re: Why is Archie Manning going down as a great quarterback?

I-59 Tiger said:

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Archie Manning was a phenominal SEC QB. Pro stats are skewed since the Saints were beyond bad. Manning was the original Tebow in college. Manning's games vs LSU and Alabama in 1968, basically the entire 1969 season and the Ala and Georgia games in 1970 were rock solid. No way on Earth if you are sober could you think of dozens of better QB's in college, let alone hundreds

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My two cents: If you were a young LSU fan in the late 60's, Archie broke your heart twice when he pretty much carried the Ole Miss team on his back to wins over LSU squads that were better overall. In '69, that loss was the only blemish on the record of Charlie Mac's best team and a team that was the best LSU squad that I could see and appreciate until the '03 BCS champions.

If you looked at Manning in the context of his time, there was no doubt about his greatness.

As others have said, I don't like to sing his praises, but he was darned good. His wins over LSU made the win over Ole Miss in '70 with Archie trying to come back and play with a cast on his arm and the Bert Jones "One Second Blues" win over Ole Miss in '71 all the sweeter.

You seriously can't compare Manning's stats with other QBs from different eras.

Look at Pat Trammell at Alabama. In 1961 he finished 5th in the Heisman voting with the following QB stats:

75-133 (56.4%) for 1,035 yards, 8 TDs and 2 INTs.

He also finished 1st Team All-SEC that year with those stats.

Peyton and Eli have more to do with Archie's "national" relevance than his own accomplishments. Don't get me wrong, Archie was a very good quarterback in New Orleans and I enjoyed him doing the radio broadcasts as well. But if not for Peyton and Eli, he and Olivia would not be refereed to as "the first family of football".