Permit me to take a small shot at Tom Brady, who I have often said wonderful things about.
Rather than hanging out in LA with a world famous model, hobnobbing with celebrities and bad-mouthing the work ethic from his teammates, Peyton Manning has spent the bulk of this off-season in Indianapolis. When he has not been in Indianapolis, working with undrafted rookie receivers or veterans (like Anthony Gonzalez) fighting their way back from injury, Big P has been to places like Jackson, MS raising $335,000 for at-risk children.
Recently, Peyton was honored for this kind of work with the Youthlinks Indiana National Pathfinder Award.
"It's neat," Manning told the Associated Press. "You know this morning we were all together down in Jackson, Miss., for something Eli was doing and it's not often we all get to be together like that. But it's really an honor to be here to get this award."...
"You know no one wants to go to the hospital and go to the doctor, but if we can give them some sense of being comfortable there, helping them, that's what we want to do," Manning said. "You don't know how much it means every time we get a letter from a parent about their visit."
Yeah, I kind of like our team's quarterback.
I'm sure Tom Brady does some good charity work as well, but if the off-season scenarios of Brady and Manning had been flipped (with Peyton hanging out in LA and badmouthing teammates while Brady worked in New England in-between trips to charity events for at-risk kids), you'd hear more Harrumphing from fatheads like Yahoo! Sports' Jason Cole or the entire network known as "ESPN."
However, when Tommy Terrific seems hypocritical while Peyton works like a maniac both on and off the field, barely a peep.
Makes you wonder, doesn't it?