Peyton Manning: “I certainly want to continue to keep playing”

For the first time all Super Bowl week — and surely not the last time — Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning was asked Sunday about his future beyond the upcoming NFL title game against the Seahawks. Manning smiled as he was asked if he had considered whether Super Bowl XLVIII could be the end of the line for him — and whether a victory would be an ideal way to go out on top.
Here was Manning’s response:
“Well, I know there’s a number of players that have walked away as champions, and I’m sure that’s a great feeling for those people. John Elway, Ray Lewis did it last year, Michael Strahan.
“In talking to Ray Lewis and in talking to John Elway, they couldn’t play anymore. That was all they had to give. They truly left it all out there.
“I certainly had a career change two years ago with my injury, with changing teams, and so I truly have been kind of a one-year-at-a-time basis. So I really have no plans beyond this game, had no plans coming into this season beyond this year. I think that’s the healthy way to approach kind of your career at this stage.
“I still enjoy playing football. I feel a little better than I thought I would at this point coming off that surgery. I still enjoy the preparation part of it, the work part of it. Everybody enjoys the games, everybody’s going to be excited to play in a Super Bowl, but I think when you still enjoy the preparation and the work part of it, I think you probably still ought to be doing that.
“I think as soon as I stop enjoying it, if I can’t produce, if I can’t help the team, that’s when I’ll stop playing. If that’s next year, maybe it is. But I certainly want to continue to keep playing.”

Source: PFT.com
Author: Mike Wilkening
Photo: Getty Images

Broncos’ receivers say Peyton Manning’s arm is stronger

Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning was great last year, but his receivers say he can be even better this year.
Eric Decker and Demaryius Thomas, Denver’s top two receivers a year ago, both say that they notice that Manning has a stronger arm now than he did last year, as he continues to progress from the neck injury that cost him the entire 2011 season.
“We worked out at Duke in March or April and I definitely felt like he had more zip on the ball,” Decker said. “I think he’s come back stronger. . . . I think some of those throws that he fits in the holes, you feel a little more zip on it and he is getting it to you quicker.”
Thomas said he senses Manning is getting stronger, too, although Thomas added that Manning was already so much better than any other quarterback he had ever played with that anything else is gravy.
“I think he’s gotten a little stronger, but I can’t really say, because it’s my first time playing with a quarterback like Peyton,” Thomas said. “It was fun this past year, because I’d never had balls come at me like that — on time and stuff like that.”
Save Thomas’s quote about never having a pass thrown to him “on time and stuff” and repeat it as needed for anyone who wonders about the continued unemployment of Tim Tebow.

Source: PFT.com
Author: Michael David Smith
Getty Images