Peyton Manning had been a bastion of good health throughout his NFL career until succumbing to a neck injury recently. In early September, the All-Pro quarterback had a third procedure on his neck, ending his streak of 227 consecutive starts. His former coach, Tony Dungy, doesn’t believe the quarterback will exit the game on this note. However, Dungy could envision Peyton walking away from the game after one more year.
“I don’t think it would be hard to walk away from the game where he is now, with everything that he’s done. He loves it, he’s very competitive,” Dungy said during a guest appearance on PTI Thursday. “I don’t think he’ll walk away like this unless the doctors tell him that he can’t play. I think he wants to come back and have a great year. I could see him walking away after one more year, but I know him as a competitor, and there’s no way he wants to leave because of an injury.”
Dungy coached Peyton for seven years, so we trust his insight on the subject. However, he conceded that he no longer has insider info on his former quarterback.
“We actually don’t talk as much as we used to because he views me as the media now. If I call him just to say ‘hey, how you doing?’ the antenna goes up. [Peyton thinks] ‘Does he really want to know, or is he trying to find out for NBC?'”
This comes across as speculation on Dungy’s part, but it does make sense. Peyton is 35 years old and recovering from a neck injury. He probably didn’t have too many years left in the league prior to the multiple surgeries, and this likely sped up his imminent retirement.
Thanks to Evan Silva for the heads up.
