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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Daddy Manning getting greedy


Archie Manning couldn't be prouder of sons Eli, left, and Peyton. Associated Press
 (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Ken Peters Associated Press

LOS ANGELES – Archie Manning admits it. He’s getting greedy.

The patriarch of America’s reigning first family of football wants sons Peyton and Eli to keep going back to the Super Bowl.

Just not at the same time.

The Manning family celebrated Peyton’s first NFL championship when the Indianapolis Colts won the 2007 Super Bowl. Then came an encore when Eli guided the upstart New York Giants to this year’s title. What’s more, each was the game’s MVP in this remarkable brother act.

“I’m being greedy here, but I’d love for each to go back to another Super Bowl and each win another Super Bowl or more,” Archie said in an interview with the Associated Press. “But as a parent, not against each other. Obviously it would be a long shot, but if they ever played in the Super Bowl against each other, it wouldn’t be fun.

“We couldn’t celebrate that game because somebody’s going to win it, great. But somebody’s going to lose it, and that’s tough. We couldn’t celebrate over the loser.”

The brothers have played one NFL game against each other, with the Colts beating the Giants 26-21 in a 2006 game in which Peyton and Eli had similar statistics. Looking back, Archie said he was glad it was a good game and both played well.

One lingering image from New York’s 17-14 Super Bowl victory over the seemingly invincible New England Patriots was Peyton wildly cheering as his kid brother moved the ball downfield for the winning touchdown.

“I was kind of playing the game up there in the stands,” said the 32-year-old Peyton, five years older than Eli. “It was impressive as a quarterback to see how he played that day, but the fact he was (my brother) made it even more special. I had the same feeling I had when we became champions, was just as happy for Eli when the last second ticked off.”

Eli, who joined his father and brother in Los Angeles to do a commercial for DirecTV NFL Sunday Ticket, said he pulled for his brother the same way a year earlier when the Colts beat the Chicago Bears 29-17 for the title.

“He had been in the NFL for nine years, close a few times and never getting one. I was fired up for him, rooting hard for him, excited for him,” Eli said.

Archie, a former standout quarterback at Mississippi, spent more than a decade with the perennially undermanned New Orleans Saints. He said his sons’ Super Bowl victories mean more to him than if he had won one himself.