University of Tennessee Athletics
Manning, Witten Reach NFL Milestones
October 05, 2014 | Football
MANNING'S 500TH TDSunday was a special day for a pair of Vol legends as Peyton Manning and Jason Witten reached NFL milestones. Manning became the second quarterback to throw 500 touchdown passes and Witten became the third tight end with 10,000 receiving yards.
Manning joined Brett Favre as the only members of the exclusive club.
The Vols legend threw a 7-yard dart to tight end Julius Thomas to give Denver a 7-3 lead over Arizona in the first quarter Sunday. Thomas has caught six of Manning's nine TD throws this season.
Manning reached the mark in his 244th career regular season game, 49 fewer games than it took Favre.
It was Manning's 101st TD pass since coming to Denver in 2012 following his tearful goodbye in Indianapolis, where he played his first 13 NFL seasons before sitting out all of 2011 following neck fusion surgery.
"Football is the ultimate team game, and so I guess one man has to accept it and I really accept it on behalf of a lot of coaches and teammates," Manning said.
Manning finished the day with his personal best in passing yardage in the NFL with 479 yards on 31-of-47 with four touchdowns. He now stands at 503 touchdowns, five from tying Favre.
The five-time MVP Manning joined Brett Favre as the only other quarterback in league history to eclipse 500 touchdown passes. Favre holds the all-time record with 508 TD tosses. Manning is five touchdowns away from tying him.
The 38-year-old fired 399 of those TD passes in Indianapolis and currently has 104 with the Broncos.
Manning figures to surpass Favre's record of 508 TD throws later this month.
In Dallas, Witten joined Tony Gonzalez and Shannon Sharpe as the only tight ends in NFL history with 10,000 yards receiving.
Witten reached the milestone when he caught a 34-yard pass deep over the middle from Tony Romo in the third quarter of Sunday's game at Houston.
The catch put Witten at 10,002 yards in his 12-year career. He finished with 59 yards to put him at 10,014 for his career.
He is the Cowboys' all-time leader with 897 catches, and is second on the franchise' receiving yardage list behind Michael Irvin, who had 11,904 from 1988-99.
Gonzalez, who retired after last season, leads all tight ends with 15,127 yards. Sharpe had 10,060 from 1990 to 2003.
Here's a great story from ESPN.com on Manning's day:
By Jeff Legwold
DENVER -- The last time Julius Thomas caught a slice of history, he tossed the ball aside before being told it would be a good idea to retrieve a record-setting touchdown ball from Peyton Manning.
Thomas had made a mental Post-It note this time, and when he caught Manning's 500th career touchdown pass to close out the Denver Broncos' opening drive Sunday, he held it close before handing the ball off to the team's equipment staff.
"This time I remembered," said Thomas, who also caught Manning's record-setting 51st touchdown pass of the 2013 season. "... This time, no way was I going to forget. I'm just fortunate to have been on the receiving end to the kind of plays people will remember about Peyton Manning."
Manning seems to reach another remember-when thresh-hold each time he throws a pass these days. And when he tossed the 7-yard scoring pass to Thomas with 4 minutes, 43 seconds left in the first quarter Sunday, it made him one of two players in league history to reach the 500-touchdown milestone. Brett Favre, who holds the NFL record with 508 touchdown passes, is the other.
It meant Manning also reached the milestone in just 244 regular-season games. He also finished with a career single-game best 479 yards passing and four touchdowns in Denver's 41-20 victory over the Arizona Cardinals.
Manning added to his total in the second quarter, when he hooked up with Demaryius Thomas on a pair of touchdown passes. The second scoring strike to Thomas went for 86 yards, tied for longest touchdown pass of Manning's career, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
Manning also threw a 12-yard touchdown to Julius Thomas in the fourth quarter, which gave him 503 for his career.
"Throwing touchdowns is a part of playing football," Manning said. "But I guess for me, throwing touchdowns has helped teams I've been a part of win a lot of football games. I don't think I've thrown a lot of touchdowns that didn't mean something. Any time you have a big lead, all the years I played in Indianapolis, the coaches would always take us out and if we were getting bad they'd take us out, so any ones that I've usually thrown usually resulted in our team trying to win the game or win the game so I think about it that way."
"It's pretty incredible what Peyton accomplished," Broncos head coach John Fox said.
Manning has now thrown 104 touchdown passes for the Broncos since he signed with the team before the 2012 season after he had thrown 399 touchdown passes in the regular-season during his tenure with the Indianapolis Colts. Through the week, and as Favre's mark gets closer, Manning has tried to keep the discussion turned toward football.
Following the game, Manning did allow himself at least some time for some reflection.
"I do think about how many people have helped throughout my career with something like that and just how grateful I am for that help and support," Manning said. "Football is the ultimate team game and so I guess one man kind of has to accept it, but I kind of accept on behalf of a lot of coaches and teammates."
Manning has averaged 2.053 scoring passes per game over the course of his career, including 3.5 scoring passes per game in his two-plus seasons with the Broncos.
And the top four quarterbacks not named Manning in terms of touchdown passes thrown in a Broncos uniform -- John Elway (300), Craig Morton (74), Jake Plummer (71) and Brian Griese (71) -- threw 516 combined touchdown passes with the team.
Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians was the Colts' quarterbacks coach in Manning's first three years in the NFL while Arizona assistant head coach/offense Tom Moore was Manning's offensive coordinator in Indianapolis.
"My hat's off to Peyton," Arians said following the game. "He played a great game."
"You take a couple moments and you go down memory lane a little bit," Manning said. "Don't think there are any players still playing from when I threw my first touchdown, but I think it was kind of interesting that two coaches on the Arizona sideline were there for my first game when I threw my first touchdown -- Tom Moore and Bruce Arians -- I give both of those men a lot of credit for helping me improve as a quarterback."
Manning, not one to keep footballs as career mementos, said he would try to find a place for the 500th touchdown before his 3-year-old son Marshall got a hold of the ball. Manning and his wife Ashley have two children, twins Marshall and Mosley.
"I've never kept a football mainly because the receivers have kept them," Manning said. "... I'll probably keep it in bag somewhere, have a little piece of tape around it, it'll have some kind of mark up until Marshall grabs and goes out and plays with it in the mud before too long."
