One of the biggest games this weekend will be the Super Bowl between the Seattle Seahawks and New York Jets. The game will feature two of the best quarterbacks of all time: Peyton Manning and Russell Wilson.
Who is better? That is the question. Manning is arguably the GOAT, or greatest of all time, while Wilson is a rising star in the NFL. The two quarterbacks have something else in common. They are both from North Carolina, and they both have an unusual way of saying hello. Their distinctive yells have become a sort of trademark for them, and many people can identify them based on that alone. The question is: can you?
Peyton Manning
A four-time MVP, an NFL record-tying touchdown passes and four Super Bowl titles are just some of the highlights of Peyton Manning’s extraordinary career. The only quarterback in NFL history to win the award four times, Manning has also made ten Pro Bowls and has been selected to the NFL’s All-Decade team for the 2010s.
Manning is the greatest quarterback of all time, and he makes his case with a stat: he has a 96.6 career passer rating, which ranks him first all time. He also holds the record for most career touchdown passes (553). He doesn’t get enough credit for his leadership skills either, as he has been named to seven All-Star games and won four Super Bowls as a member of the Denver Broncos.
Russell Wilson
Like most other professional sports leagues, the National Football League expands its reach beyond its borders. Teams now exist in London, Paris, and Toronto, with more cities joining the league each and every year. The latest expansion team was the Seattle Seahawks, who played their first game in 2011. They are one of the most popular teams in the NFL, with more than 850,000 people packing the stadium each and every home game.
The son of a teacher and a dentist, Russell Wilson was a highly-recruited high school quarterback who played for his father at North Carolina Central University. Wilson’s father taught him the value of hard work, which he put to the test as a freshman at UNC. In 2012, he became the third-string quarterback at North Carolina, behind Colin Kaepernick and Drew Barker. He finally got the starting job in 2015, and he hasn’t looked back. In his first season as a starter, Wilson led the Carolina Panthers to the playoffs for the first time in 15 years. He then went on to lead the team to a 10-win season and became a regular part of the NFL’s elite.
Trademark Rallies
If you remember the 2016 election, then you know there is another player involved in this weekend’s Super Bowl. The candidates’ distinctive yells have become a rallying cry for many of their supporters, and the two QBs’ vocal differences have helped them define their campaign. But beyond that, fans may know these two from their on-field performances alone.
Peyton Manning is known for his signal call ‘The Power’, which he gives to open up scoring in his comeback against the Atlanta Falcons in 2014: