When looking at his career as a whole, I would maintain that Peyton Manning would be a Hall of Famer and one of the all time greats regardless. In his 9 seasons as an NFL quarterback, Peyton Manning has started every single game and has never thrown under 3700 yards in a season. In fact he has only thrown under 4200 yards twice in his career. Combine that with his 275 touchdowns (never under 26 in a season) and his career quarterback rating of 94.4 and it's easy to see why he can be considered one of the best. Not to mention his 7 Pro Bowl appearences and 2 MVP awards. He has begun a pace that could see him potentially break every passing record, which would definately be more than enough to solidify a trip to Canton at the end of his career.
Now Peyton has shown that he can win the big game and has both a Superbowl MVP award and ring to go along with all of his other exploits. Somehow there are still haters out there who think that he isn't a great quarterback. With the career he has had to this point there is no reason to think that his assault on Dan Marino's records won't continue. No one denies Marino his place amoung the greatest quarterbacks of all time and he never won a superbowl. So while winning a Superbowl can strengthen a quarterbacks legacy, it is in no way a reason to enshrine or denie a player enshrinement into the Hall of Fame. Many terrible quarterbacks have also won Superbowls which is proof that in a team game like football, it takes a lot more than a great quarterback to win. This is why when looking at a players career and determining if he is worthy of being one of the greats the whole picture of his career should be looked at. So as great as it was that Peyton Manning was able to lead his team to a Superbowl win, his greatness was never truly in doubt.
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