Are Broncos risking future to win now?

The Denver Broncos own the NFL’s best regular-season record in the two seasons since quarterback Peyton Manning improbably hit the market and signed with them. However, they are only 2-2 in the playoffs over that span, compared to a combined 12-3-1 for the more defensively oriented Seattle Seahawks, San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens. And after enduring a Super Bowl humiliation last month, there was no way the Broncos could sit by idly and hope for a different result next time. They were going to address their defense in some fashion, but could anyone have expected this? 

One day into free agency, the Broncos slammed the accelerator to the floor in a clear push to win a championship before the nearly 38-year-old Manning's career is finished. While the money Denver allocated for cornerback Aqib Talib and safety T.J. Ward sent a clear message on its own, the Broncos’ immediate interest in the recently released DeMarcus Ware left little doubt. The question is whether the Broncos can have it both ways. Will their win-now mentality cause them to pay a steep price later? 

Every NFL general manager would tell you successful franchises ideally build through the draft and supplement with value buys in free agency.

Copyright : insider.espn.go.com

The Injuries That Made Peyton Manning and Tom Brady

Sunday’s battle between the Michelangelo and Picasso of football is happening thanks to luck and 21st century medicine.

In his 16-year career, Peyton Manning has never suffered a concussion. Tom Brady has only ever suffered one, according to his father.

So it’s not surprising that the media has mainly focused on the football field and trophy case as we prepare for Sunday’s AFC Championship Game duel between Manning’s Denver Broncos and Brady’s New England Patriots. There’s plenty to discuss between Manning’s record-breaking season (55 touchdown passes, 5,477 yards) and Brady’s unflinching year (his top five receivers from 2012 were either injured, in jail, or on another team); Manning’s four MVP awards (two more than Tom) and Brady’s three Super Bowl rings (two more than Peyton); Manning’s cold weather struggles and Brady’s cold-as-ice reputation; the men’s head-to-head record (10-4 Brady) and their refusal to publicly admit to the rivalry.

In a year in which the conversation has centered as much on concussions as read-option offenses, this might be a welcome respite from the increasingly unsettling and pervasive understanding that America’s real pastime seems to be ruining ex-players’ lives, if not killing them.

These days, we’re constantly trying to reconcile the duality of fandom, Jiminy Cricket sitting on one shoulder while Terry Tate Office Linebacker tries to tackle him from the other. As Grantland’s Brian Phillips wrote in a brilliant piece on “un-innocence” in sports: “Fully aware that we couldn’t love sports with an entirely clear conscience, and fully aware that we still loved sports, we somehow decided that those awarenesses just… didn’t need to be resolved. They were like two bubbles that would pop if they touched each other, only they didn’t touch each other, because we figured out a way to keep them apart.”

Manning-Brady XV, as the contest is being called, seems to be the perfect chance to float away inside that happy sports bubble. We can celebrate pinpoint passing and preternatural feel for the game, debate history and legacy, laugh about “Omaha” and literally cheesy commercials, and enjoy watching two master craftsmen go about their work.

Just ask receiver Wes Welker, who spent six seasons catching passes from Brady before joining the Broncos last offseason. “They’re both spectacular,” Welker said over the summer. “It’s like comparing Picasso and Michelangelo.”

But as beautiful as we expect this game to be—and as important as we know it is—we just can’t forget the serious stuff. Maybe we can for an hour or three on Sunday, but not now, not yet.

The two quarterbacks are obviously products of talent and dedication and hard work, but they’re also products of luck and 21st century medical science. Despite the one concussion combined, their careers have been consistently and irrevocably influenced by injury. You can’t really talk about the two of them without thinking about that.

For the first 13 years of his career, 227 consecutive games, Manning was invincible. He never missed a start and seemed to get hit about as often as Muhammad Ali did. Still, it’s impossible to completely avoid collisions playing professional football, and by 2010 Manning was coping with severe neck pain. First there was the pinched nerve and then the herniated disc, which led Manning to undergo four surgeries, including a major spinal fusion procedure. (Read this if you want to spend the rest of your life cautiously rubbing your neck.)

Manning sat out the entire 2011 season, and there were doubts as to whether he’d ever step on the field again. The Indianapolis Colts, the team that drafted him first overall in 1998, released him during that offseason. When he signed with Denver in March 2012, he admitted he had to “relearn” how to throw and said his first attempt “nose-dived after about five yards.” Now it’s clear that he relearned pretty good.

Brady, meanwhile, got his first opportunity to play due to someone else’s injury. He was a backup, firmly planted behind strong-armed Pro Bowler Drew Bledsoe until the second week of 2001, when Bledsoe received a brutal hit from New York Jets linebacker Mo Lewis that practically exploded his chest. While Bledsoe recuperated from internal bleeding, Brady took the reins of the Patriots offense and never relinquished them, promptly reeling off his own consecutive-games streak of 128. (Fun fact: Brady’s first career start was against, you guessed it, Manning, and the Patriots dominated 44-13.)

In 2007, Brady lead New England to a perfect 16-0 regular season record only to suffer an agonizing Super Bowl loss to Peyton’s little brother Eli and the New York Giants. The next year, Brady attempted a mere 11 passes before tearing his ACL and missing the rest of the season, essentially sidelining the Patriots’ title aspirations. Fortunately, Brady would also return to peak form, earning the Most Valuable Player award in 2010.

But what if Manning’s neck hadn’t recovered? What if he had tried to come back, only to play a couple middling seasons and then grudgingly retire or, worse, become a backup? What if Bledsoe had stepped out of bounds a yard earlier? What if it had taken Brady several more years to get a crack at a starting role?

There’s no real use dealing in hypotheticals, but thinking about the injury history of Manning and Brady is a reminder of just how fickle football can be. When you hear them talk about much they love playing football and how grateful they are for their long careers, you realize just how rare that is.

On Sunday, when we settle into our EZ Chairs and become mesmerized by an exhilarating game, we might find ourselves watching Peyton Manning and Tom Brady and forgetting that they’re not immortal, that they’re not football automatons.

But then we’ll notice Welker, the shifty slot receiver who suffered two concussions this season and missed the final three games before the playoffs. We’ll notice his cartoonish helmet, designed to better protect his fragile brain. We may initially laugh, just like we did last week, before checking ourselves and asking, “Wait, if he has to wear that monstrosity, should he really be playing?”

Who knows what Welker’s head will feel like in ten or 20 years? Who knows whether Manning will wake up daily with a burning neck, or whether Brady will be walking with a limp?

When we tune in for Manning-Brady XV, let’s talk audibles and out routes, history and legacy and destiny. Let’s try to escape, however briefly, into that happy sports bubble. But even with Manning and Brady, we can’t live there forever.

Copyright : thedailybeast

Title-game tussles: Brady-Manning, 49ers-Seahawks

Dennis Waszak Jr., The Associated Press

Well, well. We meet again.

Peyton Manning vs. Tom Brady in the AFC championship game. The San Francisco 49ers vs. the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC title bout.

It'll be a Sunday of rivalry showdowns next weekend, with familiar foes a win away from the Super Bowl.

Manning helped lead the Denver Broncos past the San Diego Chargers 24-17 on Sunday, setting up another meeting with Brady and the New England Patriots.

The Broncos opened as 6½-point favorites for the game at Denver.

BRONCOS: Denver advances after defeating San Diego

49ERS: Colin Kaepernick lifts 49ers over Panthers

"It's the Broncos versus the Patriots and certainly Tom and I have played against each other a lot," Manning said, "but when you get to the AFC championship, it's about two good teams that have been through a lot to get there."

In the NFC, the 49ers and Seahawks are all set to play for the NFC championship in the latest chapter in one of the NFL's budding — and bitter — rivalries.

The Seahawks (14-3) opened as 3-point favorites for the game at Seattle.

The Broncos (14-3) controlled the game against the Chargers (10-8) for 3½ quarters before Philip Rivers capitalized on an injury to cornerback Chris Harris Jr. to stage a comeback reminiscent of Baltimore's shocking win at Denver exactly a year earlier.

But this time, Manning rescued the Broncos from the brink of another crushing collapse and sent them into the title game for the first time in eight seasons.

Peyton Manning (left) and Tom Brady (right) will face off against one another.

Manning and Brady have squared off 14 times throughout their careers, with the Patriots quarterback holding a 10-4 edge in the head-to-head matchup — including a 34-31 overtime victory in November.

"They're a great team, they had a big win last night," Manning said. "We're going to enjoy this one tonight, start to work on them tomorrow and I know it'll be a heck of a game."

Manning was 25 of 36 for 230 yards and two TDs, but the Broncos controlled the clock by largely sticking to the ground game. After gaining just 18 yards against San Diego last month, the Broncos ran for 133 yards, including 82 by Knowshon Moreno, whose 3-yard TD run put them ahead 24-7 with 8:12 left.

The Chargers rallied to get within a score late, but Manning completed a pair of key third-down passes in the final minutes to prevent San Diego from getting a final chance.

At Foxborough, Mass., LeGarrette Blount carried the Patriots (13-4) to their third straight AFC title game with four touchdown runs in a 43-22 victory over the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday night.

"It's just a great achievement," Brady said. "People have counted us out at times this year, but I think we've got a locker room full of believers."

It's easy to see why after they forced Andrew Luck into throwing four interceptions and ran for six scores against the Colts.

"We just had to keep our foot on the gas pedal," Blount said, "and make sure that they didn't to us what they did to Kansas City."

BOX SCORE: Broncos 24, Chargers 17

BOX SCORE: 49ers 23, Panthers 10

Last weekend, the Colts (12-6) pulled off a stunning 45-44 victory over the Chiefs in which they overcame a 38-10 third-quarter deficit in the wild-card game for the second-biggest comeback victory in NFL playoff history.

This time, there was no such come-from-behind performance for Luck and the Colts.

At Charlotte, N.C., Colin Kaepernick threw a touchdown pass and ran for another score and the 49ers defeated the Carolina Panthers 23-10 on Sunday.

San Francisco, which lost last year to Baltimore, is looking for a return trip to the Super Bowl. And lots of hard hits and plenty of jawing might be expected in this latest matchup with the Seahawks.

"I think we're the two teams everyone was looking at from the beginning," Kaepernick said. "It's going to be a knockdown, drag-out game."

The 49ers have committed seven turnovers and been outscored 71-16 in their past two trips to Seattle, including a 29-3 Week 2 loss in September.

"We're a different team than we were the first time we played them up there," Kaepernick insisted.

The 49ers (14-4) will get a chance to prove that next weekend after Kaepernick completed 15 of 28 passes for 196 yards Sunday, avenging his worst statistical performance of the season two months ago against the Panthers. He was held to 91 yards passing and 16 yards rushing in the first meeting with Carolina, a 10-9 loss at Candlestick Park.

On Saturday, Marshawn Lynch ran for a franchise playoff-record 140 yards and two touchdowns and Seattle's defense flustered Drew Brees and New Orleans in a 23-15 victory. The top-seeded Seahawks advanced to the NFC title game for the second time, and first since the 2005 playoffs.

"We haven't done anything yet," quarterback Russell Wilson said. "That's our goal. We have 60 minutes of football left."

Against a familiar foe.

Seahawks coach Pete Carroll and 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh have been rivals dating to their days as opponents in the old Pac-10 conference.

In 2009, after Harbaugh's Stanford team ran up the score on Carroll's Southern California squad in a 55-21 rout, the two met at midfield and an annoyed Carroll barked, "What's your deal?"

They've carried that over to the NFL — and it might get ramped up again during the week with a Super Bowl appearance on the line.

"We're healthy, we're a great team and we're willing to do whatever it takes to get that ring," Gore said. "We're playing great ball."

The 49ers held Cam Newton in check, intercepting him twice and sacking him five times while stopping the Panthers (12-5) twice on the 1-yard line in the first half.

At Seattle, Steven Hauschka kicked three field goals in blustery conditions, and Lynch capped the victory with a 31-yard scoring run with 2:40 left that Carroll celebrated by jumping into offensive line coach Tom Cable's arms.

"It feels awesome," fullback Michael Robinson said, "but this doesn't mean anything if we don't win next week."