Larry Brown Sports

The Colorado Rockies hosted several members of the Denver Broncos for Tuesday night’s game against the New York Yankees at Coors Field. To say that some of them were dressed to kill would be the understatement of the century.

In the spirit of saving the best for last, we’ll start by mentioning how great Von Miller’s shirt was. As one Reddit user pointed out after the photo you see above was posted on the social media site, it looked like the type of shirt where if you stare at it long enough a 3-D image will pop out. I don’t think it works though — I tried for about 10 minutes.

On to more important things. How fresh did Peyton Manning look? Tom Brady can have his hipster glasses and his GQ photo shoots. Manning took batting practice at Coors Field wearing an outfit that we can only speculate was picked out by Arnold Palmer and a kindergarten student.

And you thought NBA players like this guy had a sense of fashion? Peyton absolutely killed it on Tuesday night. If you think Colorado’s 2-0 win was a coincidence on a night where Manning looked like that, you’re an idiot.

Peyton Manning was able to get the Denver Broncos to sign Brandon Stokley last season, and he is hoping they will bring him back again this season.

When Manning was a free agent and rehabbing his neck injury last year, he threw to Stokley. The two were teammates on the Indianapolis Colts, and Stokley enjoyed the finest season of his career when he caught 10 touchdowns in 2004 as one of the Colts’ receivers. Denver’s signing of Stokley last season seemed to be a favor to Manning, but it actually was beneficial for both sides; Stokley caught 45 passes for 544 yards and five touchdowns last season.

Denver’s signing of Wes Welker seemed to put Stokley’s roster spot on the team in jeopardy, but Manning says he would still like to have Stokley back.

“Hope it’s not necessarily a close-door discussion,” Manning said per The Denver Post. “In a perfect world I’d like both of them to be on the team this year.”

Welker likely will serve the role Stokley had on the team, but it’s easy to see why Peyton would still want Stokley back. Stokley is reliable, knows Manning, and knows what Manning is looking for on the field. Between depth chart issues and injuries, I’m guessing Stokley ends up playing with the Broncos at some point this season.

Peyton Manning pulled an outstanding prank on teammate Eric Decker this week while they were out to dinner with several other football players. Peyton and brother Eli Manning have been working out with various receivers at the 2013 Manning Passing Academy. The group went to dinner, and Manning gave papers to all the receivers. But here’s the thing: the paper handed to Eric Decker was an invoice that made the wide receiver think he owed money for participating in the workouts:

Nice little practical joke Peyton drew up…making me think I have to pay for workouts in Duke t/week @mortreport twitter.com/EricDecker87/s…

— Eric Decker (@EricDecker87) April 11, 2013

That invoice looks pretty darn authentic, so it’s no surprise that it fooled Decker.

I didn’t add t/$ amount up at dinner..especially when I thought it was a volunteer workout ha! The tax and facility fee threw me off ha!!

— Eric Decker (@EricDecker87) April 11, 2013

The best part about the prank is that papers were given to all the wide receivers at the dinner to make Decker’s seem legit. The others received notes telling them to play along with the prank on Decker:

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Green Bay Packers center Jeff Saturday momentarily switched teams during the Pro Bowl on Sunday for one last thrill before he retires.

Saturday was the longtime center of the Colts and played his entire Indianapolis career with Peyton Manning as his quarterback. He came into the league a year after Manning, and the two won a Super Bowl and made 16 Pro Bowls together. Both left the Colts after the 20111 season.

During the first quarter of the game, Saturday switched from the NFC team to the AFC team so he could snap a ball to Manning for one last time.

“After doing it that long with him, we figure it’s our last run together, might as well get one more,” Saturday told NBC’s Doug Flutie. “That was something special that I’ll always remember.”

Saturday continued to reminisce about his times with Manning.

“It’s been a pleasure. We’ve had a great time, we had a great run together. He’s a class act all the way across the board. I’ve been very appreciative of the time we got to spent together in Indy, and he’s going to do great things in Denver.

“This is what it’s all about. I’m going to remember this one.”

And who said the Pro Bowl didn’t count for anything? According to Saturday, this will be a lasting memory for him.

The Pro Bowl may not be very competitive, but this was a cool moment. Side note — how did Saturday make the Pro Bowl this season?

Peyton Manning is frequently lauded as the best quarterback in football and for being extraordinarily media-friendly. On Saturday, he failed to live up to his reputation on both accounts.

Manning turned the ball over three times in the Denver Broncos’ 38-35 overtime loss to the Baltimore Ravens in the divisional round of the playoffs. He went 28-43 for 290 yards and three touchdowns, but he lost a fumble and threw two picks — including one that led to Baltimore’s winning field goal in the second overtime period.

After the extraordinary game, CBS host James Brown said Manning declined a postgame interview with the network.

“Our announcers Greg and Dan made an effort to talk to Peyton Manning after the game, but he declined to be interviewed,” Brown said on the CBS postgame show.

If I were in Peyton’s shoes, I certainly wouldn’t want to be interviewed after losing in the playoffs, either. However, he gets credited for being extremely media-friendly, so it should also be pointed out when he opts not to do interviews.

Manning is also now 9-11 in his playoff career. Even though there are few quarterbacks in NFL history who can move the ball as consistently as he does, he has a penchant for throwing interceptions in the postseason. That is a big reason why he only has won one Super Bowl despite his tremendous regular-season success.

Image via @Blksportsonline

Who wins MVP is always one of the more interesting discussion topics in the NFL. This season, it looks like the award will come down to two comeback players.

The Denver Post surveyed 18 of the 50 people who will be voting for the MVP award, and their findings show that Peyton Manning is in the lead.

According to the survey conducted by Mike Klis, nine voters say they back Peyton Manning, three say Adrian Peterson, and six said they wanted to see how Peterson performed in the Minnesota Vikings’ season finale against the Green Bay Packers.

Klis says those were the two players voters were considering for the award. Top quarterbacks like Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, and Robert Griffin III were only mentioned as third place finishers behind Peterson or Manning.

Manning missed all last season after undergoing multiple neck surgeries. He led the Broncos to a 12-3 record entering Week 17 thanks in part to a 10-game winning streak. He has thrown for 4,355 yards, 34 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions. This would be his NFL record fifth MVP award.

Peterson was injured in Week 16 against the Redskins last season. He had surgery to repair a torn ACL and returned earlier than expected. He has rushed for a career-high 1,898 yards and has a strong chance to become the seventh player in NFL history to rush for 2,000 yards in a season. All the while he has the Vikings unexpectedly contending for a playoff spot.

As excellent as both players have been this season, I don’t see why this appears to be a two-player race. Aaron Rodgers is having another outstanding season and has the best touchdown-to-interception ratio (35:8) among all quarterbacks. Green Bay has won nine of 10 entering Week 17, and Rodgers had thrown for 25 touchdowns and four interceptions in that span. He had a stinker in a 38-10 loss to the Giants, but outside of that, he has been outstanding.

I also would have included Robert Griffin III higher in the conversation had he not missed time because of injuries, because he has been spectacular this season.

Photo credit: Ron Chenoy-US PRESSWIRE

H/T Pro Football Talk

Eli Manning has the benefit of having more than just game film at his disposal to prepare for the New York Giants’ game against the Baltimore Ravens this weekend. He has an older brother. The Denver Broncos defeated the Ravens in convincing fashion last Sunday, which means Eli’s next opponent is fresh on Peyton Manning’s mind.

“I talked to him a little bit and watched the game,” Eli Manning said on Wednesday according to the Baltimore Sun. “Our offenses are a little different. I tried to just watch the game and see what they were doing and see how the defense played certain looks. So I talked to him a little bit, but it’s really going to be a matter of our own preparation and trying to understand what type of scheme we’re going to run against them.”

Peyton didn’t exactly light it up (17-for-28, 204 yards, 1 TD), but he didn’t have to. Baltimore made so many mistakes that Denver’s offense had to do very little. However, Peyton is a known student of the game who can certainly pass on anything he saw to his little brother. Given the fact that the Giants are in a three-way tie atop the NFC East with two regular season games remaining, Eli will take all the advice he can get.

It should be noted that Eli also sought advice from Peyton earlier in the season after big brother lit up the Cincinnati Bengals. Eli wound up throwing for 215 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions in a loss to the Bengals, so hopefully Peyton’s wisdom has more of an impact this time around.

Photo credit: Jim O’Connor-US PRESSWIRE