Top 44 Peyton Manning Quotes

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Times change, circumstances change, and that’s the reality of playing in the NFL.

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.

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.’

My closest friends are from my high school days.

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

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.

I cherished my time playing high school sports.

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.

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.

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.

I understand the seriousness of concussions.

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.

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.

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

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.

I enjoy teaching football.

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

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.

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?’

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

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

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

You can play pickup basketball, but you can’t really re-create football.

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

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.

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

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.

A man’s got to know his limitations.

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.

I feel like I’ve improved at everything I’ve done every single year – except golf. Golf, I’ve managed to stay exactly the same.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.