Peyton Manning Q Rating's As Good As His Q Rating

Source: The Kansas City Star
By: Bill Reiter

It was just a year ago, in the heat of training camp, that Peyton Manning and Michael Vick were virtually the same guy.

Both were face-of-their-franchise quarterbacks. Both were winners who’d taken their teams to the playoffs but couldn’t quite win the big one. Both were famous, successful and sought after on the endorsement circuit.

Now Manning’s a Super Bowl champion, Vick’s most likely heading to federal prison, and the new nexus between money and image is playing out on television and the Internet, where the two couldn’t seem more different.

First there’s Manning, flickering across the television with a goofy mustache, retro hairdo, Sprint phone and down-home pitch: “You can watch exclusive game highlights of all your favorite players. Like Peyton Manning. That guy’s pretty good.”

Then there’s Vick walking out of a courthouse in Virginia, wearing a dark suit and a somber expression, as commentators threw out words like “prison,” “charges” and “trouble.”

The real money in the NFL today rests not with how far a player’s talent can take his team, but with how far his talent can take his image.

On one end of the spectrum is Manning, with his array of funny commercials for Sprint, MasterCard, Sony and DirecTV.

“Manning, oh man, he has the potential to top the list,” says Robert Tuchman, president of TSE Sports and Entertainment, which represents companies looking for players to represent them. “Especially now that he has a Super Bowl ring, and he has no stigma. He’s your poster boy for everything in corporate America.”

On the other end is Vick, the most high-profile example of the new NFL, where personal conduct means more than ever. Under commissioner Roger Goodell, the word is out that off-field troubles will have checkbook consequences. Just ask Pacman Jones, whom Goodell suspended for the entire 2007 season.

But that’s nothing compared with what Vick stands to lose.

“What he did is so pathetic and stupid,” Tuchman says. “He easily cost himself $100 million over his career. That’s $100 million in potential endorsements he could have had. Now, it’s gone.”

In the middle is the simple truth players, agents, corporations, marketing companies and salespeople have been banking on for years: It’s the Q rating, as much as the QB rating, that brings in the bucks.

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