Brady, Manning vie to prove who's 'elite' QB now

INDIANAPOLIS — He was always being compared to someone. That's what happens when you're the youngest son of a great quarterback and the baby brother of an even better one. It wasn't until he compared himself to Tom Brady, though, that people began taking Eli Manning seriously.

That was in August, when Manning was asked whether he considered himself an "elite" quarterback like Brady. Manning said simply that he belonged "in that class." But in New York, where blowing things out of proportion is practically a civic duty, even most Giants fans regarded it as heresy at the time. By Sunday night, it could be fact.

So ready or not, it's time for the "other" Manning vs. Brady, Part II. Both are back in Sunday's Super Bowl, four years after they first clashed, each with plenty still to prove.

"It's not my job to list quarterbacks," Manning said this week. "He's obviously a future Hall of Famer."

Yet Brady has looked like anything but that in his last 11 postseason games, posting a 6-5 mark, including a 2008 Super Bowl loss to Manning and the Giants. For most of those, he's been knocked around a lot, picked off more than usual and tagged with a quarterback rating that wouldn't qualify as a low-grade fever. Measured against the nearly impossible standard that Brady set at the start of his career — 10 straight postseason wins and three Super Bowl titles — merely average would be a more accurate description.

Perception still lags behind that reality, in no small part because everything else about Brady still screams "winner." Now 34, he is still boyishly handsome, still as charming as ever, still the most sought-after endorser and the one athlete even his peers would kill to be. He returns home every night with two sons to look after — and a supermodel wife.

Yet those who know Brady have long marveled at how well he hides a competitive streak even Michael Jordan would admire. And despite outward appearances, they wonder how Brady is managing it now, coming up short of his ultimate goal every season since 2005, after winning three in four years. Patriots backup quarterback Brian Hoyer ticked off a laundry list of things he's been studying in the three seasons he's sat behind Brady: mechanics, poise, and attention to detail, even the tone of voice he uses to command respect in a huddle.

But the one thing Hoyer worries will never rub off is Brady's raw desire.