With Super Bowl XLI less than a week away, we've decided to post email discussions of a different daily topic. Today:

If Peyton Manning has a great game but the Colts lose, is he off the hook? Is he already off the hook after beating the Pats in the AFC title game? What if he has a terrible game but they win (a la Big Ben last year)?  

Jamie Malanowski, managing editor: I hate to ever say I feel sorry for a professional athlete about anything, but I do think the idea of judging a guy’s greatness on whether or not he’s won the big one is so dumb that it seems unfair that any player should labor under that burden. I mean, it’s just simple-minded., murder with a blunt instrument. The list of great quarterbacks who never won a Super Bowl is a long one—Fran Tarkenton, Jim Kelly, and most conspicuously Dan Marino—and the reasons why any good team lost to another good team on a given day are many. It may be true that if Scott Norwood hits that field goal, we think differently about the career of Jim Kelly, but it’s hard to think why.

That said, Manning is hardly off the hook. Even if the Bears win in the last minute in a close exciting game in which Manning plays well, he’ll at best have a temporary reprieve from the ``can’t win it all’ insult. (By the same token, he could have a poor game, but if the Colts win, he’s off the hook.) Manning at this moment is the un-Brady. Nobody is thinking about the interception the Boy Wonder threw in the Pats’ last possession a week ago. Brady’s rep, like Favre’s, is untouchable.

Matt DeMazza, assistant managing editor: I agree. While quarterback is arguably the most important position in team sports (a case could be made for hockey goaltenders), he’s only on the field for half the game, and in roughly half of his team’s plays, he hands off. Still, it’s almost universally agreed upon that if you’re starting a football team, you’re going with a top-flight QB, which is why the the media has created this sometimes-inane thing about quarterbacks and Super Bowls.

That said, the difference with Manning is that unlike Tarkenton and Kelly, who played in a combined seven Super Bowls, he’s playing in his first. His memorable postseason meltdowns (most notably against Pittsburgh last year, when the Colts finally had the home-field advantage throughout the playoffs) cast serious doubts on his ability to post numbers that are similar to his other-worldly regular-season stats. Of course, in this season's two playoff games prior to the AFC Championship Game, Manning didn’t play very well, either, throwing five interceptions and only one touchdown. It was the maligned Indy defense that really won both those games.

Anyway, yeah, if the Colts win, everyone thinks of him differently, but really, it’s kind of silly. One more thing on this topic: Trent Dilfer won a Super Bowl. Anyone want him over Peyton?

Chris Napolitano, editorial director: But you don’t put your team on the field and then give Dilfer the ball and tell him to win the game. But that’s what Indy will do with Peyton—expect him to win this game as he has won others during the season. And that’s why the Colts will lose. The Bears’ defense will stop him. Then he’ll press and start racking up the INTs.

Malanowski: That’s why I think being a football GM must be one of the most exasperating jobs on earth. You know that Trent Dilfer is at best an efficient QB who doesn’t make mistakes, but he’s got the ring, and Tarkenton, Kelly, Marino and so far Peyton Manning don’t. You see Joey Harrington stinking up Detroit one year and then playing well in Miami, you see Eli Manning playing great one week and then looking lost the next, you see Big Ben winning a Super Bowl one year and then playing like a man who hurt his head in a motorcycle accident—wait, never mind that one. But you get the idea. Greatness is achieved over time. How people play in big games in like a category unto itself. 

A.J. Baime, articles editor: Years from now we will look back at this upcoming game as a turning point. It will be a close hard fought game, low scoring, but at the end, when Chicago’s defense is worn out, Manning will put up 21 fourth quarter points. Every one will say, wow, Manning finally had his moment. Then next year Indy will come back and again be the dominant team behind his talent. Point: a great performance this Sunday will not necessarily erase Manning’s reputation as the un-Brady. But another great performance in Super Bowl XLII next year will. Because the guy is truly great, and we shall soon see how great he is.

Rocky Rakovic, junior editor: Peyton Manning is one of the top 10 quarterbacks to ever put on a jersey—that is, if you like 6-foot-5, 230-pound quarterbacks with a laser, rocket arm. He is not, however, a closer. If by some chance he does lead the Colts to victory (which Vegas thinks he will) that’s just one Super Bowl. There are nine quarterbacks who have won multiple Super Bowls out of the only 40 played. He needs more than one ring for respect.
 
Also, Peyton is often mentioned in the same breath as a certain Dolphins quarterback (must see this) who never won the big one. Guess who is flipping the coin at XLI?

Tim Mohr, associate edtitor: I know there have been several articles about this lately, but I think it is still worth bringing up in this discussion: Much of how we are talking about the quarterbacks here is informed by how we are forced to watch the game on the tube. When you sit in a stadium and can see the movement of the safeties and DBs, the extent to which the quarterback is a role player is much clearer. The reason Harrington succeeds in Miami is because they are scheming better and freeing up receivers in soft spots of the zone coverages they are facing. It’s not Joey changing, it’s the offensive coordinator.

Unlike baseball—which is in essence a one-on-one sport with a bunch of other guys standing around (which is why it is such an effective radio sport, whereas football is totally unintelligible on the radio)—or basketball (especially the NBA), football is still very much a team sport. Every player counts on every play, and, with the parity enforced by the salary cap system, that is more true now than ever. (It’s also the reason baseball and basketball players can jump from high school to the pros so easily, whereas, even before the NFL rule change mandating two years post-high school, hardly any football players tried to bypass college.) The reason Peyton is so reverred is that he is acting as an on-field offensive coordinator, recognizing coverages and switching to plays designed to work in those coverages. And that may also explain why he takes more flak when he’s not successful. Normally I would sympathize with him completely—in that I think the NFL is a coaching sport at this point, rather than a player sport. But since he doesn’t contradict the common notion that he in essence runs the offense, it’s hard not to assign him a larger share of the blame for failure. It’s a double-edged sword. 

Dave Pfister, assistant editor and resident old-timer: Give the Fridge the ball and things will take care of themselves. But Unitas is tough, especially in pressure situations, and he’s not going to lay down like some good-for-nothing pantywaist. Ultimately the game will come down to who has the better drop-kicker. That would have to be the Bears’ Scooter McClean. So I’m going with Bears 43, Colts, 37, though I still say the Canton Bulldogs are the best team in the league.