INDIANAPOLIS — Archie Manning's eyes were a little moist as he tried hard to hold back the tears in an emotional embrace with his son, who finally is on his way to the Super Bowl after so many years of frustration and ridicule.
In one career-defining drive, Peyton Manning won a wild shootout with Tom Brady, overcame the biggest deficit in conference championship history and quieted the criticism (for now) that while he was capable of putting up huge numbers, he was incapable of winning the big one. He finally beat the Patriots in January.
"I just told him I was proud of him," Archie Manning said, leaning against a wall outside the Colts' locker room on Sunday night after Indy's 38-34 victory over the Patriots sent the Colts into Super Bowl XLI against the Bears. "Two-minute drills are what makes quarterbacks. You love to win a football game, but when you can do it in a two-minute drill, that puts a little icing on the cake."
Now Peyton Manning doesn't have to answer questions why he hasn't been in the Super Bowl. But even though the relief was evident in his face after he outdueled Brady by outplaying him in crunch time, he refused to say he felt vindicated.
"I just don't get into that. I don't play that card," he said. "I thought this game was about two really good football teams and certainly the history we've had with this team. I can remember the disappointment three years ago when we lost up there in New England in the AFC Championship.
"That's been the No. 1 question I've been asked so far. But I don't get into monkeys and vindication. I don't play that card. I know how hard I've worked this season. I know how hard I worked this week to get ready for these guys. It's always nice when you can take the hard work and put it to use and come away with a win."
Peyton Manning is the NFL's poster boy. It's hard to flip the channel without seeing him in another commercial. But his resume is lacking in the one category by which all quarterbacks are measured: Winning the Super Bowl. To win it, you have to get there first, of course. And with just over two minutes left and the Colts down 34-31, he needed to do what Brady has made a career of in the playoffs: Breaking hearts.
It's when careers are made. Did that cross Manning's mind?
"It was certainly not what I was thinking at that time. Some of that stuff is a little deep for me," he said. "I really wanted to do my job. I wanted to do my job well. I didn't think I had to be super for us to win. But I thought I needed to play well for us to win."
This game came down to Manning vs. Brady in the final two minutes in one of the most spectacular finishes to a playoff game in NFL history. These are the two best quarterbacks in the league. Brady had twice eliminated Manning in the playoffs. And then Manning helped the Colts fall behind 21-3 in the second quarter when Asante Samuel read him perfectly and darted in front of Marvin Harrison and returned an interception 39 yards for touchdown.
But he was near-perfect the rest of the game.
"I was really happy for Peyton," Colts coach Tony Dungy said.
Dungy had told his team in the locker room at the half, when it trailed 21-6, that it would have a chance to win the game in the fourth quarter. He was right.