The legendary rivalry between Tom Brady and Peyton Manning will go down as one of the greatest in sports history.
Manning enjoyed the rivalry so much that he admitted it was one of the reasons why he chose to stay in the AFC and play for the Denver Broncos after leaving the Indianapolis Colts.
“I never told anybody this, but Tom was a big reason why I decided to stay in the AFC after I left the Colts,” Manning said on Brady’s “Let’s Go” podcast. “I easily could have gone to a couple of NFC teams, but I thought, ‘Nope, look I’ve played against Tom a bunch and the Patriots. And eventually, you’re going to have to play them at some point. Even if you go to the AFC and you make the Super Bowl, you’re probably going to play them.’
“And I said, ‘Let me at least try to earn it in the AFC, seeing them in the playoffs.’ I enjoyed those games. I enjoyed that rivalry. That was actually one of the reasons I decided to stay in the AFC in chapter two for me.”
Brady has an 11-6 record against Manning in their all-time head-to-head meetings.
During the regular season, Brady had a 9-3 edge in the rivalry, while Manning held a 3-2 edge in the playoffs. Those games represented the pinnacle of NFL competition that fans looked forward to on a yearly basis.
But it obviously wasn’t just the fans that looked forward to those games. Manning and Brady looked forward to them, too. It was a battle pitting two all-time greats against one another—a real rarity in sports that’s appreciated even more now that it’s in the rearview.
