My Grandfather would talk about watching Bobby Dodd play. Said he was the most intelligent quarterback he ever saw at Tennessee.
I got a sense of what that must have been like when Peyton Manning played at Tennessee. That impression only grew during his NFL career.
In two years, he was able to change himself from the superstar quarterback to a competent game manager. He checked any pride and ego he had at the door and evolved into what his team needed him to be at the moment they needed it.
Mark of the man's greatness. Not many elite quarterbacks would be willing to go from being compared to Johnny Unitas to being compared to Trent Dilfer. But Manning, like Elway and Unitas before him, has an understanding of the game and his evolving role in it only a few players ever reach.