Dec 16, 2004 4 min read

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Peyton Manning was ready for the questions he didn’t want to answer Wednesday. He looked down, shook his head and politely tried to change the subject. Nothing worked. Nothing will until he breaks Dan Marino’s record for touchdown passes.

“I feel uncomfortable talking about it,” Manning said. “I’m humbled to be in this situation because I have so much respect for all quarterbacks, whether it’s Marino or Y.A. Tittle.”

Manning needs three more TD passes to break Marino’s single-season mark of 48, and he hopes it comes Sunday when the Indianapolis Colts face Baltimore just so he can concentrate on more important tasks like making a Super Bowl run.

For now, Manning’s teammates are embracing the discussion.

Colts receivers debated publicly Wednesday which TD catch they considered more important – No. 49 or the last TD pass Manning throws this season – and whether they would give Manning the record-breaking ball.

“If it’s my 10th and his 49th, that’s a tough decision right there,” wide receiver Brandon Stokley joked. “Maybe there will be some negotiations going on. I’ll have the ball, so we’ll have to see.”

Manning never wanted it to be this way.

His conference call with the Baltimore media was dominated by questions about the record. Then, for the second straight week, he responded to an unusually large media contingent that peppered him with more questions about the same thing.

For the unflappable Manning, last year’s co-MVP, it was almost too much.

So players like Stokley and tight end Marcus Pollard tried to lighten the moment by talking about the internal competition for the record-breaking catch.

“If I catch it, I may be lined up for the extra point still holding the ball,” Pollard said. “To me, 49 is the bigger deal. Forty-eight ties the record, but 49 is something special.”

Running back Edgerrin James has joked that if he catches No. 49, Manning won’t even have a chance to add it to his trophy case. He said he’d sell it on eBay, something Stokley said he’d consider, too, if he ran into hard times.

The way this season has gone, anybody could catch it.

Five-time Pro Bowler Marvin Harrison leads the team with 13 TD catches, while Reggie Wayne has a career-high 11 and Stokley has nine. Stokley’s next touchdown catch would give the Colts another distinction – the first team in league history to have three receivers with at least 10 touchdowns each.

Pollard has six touchdown receptions, two short of his career-high, Dallas Clark has five and James has scored eight times – all on runs. Even James Mungro has caught two touchdowns.

But the politicking is just heating up.

“I think the historical importance will be his last one because the guys who try to break his record, they’ll be talking about that one,” Stokley said. “Five years from now, nobody is going to remember who caught No. 49.”

On Wednesday, Manning tried to shift the focus.

He talked about how his father influenced him to live in the same city in which he played, what he’s seen from his brother, Eli, this season, even what people remember from Mark McGwire’s quest to break Roger Maris’ home run record.

But Manning tried to bob and weave from the most pointed questions, saying he didn’t want a ceremony and even downplayed the significance of retrieving the record-breaking ball.

“I don’t know who gets to keep it or how that works. I’ve really not gotten that far,” he said. “The receivers keep their balls. I’ve thrown 46 and I have none of those, I guarantee it.”

To Manning, the biggest relief will come when the record actually falls.

Perhaps then, he can move forward by ending these weekly soliloquies, and even Manning’s teammates want that to happen.

“Every week it keeps lingering,” Stokley said. “More and more people are asking about it, and I know he wants it out of the way. But it would be kind of a cool thing to catch the ball, with all the hoopla surrounding it.”

AP-ES-12-15-04 1635EST