Athlete

I think e-mail is kind of a cheap way to communicate. It's a lazy way of writing a letter, you know. I write a letter every now and then, you know, pick out somebody and drop them a line, because I always like receiving letters.

Some people have this impression of me: 'Boy, he's always so serious on the field. Football. Football. Football.'

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.'

I'm the best Manning.

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

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.

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.

Nobody really wants to hear about anybody else's injuries. Or how your back feels. Whose back doesn't hurt?

I understand the seriousness of concussions.

When you take a year off from football, you come back for all the enjoyable moments. When you're not playing, you miss out on all the highs, but you also miss these disappointments. But I would rather be in the arena to be excited or be disappointed than not have a chance at all. That's football. That's why everybody plays it.

I was talking to my good friend Kid Rock a while ago, and he told me if I'd send him a helmet, he'd send me an autographed platinum record. I thought that was a pretty sweet swap.

Over my NFL career, I've had five head coaches who have helped me become better at my craft and have helped me become a better human being: Jim Mora, Tony Dungy, Jim Caldwell, John Fox, Gary Kubiak.

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

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

In my very first NFL game, I completed my first pass to Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk.

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.

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.

I'll even miss the Patriots fans in Foxborough, and they should miss me, because they sure did get a lot of wins off of me.

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.

It goes without saying, winning against a good team in a hostile crowd on the road, it's just an absolutely huge win.