brooke's nooks.

Fourteen years in the league and the worst we can say about you is that you made a lot of castor-oil faces and your helmet left funny marks and one time you laid into your “idiot kicker.” Fourteen years and you didn’t sext anything, wreck anything or deck anybody.

You were a 10,000-watt bulb in a small city, and yet you never seemed to tire of it. If you did, you rarely showed it. There’s a fan website — peytonmanning18.com/encounters.html — where everyday people tell how you were with them. It’s hard to find a rotten one.

Over the last several years, I spent many Sundays [& occassional Monday nights] sitting in the stands or on the comfort of my own couch watching Peyton Manning play football. What he stood for on the playing field was a sight to behold. & i, like thousands of other Indianapolis city dwellers & fans, will, without a doubt, miss him representing our fair city. A city that, twenty years ago was referred to as nap-town because we didn’t have a sports team worth much attention.  However, after all these years, the super bowl wins, the conference championships, etc, a piece like this, written by the admirable Rick Reilly, reminds me of just how great it is that, beyond the spectacle of the game, there are still respectable athletes out there for children & adults alike to admire. & really, how can you ever top that? regardless of where he choose to play next, P-Money will always be an Indianapolis icon…how lucky are we!

you really don’t have to be a sports fan to appreciate this piece- it’s fabulous & spot-on regardless of your team preferences.

article found via Miranda & Elizabeth