Making room for Manning

In what has become a tradition, the Pro Football Hall of Fame will again showcase the NFL’s Most Valuable Player in a major display located inside the Pro Football Today Gallery. Currently, the full uniforms of the past three NFL MVPs are exhibited – LaDanian Tomlinson, Tom Brady, and Shaun Alexander. 

The Hall of Fame’s curators will be busy clearing one of the display cases to make way for a uniform worn by the Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning last season. Manning will present his uniform to a Hall of Fame official during halftime of the Colts game Thursday against the Philadelphia Eagles at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Last season he won his third Associated Press MVP award after guiding the Colts to the playoffs with a 12-4 record. He overcame injuries and the Colts rebounded from a 3-4 start to reel off nine straight wins to make the postseason. For the record 9th time of his career, Manning eclipsed the 4,000-yard plateau as he completed 371 of 555 passes for 4,002 yards and 27 touchdowns.

“It’s been the most rewarding regular season that I’ve been a part of in my 11 years, and I have to believe a lot of the other players and even coaches might feel the same way,” he commented shortly after garnering 32 of the 50 first place votes from sportswriters and broadcasters who cover the NFL.

Manning’s uniform will be placed on exhibit shortly after it arrives in Canton. The memorabilia is not the first from Manning to find a home in Canton. The jersey he wore during his rookie season in 1998 was donated to the Hall of Fame. Manning broke every significant league rookie passing record including most passing attempts, passing yards, passing completions and passing touchdowns.

The other jersey from Manning in the Hall of Fame’s collection includes the one he wore against the New Orleans Saints on Sept. 28, 2003 when he achieved his third perfect passing rating game which was the most in NFL history.

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