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Peyton Manning can't feel anything in his fingertips, but who needs that?
Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning revealed a fascinating and shocking nugget to The MMQB's Peter King about his throwing hand.
“I can’t feel anything in my fingertips,” Manning said. “It’s crazy. I’ve talked to a doctor recently who said, Don’t count on the feeling coming back. It was hard for me for about two years, because one doctor told me I could wake up any morning and it might come back. So you wake up every day thinking, Today’s the day! Then it’s not.”
So if you've cultivated your own theories on why Manning "struggled" last season (the dude did finish fourth in passing yards, second in TDs and fifth in passer rating among full-time starters), you might want to include the fact that he can't fully or comfortably grip the football as at least part of the reason why.
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But Manning says his downhill slide late last season to being sick against the San Diego Chargers last Dec. 14, which helped exacerbate his quad injury — another huge culprit for his struggles. Manning completed a respectable 14-of-20 passes that night in the 22-10 win, but the Broncos leaned heavily on the run (38 attempts) and turned to Brock Osweiler for a series before the end of the first half.
“I threw up all night,” he said. “Then, in the game, I moved to the right on a simple scramble and my quad cramped on me. It lingered. I couldn’t shake it the rest of the year. I really studied it hard this off-season, whether it could linger into this year or whether it was isolated. I just think I got dehydrated, and that caused it. I don’t think you can blame it on my age. It was just an isolated thing. I’ve made it through every other season, and this off-season I went through a state of the union physically, if you will, and I started training earlier and made some dietary changes.”
The 39-year-old Manning has weighed everything in the twilight of his career, including money and how best to handle his final year(s) in the NFL. He even talked to Derek Jeter, who told Manning, “Do what you want—not what they want.”
Said Manning on his contract, taking a paycut this season to stay in Denver, as just a few whispers swirled about the possibility of him moving to another team this offseason:
“I talked about it with Ashley, about what I wanted to do, and I wanted to be here,” he said.
But SI.com has reported that Manning has shown more zip in his passes this offseason, and the hope — even with a shaky offensive line — remains high for Manning and the Broncos. So even with a few physical ailments and age working against Manning, are you really counting him or his team out completely this season?
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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm
