"There's no question that his work ethic is what made him into one of the great quarterbacks of all time," Elway said. "All the film study Peyton did and the process that he went through with game planning and understanding what the other teams did was second to none."
"He beat you mentally," said Ware, who came to Denver two years ago for the chance to play with Manning. "That was his guide: Physically you might be faster than me, you might be more athletic than me, but I'm going to outsmart you every time."
"He was on the forefront of basically a revolution in the way offenses are run in the National Football League," Joe Theismann said recently. "His footprint was bigger than just the cities he played in. He transformed the position. The style of offense that he ran in Indianapolis was revolutionary and nobody ever figured out how to stop it there — or in Denver.
A rare superstar quarterback on the open market in 2012, Manning resettled in Denver, where, despite a right arm weakened by nerve damage, he went 50-15 with his fifth MVP award and two trips to the Super Bowl in four seasons.
"He had to do several things different this year," said his dad, Archie, a former star quarterback himself. "Had to take off during the season, which he'd never done before. He ran the scout team, which I don't think he'd ever done, and he dressed out as a backup, which he'd never done."
"I think from the sense of quarterbacks, he's been fast-paced, no-huddle, dynamic offense, score a lot of points, and score quickly," said his brother, Eli Manning, a two-time Super Bowl winner himself, for the Giants. "Now you see that more. More teams are doing it. The Colts kind of started that trend and did it well for a long time."
Just shy of 40, Manning will forgo $19 million and a 19th season in the NFL, where he served as both a throwback and a transformer during a glittering career bookmarked by an unprecedented five MVP awards and dozens of passing records.
The 18th season for No. 18 was by far his most trying on the field. He had to adjust to new coach Gary Kubiak's run-based offense, to unrelenting health issues and to questions about his character on his way to winning his second Super Bowl.
Manning, whose dry wit and star power has made him a staple of commercials and late-night television for nearly two decades, saw his squeaky-clean image take a beating as the final pages were flipped on his storied career.
So did the Broncos, for whom Manning threw 140 of his NFL-high 539 TD passes, including a record 55 in 2013.
"There's not a day that's gone by since I've been in the league," Osweiler said, "that I haven't learned something from Peyton."
The NFL is investigating allegations that human growth hormone was shipped to his home in his wife's name following an Al Jazeera report that Manning dismissed as "garbage." And in a new lawsuit filed last month. Manning was cited as an example of a hostile environment for women at the University of Tennessee for his alleged harassment of a female trainer in 1996.
With no more defenses to dissect, the face of the league since the turn of this century no longer has to be buried in an iPad all day, nor will he have to submerge his battered body for hours in a cold tub in a labor of love.
A month after Denver's triumph in Super Bowl 50, Manning informed John Elway he is following his lead and riding off into that orange sunset just like the Broncos' boss did 17 years ago after winning his second Super Bowl.
Manning relinquishes the game he loves secure in having left an indelible imprint on America's most popular sport.
Denver gained only 194 yards against the Panthers, the fewest for a victorious team in a Super Bowl, and Manning had but 13 completions for 141 yards. Thanks to a defense led by game MVP Von Miller,Jerseys Authentic Stitched, however, Manning became the oldest quarterback to win a championship, a year older than Elway was when he won his second Super Bowl in 1999 before walking away.
Manning was never the best athlete, but his off-the-charts preparation and other-worldly memory recall made him rise above the rest, suggested teammate DeMarcus Ware.
Almost from his pro debut in 1998, Manning was a pioneer in the way he deciphered defenses and directed play at the line of scrimmage. Envision him pacing from tackle to tackle, pointing and hollering, as he became a model for every quarterback who's come along since. Manning not only was at the vanguard of the aerial fireworks shows that light up today's scoreboards and big-screen TVs, he was the mastermind of it.
There will be no more showdowns matching skills with Tom Brady or wits with Bill Belichick — against whom he was just 6-11 but 3-2 in AFC championships.
"Pe