Eli's older brother looms large in Indy Super Bowl

Eli Manning has led the New York Giants into a Super Bowl showdown against the New England Patriots, but his older brother Peyton was the talk of host city Indianapolis on Tuesday. As quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts, Peyton Manning guided the team to a 2007 Super Bowl crown and a 2010 return to the championship spectacle but he missed this past season with a neck injury that could threaten his career. "Peyton has been a great big brother to me and has been very helpful in my progression as a quarterback, supporting me, giving me any tips he could think of," Eli Manning said. "He has been the guy I've looked up to." The elder Manning was critical of the atmosphere around team headquarters after coaching and general manager changes made earlier this month by Colts owner Jim Irsay before a joint statement and silence during Super Bowl week. "I'm not going to talk about Peyton," Irsay said. "We've got the focus on the Super Bowl. I know he is excited about Eli and his whole family coming in." In the same domed stadium where his brother has starred for years, Eli Manning will try to win a second Super Bowl crown after leading the Giants to a 2008 victory over the Patriots. "It's not just because of what Peyton's going through (but) if you play this game long enough you realize how precious each season is and how precious these opportunities are," Eli Manning said. "You don’t know if you’re going to get a chance to play in another Super Bowl." But unless the Colts spend $28 million on an option to keep Peyton Manning by March 8, the man who has a children's hospital named for him will be gone from the stadium he helped inspire and the team he made a champion. "He played a tremendous role. What he has meant to the franchise and what we've done, he has played a huge role," Irsay said. "Peyton is what you dream about, someone who wants to be part of the community and wants to win so much." Adding to the pressure were praises for Peyton by Indiana governor Mitch Daniels, fresh off a national speech as a political rebuttal to Barack Obama's State of the Union address, and Indianapolis mayor Greg Ballard. "He's a great guy for the state and the community and we're lucky to have him," Ballard said. The Mannings, both sons of former New Orleans Saints star quarterback Archie Manning, are not likely to gather this week while Eli focuses on the big game. "I don't have any plans to see Peyton," Eli Manning said. "I won't be going to his house. I will talk to him during the week like I always do. But I will try to keep my normal routine and not see a lot of family." Eli remembered how as a youth Peyton taught him how to learn all the NFL teams or cigarette brands. "He would pin me down and take his knuckles and knock on my chest," Manning said. "It was a great learning technique. "The one I never got was naming 10 brands of cigarettes. When he really wanted to torture me and I knew I had no shot of getting it, that's when I started screaming for mom or dad to save me. That was his go-to move." Manning also recalled how Peyton's joy at a 2007 Super Bowl triumph helped inspire his own a year later. "Seeing that smile painted on his face, being with him for those next couple of months after he won a Super Bowl, it definitely made you jealous," Eli Manning said. "It truly gave you a burning desire to get one."