Peyton Manning is one of the most likable athletes in professional sports so it is easy to overlook how insanely competitive he is both on and off the field.
It's that competitiveness that has helped Manning remain one of the best players in the NFL despite being 38 years old and having been through multiple neck surgeries that have left him with a sub-par arm.
The intense anecdotes include what he went through to keep playing after neck surgery, his sneaky first quarterbacks meeting in college, and his crazy work-ethic in high school.
Even when he gets a day off from practice to rest his ankle he still wears a helmet to listen to play calls and watches game film in the ice tub.
In high school, Peyton would practice at 4:30 or 5:00 every morning with his father, Archie Manning, and his brothers, Eli and Cooper.
He once showed up to the Colts practice facility at 4:00 am after a night game because he wanted to get work in before an 8:30 am charity engagement.
Manning once trash-talked Tiger Woods on a golf course so badly that Woods used it as motivation to regain his no. 1 ranking.
Outside of missing the 2011 season, Manning never misses a game.
Not only does he never miss a game, but he rarely even takes a play off, even in blowouts.
During Peyton's first quarterbacks meeting as a freshman at Tennessee, the other quarterbacks were an hour late because Manning locked the doors to the building.
Manning roots for rookie quarterbacks to do poorly so that somebody will break his record for interceptions in a season by a rookie (28).
Instead of retiring at the age of 35, Manning chose to re-learn how to throw a football after his second neck surgery and even had secret practices so nobody would know how bad his throwing had become.
To prove he could still play after the neck surgeries, he had some then-Colts teammates fly to Duke University and they replayed every play from the 2009 AFC Championship Game win over the Jets.
He is a stickler for details. According to his former coach, Tony Dungy, if Peyton says he is going to do something at a specific time, "you can set your satellite by it."
During a preseason game, Manning received a taunting penalty and was later fined for getting in the face of an opponent who had put a helmet-to-helmet hit on one of the Broncos receivers. Manning later called the fine "money well spent."
SOURCE: ESPN.com
After throwing 4 touchdowns in a cold weather game, Peyton addressed the critics of his cold-weather play by saying "Whoever wrote that narrative can shove that one where the sun don’t shine."
When the Broncos play on Sunday Night Football, Peyton will watch the NBC broadcast to see if Tony Dungy gave away any signals and then Peyton will change those signals.
Before signing with the Broncos, Peyton asked for a media guide because he wanted to be able to recognize and know about not only potential teammates but also Broncos employees.
Peyton cursed out Tampa Bay Bucs coach Greg Schiano after he rushed the Broncos on a kneel-down play.
When he runs a bootleg he won't even tell his teammates because he doesn't want their actions to give away the play to the defense.
Via ESPN.com. GIF via Fox Sports.
