Peyton is going to make a really good studio analyst when he retires. He's got decent comedic timing (his SNL appearance was easily the best by a pro Athlete I've ever seen) and comes across as likable on camera. Brady seems like a decent guy, and is clearly way better looking than Peyton/most humans on earth, but I'm not so sure he's as good at projecting a fun personality on camera.
Peyton Manning: 2013 SI Sportsman of the Year
- Thread starter mascho
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Peyton is going to make a really good studio analyst when he retires. He's got decent comedic timing (his SNL appearance was easily the best by a pro Athlete I've ever seen) and comes across as likable on camera. Brady seems like a decent guy, and is clearly way better looking than Peyton/most humans on earth, but I'm not so sure he's as good at projecting a fun personality on camera.
NatetheGreat said:
It's funny you mention this because I was thinking of Bird/Magic earlier too. The rivalry certainly plays a big part but the player is just as important. I think that Jeter and ARod are douches but I have nothing against Sabathia and Rivera, as examples.
Hey glenn, what about those of us who can see this as a clearly stupid choice but don't watch football or give a single fuck about the Patriots? What's the reason I'm not realizing for disliking the choice? No possibility whatsoever that it was just a clearly weak decision that also happened to be a guy some people here find annoying? Like, none?
I mean, I care about as much as I do for every Sportsman of the Year award, but I can also recognize a dumb pick when I see one. "He had a really great year and he's old." Oh.
I mean, I care about as much as I do for every Sportsman of the Year award, but I can also recognize a dumb pick when I see one. "He had a really great year and he's old." Oh.
Robbie Rodgers and Jason Collins would have been great picks back from the era when SI tried to be a little bit highbrow rather than pander to newsstand sales. There are bad sides and good sides to that ( remember Athletes Who Care?), but it was the occasionally out of left field, but well thought out, picks that made Sportsman of the Year a bigger deal than something like the Hickok Belt (what? exactly).
JohntheBaptist said:
Clearly I've hit a nerve or something and it's awesome when someone who doesn't agree with the majority and dares to state his opinion can do so without it becoming a pissing match. You're free to dislike the voting as much as you want for any reason, John. My first and main comment was simply about the disproportionate backlash aimed at Manning for winning this award. If Brees or Durant or Mickelson or whoever else had won people would've said it was stupid and moved on. Do I agree that Manning should've won? No, not at all. But I don't care and I don't have some irrational hate for Manning just because he's one of the best QBs of all time and doesn't play for my favorite team.
I honestly don't know who I'd vote for. Definitely not Johnson because I would never vote for a NASCAR driver. Probably not Ortiz either to be honest.
glennhoffmania said:
You "hit a nerve"? Ha, you've spent two pages essentially scolding people for the "real reasons" they disagree with the award. Believe yours is the nerve that's up.
But this answer is really telling. Everything you wrote here is 100% (unfounded) assumption and something you just invented in your head--there's really nothing to what you're arguing here. Yes, PM annoys Patriot fans, and true, people here think this was a bad choice. Then you decided to draw a line. Who are all these "people" you're talking about? This thread is two pages long and is mostly you defending the award and people explaining to you that it didn't have as much to do with disliking Peyton Manning as you seem to think. It was a pretty clearly dumb choice, which you seem to (sorta) agree with--so why is it suddenly about hidden sports agendas or something?
I would guarantee if Brees or Durant or Mickelson won there would be at least a two page thread ridiculing it in the media forum.
Also, "pissing match"? Where? Are you feeling alright? Notice you didn't answer my question either.
glennhoffmania said:
Is the backlash really aimed at Manning? I think it's been aimed at SI. It's possible to like Peyton Manning just fine and still think this was a poor choice. He's an extraordinary player, a GOAT candidate at arguably the toughest position in sports, works his ass off by all accounts, seems to be a great guy, does a lot in his community. You'd have to be blinded by homerism to not at least respect Peyton Manning.
He's just not the definitive athlete of 2013.
glennhoffmania said:
The bolded is the nerve, actually. When people start to take that stance, it tends to set others off on principle. JtB even said he's not a Pats fan; the dissident martyr shtick will set a lot of people off.
Dehere said:
This is, I think, well stated. I think it may well be that many of us wish there were a "Sportsman of the Year" award we could respect and care about, something that we could all come together over and nod and say, "Yeah..."
Speaking of, could someone who knows more on the subject explain the case for Jimmie Johnson. He's had enough of a career that I couldn't figure out what the story was for his case from a cursory google and I'd like to hear it because I likes me a good story.
The case for Johnson is that of his six title seasons, this was probably his best since 2007. 6 wins, including wins at Daytona, Martinsville, and Pocono, which are three very different tracks. Daytona is your typical "Superspeedway," shaped like a rounded D. Huge track. Martinsville is a tiny track shaped like a paperclip. Pocono is another big track, but with only three turns. EDIT: Why this is important is that the three tracks will test drivers in different ways. Daytona is about speed, drafting, and patience. Martinsville is a grind. Pocono is a speedway with three really tough turns to navigate. The setups on the cars are different from track to track as well. That speaks to the other aspect of his season: Consistency. 6 wins, 16 top 5 finishes and 24 top 10 finishes, the highest of his career.
Basically, you could write this sentence about him:
"He owns six Cup Championships, which constitutes huge moral success in this all-or-nothing age, but with his consistency he remains the reigning champion of the everyday."
Plus, with six titles he is now one behind both Petty and Earnhart, who both won 7. At 37 he's got a few more titles in him.
Basically, you could write this sentence about him:
"He owns six Cup Championships, which constitutes huge moral success in this all-or-nothing age, but with his consistency he remains the reigning champion of the everyday."
Plus, with six titles he is now one behind both Petty and Earnhart, who both won 7. At 37 he's got a few more titles in him.
You could basically say all of that about Sebastian Vettel, who kicked the shit out of the competition this year in F1 (he won 9 races in a row to end the season). And an F1 driver has actually won Sportsman of the Year before (Jackie Stewart).
Spacemans Bong said:
I concede that F1 is a sport I don't follow and therefore my working knowledge is low. But learning that about Vettel makes me think he'd have been another good selection instead of Manning. Especially since the 9 straight wins has only happened once before.
Does anyone really read Sports Illustrated anymore? Anyway, FWIW; Peyton seems like a nice guy, does a lot of commercials, plays football at a very high level but...ain't really accomplished anything in 2013 that merits an award of anything at the moment. Maybe Player of the Month or something. Boston Strong; that's an accomplishment.
Reverend said:
Exactly. And I would say, between the speech on the field in April, through the crazy playoffs, the dugout pep talk, and his obscenely dominant World Series for his third ring and a series MVP, I'd say Ortiz kind of wrote them a perfect script for said award, but then that's probably solely because I root for him and therefore everything I do and think is colored by that. So I'll keep quiet.
They can just wait for different year he doesn't really deserve it and give it to him then over someone who actually did something in the spirit of the award.
mauidano said:
Sure, I do. Once a year I read Sports Illustrated.
Well, I guess more "look at" than "read."
I can't help but gravitate towards giving this award to someone who was connected to Boston. Either the Marathon Runners, The City of Boston, or David Ortiz. Honestly there are cases to be made for all of the above. They all collectively helped the city heal from the attacks and put the focus on healing. Then you have Peyton Manning who has been the beneficiary of 3 all star caliber wideouts that hides his slight decline. Manning is still an excellent QB not saying that he isn't. But what exactly did he do to deserve this "award"? By SI doing this they're pretty much saying that Manning is a better story than the Marathon Runners or Boston itself. Any other year and I really wouldn't care if they gave the lifetime achievement award to Manning. But this somewhat irks me. At least they didn't give it to LeBron again.
Christopher "Mad Dog" Russo yesterday: "You can't give it to Ortiz because of the PED thing. He failed a test. Can't give it to him."
(I know, I know... but perhaps an anti-McGwire/Sosa sentiment (1998 co-winners) was a piece of the evaluation?)
Tried to introduce other candidates, with a discussion about "icons" in respective sports that didn't win the award, highlighted by Lombardi. He proffered Lombardi, Pitino, Federer/Sampras, Mickey Mantle, Wilt, Magic etc.
To be fair, he also ripped the number of Olympians that have received the award, as well as the silly 1987 "Athletes Who Care" (hey! JD Drew!) award that went to 7 different athletes.
He didn't have an issue with Manning "as long as it is a career achievement award, but if this is awarded based on the current year's performance... no way."
(I know, I know... but perhaps an anti-McGwire/Sosa sentiment (1998 co-winners) was a piece of the evaluation?)
Tried to introduce other candidates, with a discussion about "icons" in respective sports that didn't win the award, highlighted by Lombardi. He proffered Lombardi, Pitino, Federer/Sampras, Mickey Mantle, Wilt, Magic etc.
To be fair, he also ripped the number of Olympians that have received the award, as well as the silly 1987 "Athletes Who Care" (hey! JD Drew!) award that went to 7 different athletes.
He didn't have an issue with Manning "as long as it is a career achievement award, but if this is awarded based on the current year's performance... no way."
mauidano said:
I do. Subscriber since a birthday present in 1972.
My .02.....If this was going to be something of a Lifetime Achievement/He Coulda Quit After a Crippling Injury But Came Back to Greatness and Oh Yeah, He's a Helluva Human Being Award, shouldn't Mariano Rivera be the runaway winner?
Close . . . . . They've probably sunk a boatload of money into
Other than not wanting a repeat winner, I don't see any reason why this shouldn't have gone to LeBron.
- He is the dominant athlete in American sports (and let's be honest, this is unfortunately an Americans-only award... otherwise you'd see the name Federer on the past winners list)
- He elevated his game to a new level over the past 12 months
- Was the MVP of arguably the best NBA Finals of the past 25 years.
- He is the dominant athlete in American sports (and let's be honest, this is unfortunately an Americans-only award... otherwise you'd see the name Federer on the past winners list)
- He elevated his game to a new level over the past 12 months
- Was the MVP of arguably the best NBA Finals of the past 25 years.
joe dokes said:
Agree 100%.
Someone on SoSH has a tagline about "giving awards for half seasons" and I think that is very applicable here. If he sucks his last two games and they lose in the 2nd round of the playoffs at home (again), then he has gotten the award for.......what exactly? They wont suck in the last two games though, and he'll be out there, throwing, up by 21 points, and no one will question him about "running it up" the way they did BB and the Pats in 2007 when they were just crushing teams.
All things considered, they could very easily have given it to Nick Saban or Rick Pitino (although they gave it to Coach K and Pat Summitt a couple of years ago, and maybe didnt want to go back to a non-player so soon). Pitino especially-I think it could be a very long time before another coach wins with two different schools.
If they want to give out a life-time achievement award, nothing is stopping them.
They gave it to Tiger Woods in 1996 as a lifetime achievement award before he had really achieved much of anything.
They gave it to Tiger Woods in 1996 as a lifetime achievement award before he had really achieved much of anything.
BGrif21125 said:
As I've argued LBJ should have won given the supposed criteria of the award. I can see the Ortiz argument and don't begrudge anyone from making it, and maybe there is someone else who is worthy that I am unfamiliar with. I understand SI feels that LBJ winning would not sell mags or produce more clicks. That is probably true but it certainly stains their credibility to essentially just give the award to the second or third or maybe fourth best option just cuz. In the long run that will affect clicks and sales as much as anything.
LeBron could have been a legit winner again, but last year was a better year when you throw in the Olympic gold. Ortiz was probably hurt most by the '04 team getting it...
riboflav said:
Michael Jordan only ever won the award once. Same for Joe Montana and Wayne Gretzky. Whatever credibility the award may have, it certainly doesn't hinge on a history of giving it to the same player multiple times if they're the most deserving.
At least the AP had sense enough to give their Player of the Year Award to LeBron. Sigh. Look at me rooting for 'Bron. Has it come to this?
Fred not Lynn said:
Curt Schilling won it in 2001 and then again in 2004 as part of the team winning it.
This is a great article and really sums up why Ortiz was deserving. His regular season was outstanding and one of the greatest ever at his age. His postseason was great and World Series performance will live in the infamy of Reggie's 1977, some of the Babe's greatest, etc. However, that all pales in comparison to what he did for a prideful city that was in genuine shock in April and all of the amazing charitable work he does.mascho said:
Yeah think I ran with that wrong. I had that sentence all screwed up. Thought I had it all fixed. Oh well. I think you know what I mean.
Besides winning six consecutive USGA amateur titles.
On the totem pole of athletic achievement, compared to professional Championships and Olympic Championships in certain sports which are well enough followed, amateur titles just don't rank.
My beef with Tiger Woods getting it that year was that Michael Johnson, who gets one year every four to be relevant, was dominant at the Olympic Games and shattered the 200m WR in his career pinnacle performance. No matter how much he was expected to change the game, Woods' career had yet to barely begin.
For the most part, I believe in an Olympic year that this award should be weighted towards those athletes who really don't have their chance to be relevant in other years...or, like LeBron, take good advantage of the extra opportunity to shine.
And yes, even I as a biased supporter of their sport thougt Bonnie Blair and Johann Olav Koss in 1994 were an odd and probably incorrect choice - although from a humanitarian perspective, Koss may turn out to be Sportsman of the Century for the remarkable things he has done AFTER he was on that SI cover. Maybe it's the anti-SI curse...
On the totem pole of athletic achievement, compared to professional Championships and Olympic Championships in certain sports which are well enough followed, amateur titles just don't rank.
My beef with Tiger Woods getting it that year was that Michael Johnson, who gets one year every four to be relevant, was dominant at the Olympic Games and shattered the 200m WR in his career pinnacle performance. No matter how much he was expected to change the game, Woods' career had yet to barely begin.
For the most part, I believe in an Olympic year that this award should be weighted towards those athletes who really don't have their chance to be relevant in other years...or, like LeBron, take good advantage of the extra opportunity to shine.
And yes, even I as a biased supporter of their sport thougt Bonnie Blair and Johann Olav Koss in 1994 were an odd and probably incorrect choice - although from a humanitarian perspective, Koss may turn out to be Sportsman of the Century for the remarkable things he has done AFTER he was on that SI cover. Maybe it's the anti-SI curse...
A buddy of mine sent me this text friday:
Pissed about Manning being named SI Sportsman OTY. They just read my rant below on WEEI I subscribe to Sports Illustrated. To justify it's pontification of Peyton Manning as Sportsman of the Year took 7 writers, 24 pages and thousands of words. There's one picture in the same issue showing the pure joy on Tom Brady's face as he gets a hug from a kid in the Best Buddies program. Now that's the definition of real sportsmanship, not re-tracing the ascension of Archie Manning's golden sperm.
Pissed about Manning being named SI Sportsman OTY. They just read my rant below on WEEI I subscribe to Sports Illustrated. To justify it's pontification of Peyton Manning as Sportsman of the Year took 7 writers, 24 pages and thousands of words. There's one picture in the same issue showing the pure joy on Tom Brady's face as he gets a hug from a kid in the Best Buddies program. Now that's the definition of real sportsmanship, not re-tracing the ascension of Archie Manning's golden sperm.
NatetheGreat said:
Really late to this but just for historical reference the Magic-Bird comparison really doesn't work. For the first seven years of their NBA careers there was very little debate about who was a better player. Each had won three titles, but Bird had been voted rookie of the year their first season, and had followed it up by finishing 2nd in MVP voting three times (Erving, Malone, Malone) and then winning the MVP three straight times. Also, the Celtics had had the best regular season record six times. After that Bird was injured a lot and Magic's shooting improved a lot and the Lakers won two more titles and Johnson won three MVPs of his own.NatetheGreat said:
I don't think there's any lack of respect for Manning's play or leadership, there's simply bemused annoyance in these parts that he is so widely regarded as the best quarterback.
I think Ortiz should have gotten it. That said, had the announcement come, say, this upcoming Tuesday, and it was Manning that got it, I think it would be a little more legitimate than it was a couple of weeks ago. He did just complete, statistically, the best passing season ever and earned his team a No. 1 seed. That, coupled with a "Lifetime Achievement' award sentiment, I could live with.
But, as I said, I still think it should have been Ortiz. But I'm a Red Sox fan and I don't particularly like Manning, so I'm biased.
But, as I said, I still think it should have been Ortiz. But I'm a Red Sox fan and I don't particularly like Manning, so I'm biased.
Yeah manning's play the last couple of weeks has done a good job of making the award look less silly retroactively--regardless of the actual timing, anyone looking back at this in a few years will see manning won it the year he broke the biggest passing records, had his best statistical season, got the number one seed and won MVP (not official yet, but basically a lock).
Reverend said:
I think Manning's season this year was better than Favre's by a pretty big margin.