Win or lose this Sunday, Peyton Manning is a winner. Win or lose this June, LeBron James is a loser. An interesting dynamic is created in professional sports by the national media, athletes, and fans. It has been proven that, through the use of marketing strategies and general likability, certain athletes can shed their failures and absorb their successes, while others do the exact opposite.
It can be argued that Manning is the greatest quarterback ever - regular season, that is. However, when that assertion is added at the end, the Manning apologists will point to a sometimes shaky defense, ill conditions, and any other numerous excuses. They see him as "one of us" in part because of his various down-to-earth advertisement deals, and choose to overlook his flaws.
Let's remove all the personal bias and look strictly at the numbers. The good for Peyton is that he has a regular season career record of 167 wins compared to just 73 losses. He has a career completion rate above 65 percent, a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 2.24, and over 270 yards per game passing. These are all hall-of-fame worthy statistics.
The playoff numbers tell another story. Eight times he has lost the first game of the postseason, many times ranked as a one or two seed. His overall postseason record is even at 11 wins and 11 losses. His completion rate drops slightly to 64 percent while his touchdown to interception ratio drops drastically to 1.64.
Granted, with postseason play comes better teams and harder competition, but to ignore these numbers and brush them off isn't doing justice to the fact that they happened and do exist. To pass the blame onto other factors such as weather is another misguided approach. The winning quarterback in a game with bad weather was playing in the exact same conditions but managed to come out on top.
Athletes like LeBron or Tiger Woods do not appeal to the average fan because they do not try to, instead marketing for premium brands like Woods did (Rolex and American Express) or signing lucrative deals with the more common brands. James' Nike deal paid him $93 million right out of high school, followed by a recent extension that reportedly pays him about $15 million a year. Those aren't exactly "common man" numbers.
James will forever be heralded as a quitter and a loser. Again, however, the numbers tell another story. A side-by-side comparison shows that many of the important numbers for James stay the same or improve from the regular season to the postseason, the games with stiffer competition and increased pressure.
In the playoffs his points increase from 27.5 points per game to 28.1, and his rebounds per game jump from 7.2 to 8.6. He also has an increased free throw percentage, blocks per game, and minutes per game. His assists per game, steals and turnover numbers are all relatively the same. He also has two championships under his belt.
As with Manning's disclaimer, it should be noted that there were times that James struggled in the postseason and did not produce on the biggest stage. Yet, herein lies the biggest difference between two of the greatest players of our generation. Manning is remembered for his successes,while James can't escape his failures.
This close-minded, stubborn approach is a detriment to the players and fans alike. Those too bitter to overlook James's prior mistakes are missing out on the best basketball player in decades. Those who so easily overlook Manning's are failing to see the greatness of those around him.
No matter what happens from here on out, Manning is the legend and LeBron the loser. It's time for sports fans and media to eliminate the personal bias and look at the facts but until that happens - you're sacked!
Jordan Bean is a sophomore majoring in economics. He can be reached at jordan.bean@tufts.edu.
