102 Epic Peyton Manning Quotes on Life, Legacy & Teamwork

He’s considered to have been one of the best quarterbacks of all time, with an incredible list of records including a five-time league Most Valuable Player award, the most career touchdowns, and most passing yards. He may be retired, but Peyton Manning’s not going anywhere anytime soon, with a marketable career reaching new heights for the athletic superstar who continues to learn lessons along the way.

Peyton Manning was born in Louisiana in 1976 and is a retired American professional football player. He played as a star quarterback in the NFL for 18 seasons, the majority of which was with the Indianapolis Colts and then the Denver Broncos. Manning started playing football at a very young age, as his father Archie Manning was a star quarterback for the New Orleans Saints.

In 1998, Manning was selected first overall in the NFL Draft by the Colts. He was their starting quarterback until 2010 and transformed the struggling team into competitive challengers with 11 playoff runs, eight division titles, three AFC Championship Games, two Super Bowl appearances and one championship title in Super Bowl XLI.

In 2011, he had neck surgery and was sidelined and released with the Colts, which led him to sign with the Broncos. Serving as the team’s starting quarterback from 2012 to 2015, he helped the Broncos clinch the AFC West each season and play in two Super Bowls. Manning’s career ended with a victory in Super Bowl 50 making him the first starting quarterback to win the Super Bowl for more than one franchise.

His place in NFL history is secured with his records, as his career continues through marketing opportunities. The athlete’s partners include Nike, Buick, DirecTV, Gatorade, Nationwide and Papa John’s.

Manning’s accumulated experience in life, legacy and teamwork have both intentionally and unintentionally come across loud and clear through his many interviews and other speaking opportunities making memorable quotes for those who need them most.

1. Life is about choices. You ask the questions and you listen to the answers. Then you listen to your heart.

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2. If you work hard and you play well, all those critics quiet themselves pretty quickly.

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3. Remind your critics when they say you don’t have the expertise or experience to do something that an amateur built the ark and the experts built the titanic.

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4. I have to leave the games now if the announcer says something I don’t agree with. I’m thinking, ‘Peyton, it is not healthy to be all worked up before a game.’

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5. My closest friends are from my high school days.

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6. My faith doesn’t make me perfect, it makes me forgiven.

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7. Don’t ever think, no matter how old you are, that you don’t need to be coached.

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8. I get asked a lot about my legacy. For me, it’s being a good teammate, having the respect of my teammates, having the respect of the coaches and players. That’s important to me.

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9. Anyone who waits for someone else to make a change automatically becomes a follower.

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10. There are other players who were more talented, but there is no one who could out-prepare me.

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11. I enjoy teaching football.

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12. I want to be out there every single snap, every single play.

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13. One thing that can never be sacrificed is your preparation and your work ethic.

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14. We’ve been working a long time for this and we want to accomplish our ultimate goal. We know what it takes.

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15. Life is not shrinking for me; it’s morphing into a whole new world of possibilities.

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16. Everybody is going to be excited to play in a Super Bowl. When you still enjoy the preparation and the work part of it, I think you ought to be still doing that. I think as soon as I stop enjoying it, if I can’t produce, if I can’t help a team, that’s when I will stop playing.

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17. If teams keep playing us this way, it’s going to be like this.

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18. The word ’embarrassing’ is an insulting word, to tell you the truth.

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19. There’s no way to measure or properly express what a family like mine can mean. Mom, Dad, Cooper, Eli, extended family, you are the best.

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20. I was talking to my good friend Kid Rock a while ago, and he told me if I’d send him a helmet, he’d send me an autographed platinum record. I thought that was a pretty sweet swap.

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21. I’m totally convinced that the end of my football career is just the beginning of something I haven’t even discovered yet.

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22. Quarterbacks coach, I would do at Tennessee. Head coach? Absolutely not.

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23. I’ve never left the field saying, ‘I could’ve done more to get ready,’ and that gives me peace of mind.

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24. I don’t believe I throw quite the same as before I was injured.

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25. The head coach tells us what to do, and we follow his orders.

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26. When I was drafted by the Colts, Indianapolis was a basketball and a car racing town, but it didn’t take long for the Colts to convert the city and state of Indiana into football evangelists.

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27. I’m not 23 anymore. But the defensive ends and linebackers chasing me are. If I had to chose between youth and experience, I’d take experience every time.

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28. The finger lick is just a really bad habit – I do it all the time. My wife Ashley is going to kill me if I do it at dinner one more time. I look like an animal about to dig in.

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29. When you take a year off from football, you come back for all the enjoyable moments. When you’re not playing, you miss out on all the highs, but you also miss these disappointments. But I would rather be in the arena to be excited or be disappointed than not have a chance at all. That’s football. That’s why everybody plays it.

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30. The one year the Lord took my greatest physical gift, he gave me the greatest gift you could have in children. So that was a real equalizer. And I would take that trade any day of the week.

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31. I’m very humbled and I’m very honored. I certainly think about how grateful I am for all the teammates and coached that I’ve played with and played for throughout my career.

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32. A man’s got to know his limitations.

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33. Boy, do I hate to lose.

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34. Nobody really wants to hear about anybody else’s injuries. Or how your back feels. Whose back doesn’t hurt?

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35. My dad was a class person on and off the field. That’s the person I want to be.

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36. I committed my life to Christ, and that faith has been most important to me ever since.

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37. Some people have this impression of me: ‘Boy, he’s always so serious on the field. Football. Football. Football.

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38. I never thought ‘Sodapop Curtis’ would announce my retirement. I always thought I would be the one to announce it. I’m a huge fan of the movie, but that caught me way off guard. I can’t explain it.

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39. Imitation is obviously a great form of flattery.

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40. One of the things about football is, it’s a relationship business.

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41. Pressure is something you feel when you don’t know what the hell you’re doing.

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42. I think e-mail is kind of a cheap way to communicate. It’s a lazy way of writing a letter, you know. I write a letter every now and then, you know, pick out somebody and drop them a line, because I always like receiving letters.

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43. It’s not wanting to win that makes you a winner; it’s refusing to fail.

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44. I am stronger than I was last year. I am throwing the ball better now in May of 2013 than I did in May of 2012 – significantly better. I got better throughout the season.

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45. I’ve learned a lot from my mistakes, stumbles, and losses in football.

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46. You’ve got to remember what your priorities are. When you’re playing, what you do on the field is the most important thing.

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47. When you play for 20 years – and really, I never had to miss a game due to injury – that’s not just good protection. That’s good luck.

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48. I guess, to tell you the truth, I’ve never had much of a desire to grow facial hair. I think I’ve managed to play quarterback just fine without a mustache.

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49. In my very first NFL game, I completed my first pass to Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk.

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50. When you go through a significant injury and have a major career change, you truly do go one year at a time, and you don’t look past what’s going on now, because you are not sure what’s going to happen. Tomorrow is not promised.

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51. I don’t believe in having a separate workout for quarterbacks. Other players hate that.

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52. I want to thank the people of New Orleans and south Louisiana. New Orleans is my hometown, and of course they support their own team, the Saints, but they also support their own, and that city and state have backed me from the start.

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53. If any other part of your body has some weakness, you go, ‘Well I can probably manage.’ But when you’re a quarterback, and it’s your right hand, you’re certainly concerned far as being able to do your job.

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54. My high-school coach Tony Reginelli was kind of famous for ‘Reggie-isms,’ kind of like ‘Yogi-isms.’ He always said if you want to be a good quarterback, when sprinting left you want to be amphibious and throw left-handed. I told him, ‘You mean ambidextrous, coach?’

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55. I’ve put a lot of thought into being a leader.

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56. I think I could describe the perfect quarterback. Take a little piece of everybody. Take John Elway’s arm, Dan Marino’s release, maybe Troy Aikman’s drop-back, Brett Favre’s scrambling ability, Joe Montana’s two-minute poise and, naturally, my speed.

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57. I’ve tried to keep myself out of bad situations, and if that means I’m a Goody Two-shoes, so be it.

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58. I’m the best manning.

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59. The most valuable player is the one who makes the most players valuable.

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60. I would like to think I will be a guy who knows when it’s time to stop. I don’t want to be a guy who hung on and on. I do not have a goal in mind of a year or a statistic.

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61. Whenever people ask you where you’re from and you say, New Orleans, it’s always going to create a conversation.

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62. Being there every week for my teammates is really important to me. It’s all about accountability. I hear stuff about the ‘toughest quarterback in the league’ and all that; what’s that mean?

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63. I do vote. I have voted ever since I’ve been eligible to vote.

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64. I’d like people to understand that I do have some personality.

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65. Everyone should play like Adrian Peterson. This guy does everything full speed. Pro Bowl – promoting himself for MVP.

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66. Over my NFL career, I’ve had five head coaches who have helped me become better at my craft and have helped me become a better human being: Jim Mora, Tony Dungy, Jim Caldwell, John Fox, Gary Kubiak.

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67. I don’t want to retire. I still want to play.

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68. I have been tremendously impacted and influenced by my coaches. It’s nice to play for people that are going to support you.

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69. I would love to have played in the ’60s. Now that would have been fun.

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70. Growing up in New Orleans as Archie Manning’s son, I felt like a target, and I’ve always known that whatever I’d do, people would hear about it. So I’ve had my guard up, and maybe that’s molded my personality.

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71. I’ve been being asked about my legacy since I was about 25 years old. I’m not sure you can have a legacy when you’re 25 years old. Even 37. I’d like to have to be, like, 70 to have a legacy. I’m not even 100 percent sure what the word even means.

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72. I’ve never played, on the field, any other position besides quarterback. Never been on a special team. Never been on defense.

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73. You certainly know when you have an opportunity, and you want to take advantage of it. And it’s certainly disappointing when you don’t.

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74. feel one of the most significant honors a player can have in his sport is to have his number retired. Certainly for me to have that at Tennessee, it’s with great pride.

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75. I pray every night, sometimes long prayers about a lot of things and a lot of people, but I don’t talk about it or brag about it because that’s between God and me, and I’m no better than anybody else in God’s sight.

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76. My advice to the next quarterback that misses an entire year is to understand there is a little difference going out on the road again. You miss that. When you’re hurt, you do not feel like you are part of it.

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77. You’re not just here for four years, you really are here for the rest of your life. There is that bond here. Once a Vol, always a Vol.

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78. I’ve been a Colt for almost all of my adult life, but I guess in life, and in sports, we all know nothing lasts forever. Times change, circumstances change, and that’s the reality of playing in the NFL.

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79. Each game in the postseason has its own identity.

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80. I’ve always been a fan of quarterbacks, whether it’s Brett Favre or Dan Marino or John Elway.

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81. I was never on a mission to be an NFL quarterback. I wanted to be a good high school player, and I worked hard at that. That made me good enough to play in college and then I wanted to be a good college quarterback. During college I played well enough to make it into the NFL. I never took it for granted and really wanted to play hard at each level and I have always had a lot of fun doing what I wanted to do.

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82. I was truly honored to be a part of that game, to be playing the 50th Super Bowl.

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83. You hear about how many fourth quarter comebacks that a guy has and I think it means a guy screwed up in the first three quarters.

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84. Never take for granted what it means to be a Volunteer.

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85. I’m proud to be Archie’s son. Being a quarterback, I had my mentor and hero living in the same house.

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86. I’m a serious person by nature – sometimes too serious.

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87. I’ll always be a Colt. I always will be. That’ll never change.

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88. It goes without saying, winning against a good team in a hostile crowd on the road, it’s just an absolutely huge win.

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89. I revere football. I love the game. You don’t have to wonder if I will miss it. I will absolutely miss it.

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90. Some guys leave a place after a long time, and they’re bitter. Not me.

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91. I’m retiring as a football player from the University of Tennessee who played for the Colts and the Broncos and was very lucky to have played for all of them.

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92. If nothing else in life, I want to be true to the things I believe in, and quite simply, to what I’m all about. I know I’d better, because it seems whenever I take a false step or two I feel the consequences.

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93. I didn’t play organized football until I was in the seventh grade. Up until that point, I only played at recess and in the backyard.

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94. You certainly miss a lot of things about Indianapolis. I miss a lot of friends in Indy. St. Elmo’s. The Slippery Noodle. Amalfi’s.

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95. My dad told us up front, ‘Guys, if you want to play sports, go ahead, but it’s your decision.

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96. I’ll be a Tennessee Volunteer for the rest of my life.

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97. When people are watching you, it makes you think twice about what you do, and the things you say, and the people you hang around with.

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98. I cherished my time playing high school sports.

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99. My job is to play well offensively and help my team score points. So I feel very responsible every time we lose a game.

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100. I’ll even miss the Patriots fans in Foxborough, and they should miss me, because they sure did get a lot of wins off of me.

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101. I’m very honored and humbled to join a pretty unique club and then when you throw in guys like Johnny Unitas and Fran Tarkenton, guys that were my dad’s heroes growing up as well, I can put it in some perspective and I have a great appreciation for it.

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102. It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it.

Peyton Manning