Manning grew up in New Orleans' Garden District, surrounded by eccentrics. The All-American quarterback son of an All-American quarterback and a homecoming queen not only seems out of place in his home town but out of time, a 21-year-old whose vocabulary includes ''yessir'' and ''noma'am,'' words most of his peers know only from old movies. Not a tattoo on his skin, not a blemish on his record. Manning turned down the prospect of being the No. 1 pick in the 1997 NFL draft to return to Tennessee for his senior year. He said neither the Heisman Trophy he did not win nor the SEC championship he finally did win had anything to do with his trend-bucking decision. He wanted to savor one more semester of campus life and one more season of college football Saturdays in the South. Manning said he stuck around because he wanted to collect more memories. He also collected records: During Tennessee's 11-1 season, he averaged three touchdown tosses per game. His career total of 11,201 passing yards is best in SEC history. To understand Manning, you must understand his past, for the past is something he reveres. When the New Orleans Garden District tour guides pause at the Greek revival, pre-Civil War house of former Saints quarterback Archie Manning, they're at a loss for juicy stories. During one debacle at the Superdome, Peyton and Cooper joined the spectators' ritual of shame and pulled paper bags over their heads. ''Mom yanked them off and just about wrung our necks,'' Cooper says. Manning is a meticulous archaeologist when it comes to his parents' years at Ole Miss. He can tell you which fraternity and sorority they belonged to, how Archie was voted ''Colonel Rebel,'' who their roommates were, how many touchdown passes his father threw -- and to whom -- in specific games. Manning was more thrilled to shake the hand of Floyd Franks, Archie's favorite Ole Miss receiver, at a Rebel alumni game than he was to meet Roger Staubach and Walter Payton at one of Archie's Pro Bowl games. ''I feel like I am a throwback. I would have been great during that era,'' Manning said. ''But I don't think I'll ever be as good as my dad. Long ago he told me I'd always hear comparisons and to get used to being identified as Archie Manning's son. That's never bothered me because I'm proud of who I am. I am Archie's boy.'' ''Dad always told us: 'You cannot get in trouble,' '' Manning said. ''I know people are looking at me, who I'm hanging out with, how I'm acting. They'd like to see Archie Manning's kid mess up. I've had friends suggest doing something risky, but it's more trouble than it's worth. Being Archie's son has made me a better person.'' Manning plays football like his father, but he plays for his brother. If things had gone according to plan, Manning would have thrown touchdown passes to Cooper at Ole Miss the way he did during the ''dream season'' at Isidore Newman School in New Orleans, when he was the sophomore quarterback and Cooper was the senior receiver. Cooper was an Ole Miss freshman when doctors diagnosed why he was feeling numbness in his hands. A congenital narrowing of the spinal canal meant no more football. When he had surgery, complications from a blood clot caused the numbness to spread to his legs. Cooper had to learn to walk again. He wrote a letter to Peyton which Peyton still reads on occasion: ''I would like to live my dream of playing football through you.'' Playing football at Ole Miss with Cooper watching from the stands would have felt all wrong. When he turned down his father's alma mater and signed with Tennessee, Manning was called a traitor in letters and phone calls. ''He reads defenses better than some pros, and he could be a starter right away,'' said John Drenning, who publishes the Drenning Draft Report. ''He's a real stickler for detail, a leader. The one thing he's working on is his tendency toward happy feet in the pocket instead of standing tall under pressure.'' ''They had skills but not the maturity to understand a game that's gotten a lot more complicated,'' says New York Giants General Manager George Young. ''By staying in school, Peyton should make a smooth transition to the pros.'' ''You go to the game at Georgia's stadium and see the Tennessee orange section. You never see an orange Broncos section when they play the Saints in the Superdome,'' he said. ''My parents say that was the best time of their lives. People think that's queer, to want to soak in the whole experience. Maybe I am weird.'' Turns out Peyton does have something in common with his New Orleans neighbors. The throwback quarterback. He may just be the most unconventional guy in the neighborhood.
