Archie Manning Backs Broncos Peyton

Peyton Manning’s father Archie has backed his son over allegations the Broncos quarterback took the banned substance HGH, telling ESPN: “He didn’t. He said he didn’t. He didn’t.”

A report from Al Jazeera America in December linked Peyton to human growth hormone delivered to his wife while he was recovering from neck surgery in 2011, but Archie Manning insisted his son has never taken anything he shouldn’t have.

“I didn’t like [the report]. I thought it was some pretty shabby journalism,” Manning Sr said on ESPN’s Mike & Mike. “Actually, I hadn’t done a lot of interviews this year. This is the first time I’ve been asked about it. But I’m pretty much with him.

“He told me: ‘I didn’t do that.’ I always had a saying when he was going through everything, and he had to talk to a lot of different doctors and trainers, and I always said: ‘No voodoo.’ That was kind of our theme. And he didn’t. He said he didn’t. He didn’t.”

The report claims Manning received HGH from an Indianapolis anti-aging clinic in 2011 while he was still with the Colts. It said the drug, which was banned by the NFL in 2011, was delivered to his wife, Ashley, so that the quarterback’s name was never attached to the shipments.

Manning denied the story when it emerged just after Christmas. “The allegation that I would do something like that is complete garbage and is totally made up. It never happened. Never,” he said.

“I really can’t believe somebody would put something like this on the air. Whoever said this is making stuff up.”

Peyton Manning also supports an NFL investigation into the report.

“I do welcome it. It’s no news to me,” Manning said in January. “I still stand by what I said then – that it’s garbage from the first day that it came out, garbage today.”

Archie Manning also said he hasn’t spoken with his son about whether he’ll retire next year – but thinks Peyton hasn’t yet made up his mind.

“He’ll find the right time to sit down and discuss it. He hasn’t talked to me. He’ll talk to Ashley,” the former New Orleans Saints quarterback, told SportsCenter later in the day.

“I think it will be pretty clear-cut. He loves this game. The end of last year being hurt, this year being hurt could affect this. When the time comes, he’ll sit down and make the right decision.”

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NFL Open Manning Investigation

The NFL has opened an investigation into allegations that Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning had human growth hormone sent to his house.

Manning, 39, has described the allegations, made by broadcaster Al Jazeera, as "complete garbage".

Its source - Texas-based pharmacist Charlie Sly - has since recanted.

The allegations surfaced in an Al Jazeera report that said Manning's wife received deliveries of HGH, which is banned by the NFL, at their home.

At the time, Manning was recovering from neck surgery suffered during his spell with the Indianapolis Colts.

The NFL does not expect to reach a verdict before Manning's Denver side play the Carolina Panthers in the Super Bowl on 7 February.

Manning holds the records for most passing yards and touchdown passes and has been voted the NFL's most valuable player on a record five occasions.

The 39-year-old been plagued by injury and there is speculation that the Super Bowl - his fourth appearance in American football's showpiece event - could be the final game in his illustrious career.

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Newton Takes Panthers to Final

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Cam Newton threw for two touchdowns and ran for two others, and Carolina’s big-play defense stifled the league’s top-ranked offense in a 49-15 romp on Sunday for the NFC championship. It was the most points for a winner of an NFC title game.

The NFL’s new top man at quarterback — Newton is an All-Pro this season — will lead the Panthers against five-time MVP Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos in two weeks.

“Playing the sheriff,” Newton said of Manning. “We’re going to live in the moment right now. We’re going to be excited.”

It will be Newton’s first trip to the Super Bowl and the second trip to the big game for the Panthers (17-1), who lost to New England 12 years ago. Denver, of course, have made a habit of going to Super Bowls, reaching it for a record-tying eighth time.

“We won as a team,” Newton said. “We came out here and fought our tails off and we did what a lot of people said we couldn't do. It’s not over yet. We’ll be ready to go in two weeks.”

And while the Broncos’ defense carried the team past New England 20-18 for the AFC crown, Carolina’s D was just as destructive. They picked off Carson Palmer four times, forced two fumbles by him, and never let up the assault.

Special teams also had a takeaway, and when Carolina grabbed a 24-7 half-time lead this time, they didn’t back off, as they did in nearly blowing a 31-point margin a week ago against Seattle.

When Newton flew into the end zone for a 12-yard third-quarter touchdown, dabbed a bit, and pointed the Panthers toward the Bay Area and Super Bowl 50.

Newton finished with 335 yards passing and 47 rushing as Carolina won their 13th straight home game, including three in the play-offs.

One of his biggest helpers was Ted Ginn Jr, who was dumped by the Cardinals after last season. Ginn had a 32-yard punt return to set up his weaving 22-yard TD run, and chased down All-Pro cornerback Patrick Peterson to prevent a second-quarter touchdown. He also had 52 yards on two receptions.

Carolina’s defense did the rest, most notably making Palmer uncomfortable in the pocket and turning Larry Fitzgerald, the star of last week’s overtime victory against Green Bay, into a virtual non-entity. The unit led the league with 39 takeaways, and at times they made an Arizona team that gained more yards than anyone look amateurish.

Capping the barrage was All-Pro Luke Kuechly, who returned an interception 22 yards for a score. The 49 points were the most this season for Carolina, who led the NFL with 500 points.

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Peyton Places Broncos Beyond Steelers

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Peyton Manning earned one more and possibly final game against his rival by leading the Denver Broncos to a come-from-behind 23-16 win over Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers on a blustery Sunday.

That set up an AFC championship game next weekend in Denver against Tom Brady and the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots.

Manning and Brady have squared off 16 times before, a full season’s worth of matchups between the two quarterbacks whose careers are so intertwined that a conversation about one almost has to include the other — like Bird v Magic or Ali v Frazier.

“It’ll be the Broncos v the Patriots,” Manning said of the AFC’s top two seeds, both 13-4. “We’ll enjoy this one tonight. I think you knew that answer was coming. To kind of quote Bill Belichick, we’ll be on to New England. But I’ll be talking about them on Wednesday.”

Football fans won’t wait that long. Brady has won 11 of the 16 meetings against Manning’s teams, but they’re 2-2 in the playoffs, including Denver’s 26-16 win in the conference championship game two years ago. This game marks just the seventh time Manning will face Brady at home.

The 17th chapter was slated for November before Manning went out with a foot injury that pushed longtime backup Brock Osweiler into the starting — and starring — role.

Osweiler led the Broncos back from a two-touchdown, fourth-quarter deficit against New England on 29 November in a game Denver won 30-24 in overtime. Manning had just gotten out of his cast and watched that game from the locker room after shaking Brady’s hand in pregame warmups.

He returned to action in the season finale, his cameo propelling the Broncos past San Diego and into the AFC’s No1 seed that ensures Brady & Co will have to play at altitude in their fifth consecutive trip to the conference championship game.

Just before kickoff Sunday, a strong wind blew over the Rocky Mountains, wreaking havoc on passes and kicks alike, although Brandon McManus tied an NFL playoff record by converting all five of his field goal attempts and Chris Boswell made all three of his.

Manning’s team-mates dropped seven passes, but came through in crunch time. Denver is 10-3 in games decided by seven points or fewer, and Manning said being battle-tested helped them on this blustery night.

With Denver down 13-12 with less than 10 minutes left, cornerback Bradley Roby, burned time and again, punched the ball from Fitzgerald Toussaint’s arms and teammate DeMarcus Ware recovered at the Denver 35-yard line.

“I could have protected the ball a little bit more,” said Toussaint, who scored his first career TD in the first half. “Obviously, they made a great play. You’ve got to give them credit, but in that situation, I put it on myself.”

Manning went to work, driving Denver to its only touchdown, a one-yard run by CJ Anderson, followed by Demaryius Thomas’ catch on the two-pointer that put Denver ahead 20-13 with three minutes left.

That was Manning’s 55th game-winning drive in the fourth quarter or overtime, extending one of the dozen NFL records he owns.

Ware’s sack ended Pittsburgh’s next drive and McManus kicked his fifth field goal, joking it was such a tricky crosswind that he just kept aiming “at the guy holding the beer in the top left corner.”

Chris Boswell made a 47-yarder with 19 seconds left, but Anderson, who gained 72 yards on 15 carries, recovered the onside kick.

Manning credited Denver’s NFL-best defense for thwarting a team that piled up 34 points on them last month.

“Obviously, down in the fourth quarter and down the home stretch, great play by our defense,” Manning said. “They gave us some good opportunities all day. Pittsburgh did a great job down there in the red zone, keeping us from touchdowns. We had to settle for field goals.

“The best thing we did, we stayed patient all game. We didn’t force anything and we didn’t give them any short fields. Obviously, when we needed it, we had that big drive and we got that touchdown that really put us up.”

Roethlisberger completed 24 of 37 passes for 339 yards despite playing with a sore right shoulder and missing his top receiver — Antonio Brown (concussion) and rusher — DeAngelo Williams (foot). Martavis Bryant had nine catches for 154 yards.

Manning completed 21 of 37 passes for 222 yards, including five to Emmanuel Sanders for 85 yards.

Manning, two months shy of 40, has said this could very well be his final hurrah, and he’s 60 minutes from another chance to win his second Super Bowl ring.

Brady — who else? — stands in his way.

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Dolphins Choose Bears Gase

Chicago Bears offensive coordinator Adam Gase was hired Saturday as the Miami Dolphins’ ninth coach since 2004, and he’ll try to end the team’s seven-year playoff drought.

Gase was the NFL’s hottest coaching candidate among assistants, and at 37, he becomes the league’s young coach. He also interviewed with the Eagles, Browns and Giants and had been considered the front-runner for the Dolphins job.

“We did exhaustive research on all of the candidates ahead of time, and conducted thorough and detailed interviews with each person,” owner Stephen Ross said in a statement. “In the end I was convinced, and the search committee was unanimous – Adam was the right leader for our football team who best met all of our priorities. He has high energy, is competitive and driven to win, with a mindset of teaching and developing players.”

An introductory news conference was scheduled for Saturday.

Gase has no head coaching experience but has been a target of NFL coaching searches for at least three years. A year ago he followed coach John Fox from Denver to Chicago after interviewing for head jobs with the Bears, Bills and Falcons.

Gase is a protege of former Dolphins coach Nick Saban and has won favorable reviews for his work with a range of quarterback talent – from Peyton Manning to Jay Cutler to Tim Tebow. In Miami, he’ll try to help Ryan Tannehill, who is 29-35 in four years as a starter and regressed in 2015, when the Dolphins finished 6-10.

Executive vice president of football operations Mike Tannenbaum, who led the job search, had success while with the Jets hiring first-time NFL head coaches Eric Mangini and Rex Ryan. That approach hasn’t worked with the coaching carousel in Miami, where none of Gase’s eight most recent predecessors had previous NFL head coaching experience.

Like Gase, the Dolphins’ three most recent offseason hires were assistants -- Cam Cameron, Tony Sparano and Joe Philbin.

Miami did interview former head coaches Mike Shanahan, Mike Smith and Doug Marrone this week. Others interviewed included Dolphins interim coach, Dan Campbell; Lions defensive coordinator Teryl Austin; and Bills running backs coach and assistant head coach Anthony Lynn.

But from the start, there was a buzz about Gase. During his single season with the Bears, they won only six games and ranked 17th in offensive points, but he helped Cutler reduce his turnovers and post a career-high passer rating of 92.3.

Gase spent six seasons on the staff in Denver, where he helped Tebow win a playoff game. In his first season as offensive coordinator in 2013, Manning and the Broncos scored an NFL record 606 points and reached the Super Bowl. The following year they scored 482 points, the league’s second-highest total.

A native of Ypsilanti, Michigan, Gase worked on the staff of Michigan State coach Nick Saban while a student there. He followed Saban to LSU and was a graduate assistant and recruiting assistant before beginning his NFL career in 2003.

Saban coached the Dolphins in 2005-06. He’s one of their eight coaches since their most recent playoff victory in 2000.

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Overtime Win Earns Denver Playoff

AP

DeMarcus Ware beat AJ McCarron to a fumbled snap in overtime, sending the Denver Broncos into the playoffs with a 20-17 win over the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday night.

Ware’s recovery followed a 37-yard field goal by Brandon McManus, whose shanked 45-yarder at the end of regulation made necessary the extra drama.

The Broncos (11-4) overcame a 14-0 first-half deficit in clinching their fifth consecutive playoff berth and denying the Bengals (11-4) their first road win on a Monday night since 1990.

Denver can earn the top seed in the AFC with a win over San Diego and a loss by New England at Miami next weekend.

Denver, which was in danger of becoming the first team since the 1970 merger to miss the playoffs after starting 10-2, snapped a two-game skid with its third overtime win of the season.

McManus has missed a kick in five consecutive games, and this one wasn’t even close. It sailed wide left to the astonishment of 74,511 fans even though the flags atop the goal posts revealed a complete lack of wind.

The Bengals called tails and the coin landed heads.

Unlike Patriots coach Bill Belichick a day earlier, Broncos coach Gary Kubiak chose to receive, and Denver drove 60 yards in 13 plays. Both Emmanuel Sanders and Owen Daniels limped off during the drive.

Broncos quarterback Brock Osweiler, making his sixth straight start in place of Peyton Manning, also banged an elbow in the frenetic final minutes but stayed in.

McManus then redeemed himself by splitting the uprights from 37 yards out 5 minutes into the extra period.

Then, it was up to the league’s best defense to seal the deal.

There was an incompletion on first down that the Broncos felt should have been a fumble by McCarron with Derek Wolfe recovering the ball as it skittered downfield, but a review upheld the ruling. Incomplete.

Second-and-10 from the Bengals 33.

Center Russell Bodine’s shotgun snap sailed past McCarron, making his second start in place of Andy Dalton, and Ware beat him to the loose football.

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