by Mark Kiszla
But, from his personality to his fondest memories, everything that is essential to making him “Hess” survived the tragic accident, stronger than ever. The lyrics of a favorite song by Rascal Flatts? Every word is chiseled in Hessler’s brain. “Hoping I would find love along the broken road,” Hessler will croon, tears of joy unabashedly streaming down his cheek. Or ask what date changed his life forever, and without a second of hesitation, Hessler will respond: “April 20, 2007.”
That is the spring day a physical therapist named Sarah Bindel walked into his life and took a sledgehammer to the metal walker Hessler used more as an emotional crutch than a tool to support his weight. Bindel was the first person able to make Hessler stop the pity party, get off his lazy butt, and stand on his own two feet.
No wonder Hessler fell so hard in love with her. They married in February 2010. “Who would have thought I’d ever get married? Well, to tell the truth, nobody,” Hessler said. “As Sarah was walking down the aisle toward me at the wedding, I cried. I thought the day would never come. It was a better feeling than anything I ever did playing sports. Why? Football is only temporary. Being married is forever.”
These days, Hessler volunteers as an assistant coach in football and baseball at his neighborhood high school. He has taught himself to play golf. He watches Colorado or the Broncos with as unblinkingly tough, analytical eyes as Neuheisel ever watched him. But the childlike wonder for sports has never left Hessler, which is why he digs memorabilia: a T-shirt brought back to the United States from the Summer Olympics in London; a baseball cap from the Traverse City Beach Bums, an independent team of misfits based in Michigan; an autograph from a pro athlete. All tickle him. But, when it comes to an autograph, not just any name scribbled on a scrap of paper will do. Hessler only collects autographs from the best.
Manning was raised by a famous quarterback. Archie taught his son more than how to play a quarterback, he taught him what it meant to be a quarterback. By example, the elder Manning also demonstrated that being a quarterback also required a man to serve as a goodwill ambassador for your team, your city, and your sport.
From Knoxville to Indianapolis to Denver, the current Broncos quarterback has passed too many milestones to count. But, without doing an official count, Manning can be pretty confident he has signed his name on a ticket, T-shirt, or football more than twice for every one of his 60,000 passing yards in the NFL.
“Growing up with a dad who got asked for a lot of autographs, I used to see it a lot after games,” Manning said. “After wins or after losses, he always took time to sign. It makes an impression on a young kid.”
It does not require more than a few seconds to create a lifetime memory. During one of the earliest days of his first training camp with the Broncos, Manning spotted a young boy carrying a plastic water bottle and asked the kid if he could lend a thirsty NFL quarterback a swallow. Wide-eyed, the boy watched one of the all-time great players squeeze the bottle, as Manning sprayed a stream of cool refreshment into the same mouth that had been barking signals to Demaryius Thomas only minutes earlier.
Before handing the bottle back to the kid, Manning secretly gave the lid two quick turns. When his new, young friend raised the bottle and squeezed, the lid popped off, and a small waterfall splashed the boy’s face. Got ya! This classic, harmless football prank gets them every time. Punked by an NFL legend. For a Broncos fan, it was a story guaranteed to bring laughter in the retelling for a lifetime.
Rather than head for the showers, Manning gladly signs under the heat of the summer sun. During the week of the Pro Bowl, when a tropical rainstorm not only put an early halt to practice but also made a tourist wonder if Oahu might sink into the Pacific Ocean, I got as drenched as Carl Spackler during his “I don’t think the heavy stuff’s gonna come down for quite a while” scene in the movie Caddyshack, as Manning signed for a line of admirers that went on forever. With every stroke of his pen from Denver to Hawaii, Manning built a relationship with a new fan base, adding a line to the second chapter of his NFL life.
“Sometimes I hear, ‘So and so is a jerk,’” said Manning, repeating a frequent fan lament about some “stuck-up” athlete. “I’m like, ‘Why is he a jerk?’ And they say, ‘Well, he was sprinting to catch his flight and I asked him for an autograph and he wouldn’t sign.’ I go: ‘Well, maybe he had to catch his flight.’”
After beating the Chiefs 17–9 in Kansas City on Thanksgiving weekend, Manning was walking toward the Broncos team bus when he was stopped by an autograph hound. It was Chiefs starting running back Jamaal Charles, running an errand for his mother, who was too bashful to ask Manning. “She was shy. So I told my mom, ‘Give me the paper, I’ll go do it for you,’” Charles said.
A television crew caught the scene on video, and it became a source of controversy among the crabbier faction of Chiefs Nation, with critics complaining that if Charles was not so starstruck by Manning, Kansas City might have had a better shot at beating the Broncos quarterback. Newsflash: Football is a violent and competitive, but it seldom resembles the 100-yard war we saw in the larger-than-life myths created by NFL Films. “I don’t think it was a big deal,” said Charles, absolutely unashamed about getting a signature from Manning. “People do it every week. We’re like brothers, a fraternity in the game.”
Once you’re in the football brotherhood, that fraternity membership is good for life, no matter where life might take you. Random acts of kindness are not only permitted in the league, but take place on any given Sunday.
During his 11th NFL season, Justin Bannan wrestled in the trenches as a defensive tackle with the Broncos. Way back in 1997, during that lousy senior season Hessler had with the Buffaloes, Bannan was a freshman from California on that Colorado team. The quarterback made Bannan feel at home.
And the football fraternity never forgets. Out of a sense of modesty, Bannan will probably hate the world knowing, but he left two tickets for Hessler to attend every home Broncos game in 2012.
“I never met Peyton Manning in college. But I knew about him, and I knew he was stinking good. Now, I sit in the stadium, and as I see Manning come to the line of scrimmage and do his checks, I’m thinking along with him, predicting what he will do with the football in my mind. In my head, I’m playing quarterback along with him. I love watching Manning, and here’s what I admire: I bet Peyton Manning had to completely relearn how to throw a football after those neck surgeries. When he first picked up a football, it had to feel foreign in his hand. But look at him now. He’s amazing,” said Hessler, who has a hard-earned appreciation for the rigor, stress, and uncertainty of major rehabilitation.
“I know one thing: Just because a guy’s an NFL quarterback doesn’t mean he’s any good. Manning is one of the greatest of all time. But I can’t even believe Tim Tebow is in the dang league. I used to hear people in Denver say, ‘Thank God for Tebow.’ And I thought at the time: ‘If God’s a Broncos fan, then why are we stuck with Tebow?’ If God had a plan for the Broncos, then it must have been for Tebow to leave town, so we could have Peyton Manning as our quarterback. Thank God.”
Every true orange-and-blue Broncomaniac has a game-day ritual. In 2012, this was what Hessler did every Sunday that Denver played at home, without fail. He would rise early, pack a lunch with his wife, then ride to the stadium, arriving four hours before kickoff. Then, Sarah and he would claim a spot near the players’ entrance to the locker room.
Hessler was on a mission. He wanted Manning’s autograph. The quarterback signs before games. Week after week, from the home-opener against Pittsburgh to a late October date against New Orleans, Hessler and his spouse would stake out Manning. Week after week, they would fail to get his attention.
But give up? No way.
The security guards at the stadium recognized the former CU star. Hessler asked a friend on the Broncos’ staff to tell Manning to look for him. Finally, on November 18, when Hessler shouted to number 18, Manning stopped.
Two of the premier college
quarterbacks of 1997, face-to-face after all these years.
Gripped tight in Hessler’s hands was one of his most cherished pieces of sports memorabilia: A 16-year-old copy of the Sporting News, with his face on the cover.
“My words to him were: ‘Hey, Peyton Manning, do you remember this magazine from your senior year at Tennessee?’” Hessler said. “Peyton looked at the magazine cover. And he looked at me. And then Peyton looked back at my photo on the magazine again. He got a weird look on his face and said: ‘What the heck?’”
Hessler implored Manning to open the magazine to a page marked with a paper clip. The Broncos’ quarterback took a gander at the Sporting News story on him as a far younger man. Next to a photograph of a young QB throwing a football in a Tennessee uniform, Manning signed his name, and handed the magazine back to Hessler.
“Thanks, man,” said Hessler, his voice full of gratitude. But the Alfred E. Neuman inside him couldn’t resist. And, peer to peer, Hessler needled Manning, the way athletes do: “The Sporting News put me on the cover and not you, buddy. You’ve got to love that.”
Manning shook his head and chuckled.
“I remember Hessler well from playing at Colorado. But until Chris Valenti, our equipment guy with the Broncos, who’s also a big Buff supporter, told me about everything Hessler has been through since he left CU, I was not aware of it,” Manning told me, vividly remembering the scene weeks after crossing paths with Hessler in the parking lot of Sports Authority Stadium at Mile High. “I’ve got to say, it was good to finally meet him. He’s a quarterback from my era. We had just a short visit, but it will be hard to forget. I would say in the autograph world, nothing surprises me any more. But when Hessler handed me a magazine with his face on the cover? That was a new request I had not ever seen. A first for me. That was definitely a new one.”
There were skeptics who wondered if Manning could ever walk back on an NFL field and command the same respect as before his neck surgeries.
After his auto accident, there were nights when Hessler wondered if he would ever walk again without fear of falling.
Once a quarterback, always a quarterback.
It’s the best fraternity in sports.
Every autograph by Manning is signed with respect for how lucky he is to be a quarterback.
Once in a blue moon, an autograph might even be the signature moment forever linking the lives of two strangers.
After the Broncos signed Peyton Manning to a five-year, $96 million contract as a free agent in March 2012, Denver instantly became a legitimate championship contender, prompting team executive John Elway to confidently declare: “We don’t have a Plan B. We’re going (with) Plan A.”
© Eric Lars Bakke/Denver Broncos
When Manning met the press, it became obvious: He not only had a higher quarterback rating than predecessor Tim Tebow, but Manning was also the most popular active athlete in the United States, with a Positive Q Score of 32, according to Marketing Evaluations, Inc.
© Eric Lars Bakke/Denver Broncos
While autograph hounds clamored for Manning’s signature, what fans might have missed was the dramatic scar line left from neck surgeries that led to the veteran quarterback’s departure from Indianapolis after 14 years and a Super Bowl victory with the Colts.
© Eric Lars Bakke/Denver Broncos
With this 21-yard touchdown catch by wide receiver Brandon Stokley, the Broncos took the lead in the fourth quarter from the Chargers during an October game in San Diego. Denver’s remarkable comeback from a 24-point halftime deficit would reverse the fortunes of two longtime AFC West division rivals.
© Eric Lars Bakke/Denver Broncos
The relationship forged by John Fox, Elway, and Manning broke down the traditional lines of demarcation often drawn between coach and player or boss and employee. Said Elway: “Front-office people and coaches who have success in the NFL understand it’s the players who make everything happen.”
© Eric Lars Bakke/Denver Broncos
When PFM talks, people listen. One of the most powerful forces in professional sports is Manning Face, defined by the quarterback’s intense eyes and the red blotch on the forehead from where his helmet rubs, as the four-time Most Valuable Player coaches up teammates on the sideline.
© Eric Lars Bakke/Denver Broncos
18 is the loneliest number: In the tunnel before being introduced to the home crowd on game day, Manning gathered his thoughts. “I know you guys don’t believe me,” said Manning, insisting his skills have declined. “Certain things are harder for me than it used to be. It’s a different type of body that I’m playing in.”
© Eric Lars Bakke/Denver Broncos
The bright orange glove Manning wore on his throwing hand as the weather turned cold late during the NFL season in Denver was a telltale sign the veteran quarterback felt he needed to make a concession to age and the nerve damage that had resulted from his neck injury.
© Eric Lars Bakke/Denver Broncos
There was no doubt what player Broncomaniacs felt was the best candidate for Most Valuable Player in 2012. Minnesota running back Adrian Peterson, however, beat Manning 30.5 to 19.5 in MVP voting. Comeback Player of the Year was awarded to Manning, who viewed it as much more than a consolation prize.
© Eric Lars Bakke/Denver Broncos
Is this any good? During his first season as Broncos quarterback, Manning completed 68.6 percent of his passes for 4,659 yards and 37 touchdowns against 11 interceptions. But the most important statistic: 13 victories that gave Denver the best record in the American Football Conference.
© Eric Lars Bakke/Denver Broncos
Chapter 11
Genius at Work
Peyton Manning sees a different game than you or me. On the football field, he sees dead people. Oh, they are still breathing. But the defenders are dead before the football is snapped, with no chance to prevent Manning from throwing another dagger to the heart.
Touchdown, Denver.
Manning has a beautiful mind, but the eye of an artist.
To break down every nuance of a game and grade the performance of players, NFL coaches rely on the eye in the sky, a camera placed high above the stadium floor that provides an unblinking view called the All-22, which tracks every movement and mistake of all the athletes on both sides of the football.
The genius of Manning? When he walks to the line of scrimmage to call a play, change the blocking scheme of his offensive line, or make an audible, it is as if the All-22 is playing in his head on a continuous loop.
The processing speed of his eyes slows down everything on the field, to the point where it sometimes seems as if Manning can see the future with 20/20 vision.
Or as one NFL coach told me: “You know what’s most amazing about Peyton Manning as a quarterback? Here’s the thing: He is able to take what has been studied for hours on film, process all that information, and instantly recognize a situation in the split-second heat of a game, then get the offense in the perfect play for the situation and complete a throw that makes a real difference. The football he throws might not always be pretty. But the ball he throws has eyes. Manning sees things on the football field other quarterbacks don’t.”
The eyes are what make him PFM.
From inside Manning’s head, he sees ways to win in all 64 vibrant hues in the crayon box. And he colors outside the lines.
How awesome must it be to see what Manning sees?
Here are three plays from the 2012 season, dissected for me in the super-slow motion of videotape by trained NFL observers. Here are three prime examples of a genius at work.
Date: September 9, 2012
Opponent: Pittsburgh Steelers
Location: Sports Authority Field at Mile High, Denver
Game clock: 8 minutes, 13 seconds to go in the second quarter
Situation: 2nd down and 6 at Pittsburgh 41-yard line
Score at the time: Pittsburgh 3, Denver 0
The curtain went up on the NFL season. Ente
r Manning, stage right, wearing number 18 for the Denver Broncos. In his opening act, there was a big surprise. One of the greatest quarterbacks in league history changed the course of this game against the Steelers on a play where Manning used . . . his feet.
What the heck? Tim Tebow was long gone from Denver and riding the pine for the New York Jets, was he not? And we are supposed to believe that Manning’s first beautifully heartbreaking work of staggering genius in a Broncos uniform occurred when he carried the football?
Believe it.
After his opening three possessions as the Denver quarterback ended with the whimper of a punt, fumble, and punt, when the Broncos got the football back in the second quarter, they put the maestro to work, with Manning directing a no-huddle attack.
Each time he lined up in the shotgun formation behind center, there were two plays on the Manning menu. A primary option and an audible call, depending on the look presented him by the Pittsburgh defense.
Manning operates the no-huddle the way Leonard Bernstein conducted the New York Philharmonic. After wrapping four completions around a short run by Willis McGahee, the Broncos had advanced to the 41-yard line of the Steelers in five plays.
Manning called signals from the shotgun. The ball was snapped. Pittsburgh linebacker Lawrence Timmons shot a gap on the right side of the Denver offensive line. Under pressure, running back Knowshon Moreno freaked out for an instant, stepped the wrong way in the backfield, and missed the assignment of picking up Timmons, who was hurtling toward a veteran quarterback playing his first game back from four neck surgeries.
As an act of self-preservation, Manning smartly darted to his right, scampered around end, and gained seven yards to pick up the first down, before stepping out of bounds in front of the Pittsburgh bench.