Indianapolis Colts' quarterback Peyton Manning becomes only the third player in NFL history to win the NFL MVP award three times, joining Brett Favre and James Brown for that exclusive club. Manning received 32 of the 50 votes, with Chad Pennington and Michael Turner receiving four vote each. "It's been the most rewarding regular season that I've been a part of in my 11 years," Manning said, "and I have to believe a lot of the other players and even coaches might feel the same way."
With a 3-4 start, and an offense that struggled early lacking a running game and a quarterback who underwent knee surgery to remove an infection, it was thought that the Indianapolis Colts would finally struggle. Instead, they won nine straight, completing their seventh straight season with 10 wins or more; sixth straight with 12 wins or more. Thanks to Manning.
What's also impressive is that Manning hasn't thrown an interception since the Colts' 10-6 win over the Cleveland Browns on December 7. Since then, Manning finished the season with an 8-0 touchdown to interception ratio (including the one-drive performance in the rest-starters shutout over the Titans). What's even more impressive is that Manning didn't rank higher than third in the major passing categories: (27 touchdowns ranks 5th, 4,002 yards passing ranks sixth, 66.8% completion ranks 3rd, 95.0 passer rating ranks 5th).
Comparatively speaking, stats were meaningless in his selection. If you put the integrated contributions of a single player, take him out and watch how the team performs afterwards, there's no playoff team with a more critical component than Manning.
Brad and the Stampede Blue crew hadn't a doubt Manning would win, calling Manning, arguably, the greatest Quarterback to play the game when his career is finally over.