SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Everyone got spoiled.
Over two decades of watching Peyton Manning play on the biggest stages, fans became numb to all he could do — the way he dissected defenses with clinical precision, the way he rewrote the record book, even the way he came back from a neck injury that was supposed to be career-ending.
Then this.
Hobbled, creaking, sputtering to the end of his 18th season, he became a different quarterback. Not the Alpha Dog who needed to call all the shots. But a 39-year-old game manager who needed others to carry him over the finish line.