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The legendary Peyton Manning announced his retirement on Monday. Most media analysts and NFL fans were effusive in their praise of the Super Bowl champion and former quarterback for both the Indianapolis Colts and Denver Broncos. Steelers running back DeAngelo Williams had a more comprehensive assessment of Manning.
On Twitter, he wrote:
Look Peyton is a hall of fame qb who couldn't play dead in a western last year but career over all is astonishing but last year was
— DeAngelo Williams (@DeAngeloRB) March 7, 2016
Williams took a lot of heat on Twitter for his evaluation of Manning's final season. He also took the time to respond personally to his many critics.
And this my tweeple is why I speak the truth because the body of work supersedes "what have u did lately" I guess https://t.co/oP2eGV8N2Z
— DeAngelo Williams (@DeAngeloRB) March 7, 2016
I never said Peyton was average but he wasn't close to that last year u should prob catch up https://t.co/heyHIzAO2M
— DeAngelo Williams (@DeAngeloRB) March 7, 2016
He also explained his line of thinking:
It bothersme whenkey playersget a pass fora terrible season because of greatcareers while others are judgedin the momentwith less accolades
— DeAngelo Williams (@DeAngeloRB) March 7, 2016
Williams is right: Manning played horribly his final season. The Broncos ended up winning the Super Bowl, but that was in spite of Manning, not because of him. In fact, without the Denver defense, the team would have been mediocre at best.
Williams took a lot of heat for his comments, but not as much as Lindsay Jones of USA Today who had the guts to ask Manning about allegations of sexual assault in 1996.
Reporter asks Manning about sexual assault, fanboy reporters say she's "regretting" it as she's being harassed. pic.twitter.com/smWo1P2qcM
— AJ Dellinger (@ajdell) March 8, 2016
Peyton Manning starts to answer question about sexual assault allegations and then... the ESPN feed cut out https://t.co/WjI1Oz8f68
— Amara Grautski (@AmaraGrautski) March 7, 2016