

H/T Pro Football Talk
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