Did Peyton Manning hang on a year too long? As a lifelong Chiefs fan, I’ve watched Manning beat Kansas City like a drum, and that’s taking away the Broncos’ win in Week 2 of Thursday Night Football. If you compare the tail end of Manning’s career to other Hall Of Famers who can be accused of hanging on a bit too long, with Joe Namath coming to mind right away, yeah, the similarities are there. The lingering injuries, the fading durability, the diminishing skill; it’s all there. Chiefs fans should take this win with a grain of salt: Kansas City beat him just once at the peak of his career. The Broncos were missing a pair of defensive studs, and five times the Chiefs settled for field goals against an undermanned team. As the QB of the Indianapolis Colts and the Broncos, Manning owns a 14-2 record against the Chiefs. The answer to my opening question, though, is yes, Manning held on a year too long. But the good news for football fans is we know we got everything he had to give. And, Manning will be on our TVs for decades after he’s thrown his last pass. Even with a three-game lead with seven to play, Denver isn’t a lock to win the AFC West. It’s better to be the chased rather than the pursuers, but Manning’s foot injury may be, given his age, a career-ender. A quick trivia question: six Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks lost this weekend. Can you name them without looking? The answer at the end of the column. The thought occurs, if Al Davis were still alive and in his prime, Ray Rice would be the starting running back for the Oakland Raiders. It seems the AFC South may go to the hot team, and maybe that team will be the Houston Texans. While they didn’t exactly light up the scoreboard in a 10-6 win over the previously unbeaten Cincinnati Bengals Monday night, the Texans will present a different set of problems for the Colts just before Christmas. If they can figure out how to get Brian Hoyer or T.J Yates to be a game-manager type of quarterback, and the defense can step up like it did Monday night, then Houston seems likely to win its last three division games. Then again, it’s still possible neither team will have a winning record when Houston visits Indy Dec. 20. Oh well, it’s not like there’s never been a division winner with a losing record before. Someone’s gotta win that division and take the home game that comes with it. Whether that winner, if they go in with a losing record, deserves a home playoff game is a debate for another day. If you honestly believed the Minnesota Vikings would be leading the NFC North at this point, raise your hand. The biggest surprise is how quietly they’ve gone 7-2 in a division where the Packers were supposed to run away with the title and hide. I figured if quarterback Teddy Bridgewater could be at least a little bit effective, then Adrian Peterson would put up numbers good enough for the Vikings to be an 8-8 ball club and generate excitement as they open U.S. Bank Stadium next season. And after a mild start to say the least, the Chicago Bears have looked pretty good the last two weeks. It also helps that they get the wounded Broncos at Soldier Field on Sunday, and it’s a distinct possibility the Bears will be within a game of the Green Bay Packers when the teams hook up Thanksgiving night. It’s hard to believe Thanksgiving is a mere nine days away. How’d that happen? The college football playoff rankings come out today, and the fact of the matter is any rankings before the final one is merely a conversation starter. But it’s a brilliant one; the CFP is a topic of discussion on every sports show across the country, and it’s getting space in the Times-Union. Will Notre Dame’s strength of schedule be good enough to get them in to the playoffs? Will the Big 12 get shut out for a second straight year, in spite of the lofty rankings of half the conference? Will Iowa even be in the conversation until the Big 10 championship game? Stay tuned. On a more local football note; the Three Rivers Conference’s Northfield Norsemen would be 12-1 instead of 8-5 had they not forfeited some games for using an ineligible player in mop-up time. Either way, good luck to the Norsemen in Friday’s Class 1A semistate game when they host top-ranked and undefeated Lafayette Central Catholic. Just to say so, sometimes the difference between good, great and wildly successful is very, very small. In a 2A sectional final, Whitko lost 22-19 to Woodlan. The Warriors then beat Winchester 29-26 in the regional. How fired up would the Blue Crew be to be hosting a semistate game Friday night? That would have been epic. It’s not out of the realm of possibility for 2016. Just sayin’. The answer to the trivia question above: Peyton Manning (Broncos), Eli Manning (Giants), Joe Flacco (Ravens), Russell Wilson (Seahawks), Aaron Rodgers (Packers) and Drew Brees (Saints).
