Monday was a big day for two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback and surefire future Hall of Famer, Peyton Manning. Oddly, it was also a big day for Pittsburgh Steelers running back DeAngelo Williams, though in a very different way. Williams, never one to shy away from sharing his opinion, go into an argument via Twitter with CBS analyst Pete Prisco. Prisco had tweeted that he was watching tape of Manning during the 2015 NFL season and came to the conclusion that he still had "it."
Williams, who played against Manning on the field and watched, along with the rest of the NFL-viewing world, as Manning managed just nine touchdowns for the entire year, only one season after tossing 39 and two seasons after a mind-boggling 55 of them, took issue with Prisco's rosy assessment, using a certain smelly emoji in his own personal account of Manning's 2015.
Williams, of course, took quite a bit of flak for that and while he was given the opportunity to explain away his comments on Tuesday, instead took the chance to double down on his grim view of Manning's Super Bowl-winning campaign.
"He was garbage last year," Williams said.
Really, Williams has every right to speak his mind about Manning, whether those words come on the day of Manning's retirement press conference or not. Does the timing seem a little odd? Does Williams' assertion that he was out of the country for nine days and didn't know that Monday was the day Manning and the Broncos would be holding his retirement press conference hold water? Not really.
But it's hard to argue with his logic. Manning was bad in 2015 - like, really bad. Through the first six weeks of the 2015 season, Manning had managed 10 interceptions and just 7 touchdowns. By mid-November, he was throwing 4, count them, 4, interceptions in a game against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Shockingly, of the 29 passes he threw that game, only five were completed to players wearing a Broncos jersey.
And in the postseason, after losing his starting gig to Brock Osweiler in the latter portion of the regular season and then snatching it back just prior to the playoffs, Manning wasn't anywhere near a top-shelf performer. In fact, the Broncos didn't win Super Bowl 50 because of Manning - they won in spite of him.
So, in that sense, what Williams said wasn't wrong, just poorly timed and, really, unnecessary. But much like internet commenters, there's always someone willing to be the party pooper they think we desperately need.
