Broncos in good hands with Peyton, ex-receiver says

Sunday would have been a good day for Matt Cain to pitch another perfect game. As I write this, Google claims only two Peyton Manning stories have been written. And only one in the past hour.

So this would have been an opportunity for a baseball pitcher to get some publicity during the middle of the baseball season. Alas, it was Madison Bumgarner's turn to pitch for the Giants, against Seattle, and he gave up a single to Casper Wells to start the second. And then Dale Earnhardt Jr. won.

Manning is in the news a lot these days because he is trying to make a comeback with the Denver Broncos after sitting out last season after undergoing multiple neck surgeries. And because the Broncos had a minicamp that ended Thursday.

NFL teams always are holding these minicamps during which a star player is trying to make a comeback, or another star player announces his retirement, or a promising draft choice makes a clumsy pass at a cocktail waitress. Which is why guys such as Madison Bumgarner must have their best stuff to get noticed.

Because the NFL is king, even during baseball season.

The reports out of Englewood, Colo., are encouraging if you are a Broncos fan or a Peyton Manning fan, and it's difficult to be one without the other. Unless you also are a Tim Tebow fan. And then it's still difficult not to be a Peyton Manning fan, because like Tebow, he seems such a nice guy.

Manning said he still has a lot of work to do, and he did not throw many deep balls at minicamp. But one of the reports said he did groove this one 35-yard touchdown pass to Demaryius Thomas, who supposedly beat Pro Bowl cornerback Champ Bailey.

Maybe Bailey doesn't work that hard in minicamp. But the inference is that Manning, 36 and embarking on his 15th NFL season, already appears fit enough to throw 35-yard TD passes all day long against one of those .500 teams from the AFC West.

This does not surprise Marcus Nash, the former Las Vegas Gladiators indoor football star whose sticky fingers should have been on a Rolling Stones album cover.

Manning and Nash once were college teammates who led Tennessee to a 62-3 victory over UNLV in the 1996 season opener, and their relationship grew to where Nash invited Manning to be one of the groomsmen at his wedding.

This might help explain why Nash once held the Tennessee records for catches, yards and touchdowns in a season, though in college Nash was nearly as good as Manning. He was drafted 30th overall in 1998 by the Broncos before falling into disfavor with Mike Shanahan after catching eight passes as a rookie.

Nash, a strength and conditioning trainer at City Athletic Club on West Sahara Avenue, said he's been on those yachts on the banks of the Tennessee River outside Neyland Stadium, where guys who own car dealerships drink from jugs labeled XXX. Contrary to what the final score suggests, halftime of the UNLV game wasn't one of those times.

"What he does now," Nash said of Manning's predilection for whipping himself into shape and improving his game during the offseason, "that's what we did (at Tennessee). He never went home, so we'd just work out.

"It's his leadership and his work ethic that sets him apart, above his athletic ability. Eli (Manning) is the better athlete. But Peyton's work ethic, his knowledge of the game - people don't understand that when they were boys, Archie (Manning) used to play their games from the radio. He listened to every single play."

And then Nash said Archie would have his quarterback-playing sons describe every single play to him - what sort of defense the other team was playing, what his sons were thinking, whom they checked off, too. He did not ask too much about their prom dates.

"That's why Peyton's knowledge and his football I.Q. is so high," Nash said. "Everybody can work. Drew Brees has a great work ethic ... all those guys. But when you're bred and born into that kind of environment? Whether you're the best athlete or not, it's just huge."

Nash expects Manning to come back strong. He doesn't expect the big numbers the NFL's only four-time Most Valuable Player put up in Indianapolis, mostly because big numbers mean lots of passes, and lots of passes mean lots of opportunity for the Raiders and those other teams to smack Manning upside the head and neck.

But Nash said becoming a bit of a field-position quarterback still will provide his pal with a lot of chances to "pick his spots," so guys such as Matt Cain and Madison Bumgarner might want to keep pitching to theirs.      

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski.