NFL Roundtable: Is Peyton Manning The Best Walk-Off Ever?

Only a select few great players in pro football history have that elusive opportunity to retire as a world champion.  Peyton Manning is only the latest of the bunch.  We asked the Mocks crew in our latest NFL roundtable which they believe was the greatest career walk-off of all-time?

Sayre Bedinger:

As much as I want to pick the Peyton Manning walk-off for recency bias, I’m going to take the John Elway walk-off. To win back-to-back Super Bowls after losing three in horrid fashion is a pretty impressive way to go out. Until Manning, Elway was the oldest QB to ever win the Super Bowl. He wasn’t the MVP of the team that year just like Manning wasn’t the MVP of the Broncos this year, but he played his role and was able to go out a two-time champion after everyone thought he would never win the big one. When you get a little help from your friends, the game changes. Elway had Terrell Davis and a whole host of others.

Jeffrey Thomas:

For me it’s the “Bus” Jerome Bettis. Getting that elusive Super Bowl after a great career and doing it in his home town of Detroit made it that much more special. He was so much fun to watch and he seems like a good dude off the field. I’m glad he go to have that walk off moment at home, going against a very good Seahawks team.

Eric Robinson:

To me, it’s Ray Lewis. Earning a Super Bowl with one of the best defenses of all-time in 2000, we all expected to see a run on Super Bowls for Lewis and the Ravens. The 2011 season seemed destined for the Ravens until they lost by a FG to New England in the AFC championship game. He came back for one more run, beat Peyton and the Broncos with the infamous Jacoby Jones catch, beat Brady the next week and helped make a goal line stand to beat San Francisco to put the bow on another Super Bowl.

Brady Lunt:

I have to agree with Eric and say Ray Lewis. His announcement to retire basically inspired the Ravens to band together and send him off in style. Defying all odds, they fought through the the post-season and managed to give Ray Lewis his second super bowl ring. His retirement basically ignited the flame in Baltimore and helped them take their play to the next level, eventually becoming Super Bowl champs.

Erik Lambert:

Sometimes the greatest walk-off moments are the least expected ones.  In the midst of his 14th and last season as a professional, defensive end Michael Strahan was still haunted by a career filled with great personal glory but team failures.  His New York Giants had been crushed in his only previous Super Bowl appearance by the Baltimore Ravens 34-7 in 2000.  Since then the team had continued to build a string of disappointing playoff exits that often included late-game collapses.

Now he was going into Super Bowl XLII against a New England Patriots team that had not only won three championships over the previous six seasons but boasted a perfect 18-0 record and had actually beaten the Giants a few weeks before, hanging 38 points on Strahan’s defense.  It looked like an impossible task.

The future Hall of Famer promised himself it would be different this time, and it was.  He led the way with two tackles and a huge sack of Tom Brady to help engineer an epic 17-14 upset, holding what had been the highest-scoring team in NFL history to two touchdowns.