The NFL's Royal Family

By Sean Gregory

What do football's royal brothers talk about during the NFL season? Peyton Manning, the record-breaking quarterback for the game's most dominant team, the Indianapolis Colts, avoids evangelism. "I kind of let him ask me any questions before I give him advice," says Peyton, 29, of his discussions with younger brother Eli, 24, the second-year quarterback for the New York Giants. "He's got his coaches, and he's learning from his experience. What are you going to tell somebody? 'Hey! This team is fast.' He knows that."

According to Eli, however, Peyton is not above espionage. "He's been asking a lot of questions," says Eli. "I think he knows we play [against each other] next year-- he's getting too specific with things. I think he's taking notes, so I have to be careful now." Any chance Peyton might be prepping for an earlier Manning matchup, Super Bowl XL this February in Detroit? Eli winces, sidestepping the question as he would a blitzing linebacker. "Aw. I don't know."

Smart move. A Manning vs. Manning Super Bowl may be a long shot this season. The Colts are the better bet, having won their first 10 games in a row and a near lock on home-field advantage in the AFC play-offs, where the RCA Dome's fast artificial turf will make Indy's no-huddle offense almost impossible to stop. Still, the surprising Giants (7-3 going into last weekend) have a good chance at a postseason slot in the tight NFC East. And the conference is as wide open as Terrell Owens' yap--football fans can surely dare to dream.

The Mannings are marching toward the stretch run with their quick releases, clutch completions and superior pigskin IQ passed down from their famous father Archie, a Pro Bowl quarterback who suffered the ignominy of leading the New Orleans team in the 1970s and early '80s, when the Saints were nicknamed the Aints. The brothers "both have tremendous ability to see the field," says David Cutcliffe, the offensive coordinator at the University of Tennessee when Peyton starred there in 1994-97 and Eli's head coach at the University of Mississippi in 2000-03. "Their brains work so quick it's unbelievable. What occurs in 3.2 seconds, it takes them 25 seconds to tell you what went through their minds--to verbalize it. I've never been around anybody like those two."

Despite their similar looks, strong arms and size (both are almost 6 ft. 5 in., Peyton a broader 230 lbs.), the Mannings offer a study in contrasts: Perfectionist Peyton vs. Easy Eli. "They're pretty different across the board," says Cooper Manning, 31, the eldest brother, an institutional equity broker whose promising football career was cut short by spinal stenosis (a narrowing of the spinal canal) before his freshman year at Ole Miss. "You can always see Peyton just grinding it the whole time. He's so intense, it's impossible to ignore. And with Eli, there's such a calming effect and such a coolness to him that sometimes you'd question whether he even realizes he's playing a football game."

For the Mannings, the games began in the front yard of the family home in the ornate Garden District of New Orleans. Cooper and Peyton relegated little Eli to the ignoble role of center, the guy who snaps the ball to the glory-hogging quarterback. "Every once in a while they'd throw a pass to me," says Eli in the barely detectable Delta drawl he shares with Peyton. "If I dropped it, I wouldn't get the ball the rest of the day."

The Manning boys grew up in a shadow of fame that would have been hard to escape even if they had become dentists. Archie is a Gulf Coast legend raised in Drew, Miss., who starred at Ole Miss, where the campus speed limit is still 18 m.p.h. in recognition of his jersey number. He also inspired a popular Dixie ditty, The Ballad of Archie Who. As a pro, he owned New Orleans, despite the awful team. As a father, he worried about heaping expectations on his kids, so he stayed on the sideline. "I was scared to get too involved," says Archie. "I just thought, 'Look, you're asking for trouble.' They had built-in pressure, so I sure wasn't going to add to it. I didn't want to wear this ex-quarterback's hat."

Peyton nonetheless took up football--and everything else--with the same fervor he now displays at the line of scrimmage, where, before the snap, he shouts instructions at everyone but the cheerleaders. Cooper remembers the third grade, when Peyton's basketball coach told him to foul an opponent to stop the clock. Peyton kicked the kid in the gut. Archie recalls another youth hoops game, when Peyton told his coach, "The reason we lost this game tonight is because you don't know what you're doing." Then there was the time he dressed in a red ruffled shirt and tight black pants to tango in an eighth-grade play. "He was dead serious about it," says Archie. "Everybody was kind of like, 'My God.' He did it at 110 m.p.h."

The Colts' high-octane offense is now Peyton's place. "He's not opposed to jumping on somebody's butt," notes Archie. Peyton cajoles linemen constantly to pick up their blocking assignments. After a receiver drops a pass, he often looks as if someone dropped an anvil on his toes. "Guys on offense know if they want the ball, they've got to run their routes crisp all the time, and they've got to be where he expects them to be," says Colts head coach Tony Dungy of his quarterback. "So Peyton gives them a little bit of carrot and stick."

Eli doesn't have the resume to rule the Giants with such an iron fist. While he has shown a flair for late-game heroics, he is not yet Joe Montana. He has struggled with his accuracy, throwing four interceptions in a loss to the Minnesota Vikings. Plus, his personality is just not Peyton's. Eli attributes his reticence at least partly to birth order. "Around dinner, I was just kind of watching and letting them do the talking," says Eli of his older brothers. "Don't speak until spoken to."

He has never devoured football like Peyton. Before college, Eli couldn't name all the teams in the Southeastern Conference, sacrilege for a Louisiana schoolboy. He even has trouble remembering the start times of his games. In high school, about 90 minutes before a big game, he called his mother Olivia at home. She thought something was wrong. He just wanted her to tape Seinfeld. Eli is also more culturally ambitious than the average NFL quarterback with a $20 million signing bonus. He's a budding oenophile and likes to scout antiques, which could make him the only NFL quarterback adept at locating both receivers and Empire secretaires.

Eli's diverse interests and slightly scattered brain, however, should not be mistaken for indifference. "He stepped right into the National Football League's biggest arena--New York--and has no fear," says Cutcliffe. "He'll succeed, and he knows he'll succeed." So far, his best moments have come in high-pressure situations. He threw a game-winning touchdown pass with five seconds left against the AFC West--leading Denver Broncos and led the Giants to last-minute, game-tying scores in losing efforts against Minnesota and the Dallas Cowboys. In a 27-17 win over the Philadelphia Eagles, he tossed two of his three touchdown strikes in the fourth quarter.

Since he's in his first full season as quarterback, Eli will get a pass if the Giants falter. But the pressure is clearly on Peyton. Although he has thrown for 4,000 yds. in each of the past six seasons, tossed 49 touchdown passes last year--breaking Dan Marino's 1984 record--and twice won the NFL's MVP award, the critics chirp that he has never made it to the Super Bowl. "Peyton feels the weight on his shoulders," says John Michael Vincent, an Indianapolis sports-radio host. "There's going to be a lot of disappointment in the locker room if the Colts don't end up in the Super Bowl." Peyton tosses aside the swipes. "You're always having to prove yourself in this league," he says. "Is that fair? I don't really know." Peyton, subtly scouring little brother's playbook is not fair. But who knows, that could wind up being your best move this year.

[This article contains a table. Please see hardcopy of magazine or PDF.] The Mannings Compared How they played: QBs Eli, Peyton and Archie's stats in their first 17 NFL starts Eli Peyton Archie WON-LOST RECORD 8-9 4-13 4-10-3 PASS ATTEMPTS 520 608 373 COMPLETIONS 265 347 180 COMPLETION % 51 57.1 48.3 PASSING YARDS 3,297 4,023 2,393 TOUCHDOWN PASSES 24 28 15 INTERCEPTIONS 18 30 19 PASSER RATING 71.9 72 61.2 Although a bit inconsistent throughout his young career, Eli has been at his best late in the game After fighting through a 3-13 rookie season, Peyton has played like a Hall of Famer A two-time Pro Bowler who was surrounded by talent-challenged players

With reporting by David E.Thigpen/Indianapolis