When I asked to see the sports section of the newspaper, my husband left his coffee and oatmeal, opened the back door and peered heavenward. "Just checking," he smiled, "to see if a bolt of lightning is headed our way."

OK, so I never read the sports section, but I've gotten interested in the Manning boy, Peyton, quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts, playing tonight against Manning's dad's old team, the New Orleans Saints, in the Super Bowl face-off.

In "the way back," as my children call stories of their parents' youth, my husband, Paul, and I were in New Orleans, eating in a local spot.

A young Archie Manning, Peyton's father, walked in with his pretty wife, Olivia.

There was a round of applause. Manning shook a few hands, patted a couple of backs, pulled out a chair for Olivia and they sat down to eat. They looked like Barbie and Ken, in a good way.

I like the ethos of the Manning family, two sons who play professional football and one brother who doesn't, but is comfortable out of the spotlight, a mother, grounding her tribe of boys in spite of media attention and adoring fans.

No one in the family has needed rehab for a sexual addiction or failed drug tests, and the boys go antiquing with their mom in the off-season.

Tonight will not be Peyton Manning's first Sunday in a Super Bowl. He walked away with the most valuable player nod in the XLI game. (I read that in a sports column.)

Archie, his dad, quarterback for the Saints in the 1970s, played through "lean years" for New Orleans, but never enjoyed a winning season.

Archie and Olivia still live in New Orleans, and residents of the city are quick to praise the Mannings for their support of the city in the aftermath of "Katrina."

Their housekeeper, Julia Fountain, now 81, was interviewed recently as part of the media blitz before tonight's Super Bowl game. She recalled young Peyton as a boy with "a humble spirit about him," saying she thought he might grow up to be a preacher. Mrs. Fountain has been an extended arm of the family since Peyton was 6 months old.

Tonight's game brings with it the human interest side of football, a match-up of a quarterback who holds his team's record for completed and touchdown passes, squaring off against his old hometown team, the Saints, who have come to symbolize the grit of New Orleans and have helped to give the city its comeback mantra.

In perusing sports columns, I came across opining by a writer who claims Peyton cannot be considered one of "the greats of professional football" because he has won only one championship for his team.

"We love our magic," the sports writer explained, "and Peyton Manning has had great moments, but never the magical performance on the grand stage of the playoffs."

As example, he expounded on "the magic" of Joe Namath, playing for the Jets in Super Bowl III, calling the shots for his team's victory.

"Forty one years later, we're still talking about that game," he gushed, convinced die-hard fans continue to reminisce about "the magic catch" in another game, Joe Montana passing to a teammate with less than a minute to play, that touchdown play clinching a championship for Montana's team, the San Francisco 49ers.

Since I have never watched four complete quarters of a Super Bowl game, I haven't been privy to "the magic," but Joe Namath with his wrecked knees might tell us it exacts its price.

The faithful hold fast to the "wow" moments in football, but, in a reality postscript, we find Archie and Olivia Manning ever-present as their two sons go about the business of playing football, a game never granting their father a championship season.

Peyton Manning's parents remind us sports magic fades to an afterglow and life requires a new definition for graceful performances on the grand stage.

Judy Elliott is an award-winning columnist from Marietta.