Maybe I'm being disrespectful, but I think network announcers are doing their viewers a disservice in the way they're covering Peyton Manning lately and Brett Favre all season.

Favre, quite simply, is washed up and has played a huge role in destroying the Minnesota Vikings' 2010 season. Yet he still gets treated with tremendous deference from the announcers in the games I've watched.

Manning is truly one of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of the game. And he's been undermined by an extraordinary number of injuries to the key players around him.

But to hear the announcers tell it, he's never responsible for the interceptions he throws. And he's been throwing a boatload of them lately. But it's always lack of familiarity with the receivers or bad routes.

I can't wait to see the stats of the game I just watched between the Cowboys and Colts, because I think Peyton put more points on the board for Dallas than Jon Kitna did. I'm not sure how many interceptions he threw, because Buck and Aikman never told me or anyone else watching the game how many he threw and how many points they were worth to the Cowboys.

If Mark Sanchez or Eli Manning did what Peyton did today they'd be absolutely roasted in the media for a week.

Just found the stats for Peyton--

4 picks, 2 of which were returned for TDs and the final one in Indy territory set up the winning field goal for Dallas.

Dallas also scored on a drive following the other pick, but that was more on the Colts' D because the Cowboys drove the length of the field.

I'm a big Peyton Fan, but yeah, he did cough some up today.

On a side note, I do remember during the summer some on ESPN suggesting that Sanchez 'regressed' during jets pre season games,

I want to give Peyton tremendous credit for taking the blame squarely on his own shoulders in his post-game comments.

Also, Chris Berman and Tom Jackson didn't sugarcoat things on ESPN Sunday night.

And I don't think it's wrong to point out the depleted receiving corps of the Colts. But I think the announcers still have to tell the story based on the plays that are made or not made.

I completely agree with you, Chico, and tend to believe that this kind of "covering" is the natural end-point of a sports media that is so tied into the PR/money machine. When you're announcer, half of your job is to call the game and the other half seems to be convincing people not to shut off their television sets. Underneath all of that, you have to toe the company line on almost everything, AKA, not upsetting The Powers That Be at the NFL.

Conventional wisdom is that Brett Favre is the toughest SOB in the history of history, and Peyton Manning "is a surgeon out there!" Anything at all that conflicts with these PR-driven theories (which are of course based on some semblance of reality) really upsets the ability of the league to squeeze every last dollar out of, well, everyone.

It would be amazing to live in a world where media was a real 'check' on the leagues they cover, but they're really the same entity these days (with a few rare exceptions). Can you imagine if announcers were forced to be journalists up there? Wow.

I absolutely hate Brett Favre, but I bet you he's been portrayed as the victim in all this. "Awwww poor Brett".

Gimme. A. Break.