Legacy an issue for Manning?
Boomer Esiason acknowledges a lot of fans will label Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning a choker if his team loses Sunday night's AFC Championship game against the Patriots.
Esiason doesn't agree with it, but he understands it.
"The perception of the fans is that if he doesn't get to the Super Bowl, he might as well buy a house next to A-Rod, because they're going to be living in the same neighborhood; the neighborhood of guys making the most money without the championship," said Esiason, a former NFL quarterback who is part of "The NFL Today" on CBS.
"It's horrific that these great athletes have to be looked at in that vein. But that's unfortunately the way it's going to be perceived. And if it continues that way for Peyton, he'll have to deal with it much like Marty Schottenheimer. I think it's an injustice. There's a perception out there that if [Manning] doesn't win a Super Bowl, his career's not going to be validated."
Phil Simms, who will be the analyst for the game, says that victory on football's greatest stage often determines a player's legacy.
"It's almost embarrassing to say I played quarterback when I watch [Manning] and Tom Brady and some of these guys in the NFL," said Simms, who led the Giants to victory in Super Bowl XXI. "But we live in this day where the numbers don't matter, it's how many Super Bowls did he win?"
But all signs point to Channel 5, which held the designation for the Patriots' past four appearances in the Super Bowl. The station airs the weekly "Patriots All-Access."
"[The Patriots] put it out for the market to bid on," said Channel 5 general manager Bill Fine. "It's the Patriots' right to decide, but there won't be anything announced until they win the AFC. They're sort of superstitious, so I would think they're going to stay mum. I would hope we'd be with them again, but they've got to answer that."
All the local stations will have reporters in Miami, but Fine said that being dubbed the "official" station means access to the team's headquarters and hotel.
"But once the Patriots step out of their hotel, and on the streets of Miami, they're fair game," he said.
Channel 4, the CBS affiliate that will carry the game, isn't thinking that far ahead, said general manager Ed Piette.
"There's no sense in getting the cart in front of the horse," he said. "We've been working very hard and very diligently on programming leading up to the AFC Championship game; that's our total focus."
Susan Bickelhaupt can be reached at bickelhaupt@globe.com. 
