Brady shared in his newsletter this week that while they were both playing, he did view Manning as his enemy to maintain that competitive edge.
“When I look back on my relationship with Peyton Manning, my respect, admiration, and appreciation for him as a competitor has grown with each passing year,” Brady wrote. “It was always there, don’t misunderstand, but while we were competing against each other I couldn’t let that get in the way of the fact that he was my enemy, that he didn’t respect me, that he thought he was better than me because he was a #1 pick from an SEC school—or at least that’s what I made myself believe. Convincing myself that those things were true created a sense of urgency within me to prove him wrong, and it provided the extra bit of energy and motivation necessary to lock in and focus and execute just that much more so that I could beat him more often than he beat me.
Looking back, Brady not only expresses how much respect he has for Manning, but even calls their rivalry a “gift” to his career.
“Peyton Manning was a gift to my NFL career,” Brady continued. “I maybe didn’t fully know it at the time, but I needed someone to look up to, who inspired me to be better, and who gave me a target to aim for. Now when I see him, the only thing I can say is thank you. Thank you for challenging me to be the best I could be, to dig deep in March and April and May when nobody was watching, and to have expectations for myself that were above and beyond what others thought was possible.”
Brady ultimately finished with the upper hand in the rivalry, holding an overall 11-6 record against Manning. Manning did have the edge in the postseason though, going 3-2 vs. Brady in those elimination matchups. Either way, both quarterbacks go down as multi-time MVPs, Super Bowl champions, and simply, two of the greatest to ever do it.
There are some burgeoning quarterback rivalries between Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen, and Mahomes and Joe Burrow, but to this point, no rivalry has quite lived up to the magic of Brady vs. Manning.