Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning still has not fully recovered from the multiple neck surgeries that forced him to miss the entire 2011 season, and he probably never will.
In Peter King’s latest column for The MMQB, Manning revealed that he has had no feeling in his fingertips for more than three years.
“I can’t feel anything in my fingertips,” he explained. “It’s crazy. I’ve talked to a doctor recently who said, ‘Don’t count on the feeling coming back.’ It was hard for me for about two years, because one doctor told me I could wake up any morning and it might come back. So you wake up every day thinking, ‘Today’s the day!’ Then it’s not.”
Manning’s arm strength has seemingly been diminishing over the past two seasons, though there have been rumblings that his throws are looking a lot stronger heading into this season. He also spoke about the quad injury he played through last season that many believed was severe. Manning says he believes the injury was a result of him playing a game while violently ill.
“I threw up all night,” he said. “Then, in the game, I moved to the right on a simple scramble and my quad cramped on me. It lingered. I couldn’t shake it the rest of the year. I really studied it hard this off-season, whether it could linger into this year or whether it was isolated. I just think I got dehydrated, and that caused it. I don’t think you can blame it on my age. It was just an isolated thing.”
Shortly after that game, people began making fun of Manning with some cruel but hilarious duck memes. It’s hard to say if age — Manning is 39 — or fluke injuries are slowing Manning down, but we’ll likely get a much better idea this season. Even at his age, Manning is still one of the better quarterbacks in the NFL based on football intelligence alone.
