Peyton Manning’s legacy not embellished in Super Bowl XLVIII

Full disclosure. Before Super Bowl XLVIII, I argued that Peyton Manning’s legacy was established and whether the Broncos won or lost the game wouldn’t alter the way his career would be viewed.

Well....

Who figured that the Broncos quarterback would end up looking more like Brandon Weedon than Peyton Manning on Sunday.

Sam Farmer, The Times’ astute NFL columnist, discusses Manning, the Super Bowl, and what lies ahead for the NFL in 2014 in the video above.

As for Manning, Farmer was as surprised as just about everyone else that the Seahawks defense was able to take him out of his game so effectively. Manning completed a Super Bowl-record 34 passes in one of the most misleading statistics in NFL history. He was never on his game.

Does this affect his legacy? Probably. His performance was so monstrously below the baseline he has established over his Hall of Fame career that it’s hard to ignore. Is he still one of the best quarterbacks of all time? Assuredly. Is he in the discussion for best of all time? Well, at the moment, perhaps not in the way he was before the game.

Of course, there’s always next season.

And one note on Farmer. Check this setup story heading into the 2013 season: Farmer listed his Super Bowl prediction on Sept. 5: Seahawks over Broncos. Not bad.