Peyton Manning

Hey Peyton, your in-game performance and post-game antics aren't playing well on the Internet. Whether it's the mainstream media, big time sites like ESPN.com or the other schlubs like us in the Blogosphere, Manning's getting trashed by everybody. Here's a sampling:

• From The Los Angeles Times: Manning Loses Blame Game Too
  

• From ESPN. com's D.J. Gallo: "Hey Peyton, need some help?"

• From NBCSports.com: Whine of the Week

• From around the Blogosphere: I Hate Peyton Manning; Manning No Longer Ideal QB; Loser; Peyton Manning Still Can't Win the Big One; Drunk, Idiot Kicker -- I could go on, but you get the point.

The bottom line is that Peyton Manning came up with another poor performance in a playoff game. What's more, his sideline reaction to Vanderjagt's missed field goal and his postgame "I'm trying to be a good teammate here (but it's everyone else's fault)" line of crap shows the kind of guy he is when times are tough. Nobody has a more carefully cultivated "good guy" image than Peyton Manning, but that's all it is, an image. He's as big a jerk as they come when the chips are down.

Remember that the next time you watch one of his commercials where he's asking some ordinary person for an autograph. Those commercials have always bothered me--when you think about it, the joke in the commercial's on the poor guy in the bread aisle, or the other working stiffs he's asking for autographs from. You can almost feel the contempt as Manning practically sneers at them (see, I have to deal with jerks like you all the time, how do you like it?). I guess that's not a surprise--after all, he's allegedly got a history of contempt for ordinary people trying to do their jobs. The message of those ads is that this is Peyton's world, and we're just living in it. I guess that goes for his teammates too.