But his Super Bowl-winning season earned a thumbs-down from DeAngelo Williams.
A running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Williams spent much of his day on Twitter ripping Manning's final campaign and battling with commenters who questioned his timing, his own accomplishments and plenty more.
Williams is no one-dimensional hate machine. Indeed, he's well known for lending his voice and his image to the fight against breast cancer, a disease that's impacted his mother and other family members.
For these actions, Williams has justly earned praise — but he didn't offer many compliments in regard to Manning's last lap.
The following tweet set off the debate thanks to its blunt message and use of emoticons denoting putrid crap.
Tweeters on the Peyton bandwagon quickly took notice and fired back. One person wrote: "He was better than all the QBs you had Cam, Pike, delhomme, and clause. Didn't y'all have St. Pierre as well?"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
Here's Williams's reply:
Another person responded: "If @DeAngeloRB thinks Jimmy Clausen was ever better than Peyton Manning, the league should drug test him daily."Overall yes but last year no I can name every college qb who threw the ball better than him last year https://t.co/UkPyWtxzyB
— DeAngelo Williams (@DeAngeloRB) March 7, 2016
To that, Williams shot back with statistics about Clausen, a former Notre Dame hurler who's failed to make a significant mark in the NFL thus far....
...before adding this....Look at 2010 jimmy stats vs Peyton manning 2015 stats not including wins and then apologize to me later https://t.co/XfxK9eNR8Y
— DeAngelo Williams (@DeAngeloRB) March 7, 2016
...and this: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
I know because by career Peyton is a hall of gamer and I'm just another good player that played and I love it https://t.co/nO90g7kfIl
— DeAngelo Williams (@DeAngeloRB) March 7, 2016
The invective pissed off another message-sender, as witnessed by this tweet: "So negative. I used to be a fan. Feel like I can't wear 34 anymore."
That didn't bother Williams, who commented like so:
This judgment was even harsher: "100 years from now Manning name will be on buildings — your name will be on a gravestone."I know a lot of people who would like that jersey so sell it it's better than u keeping something u don't want https://t.co/wIJXDeEWav
— DeAngelo Williams (@DeAngeloRB) March 7, 2016
Nonetheless, Williams shrugged off the insult, tweeting this:
And so will yours so how would u know sounds like we all will lmao https://t.co/YsN2HFRZAW
— DeAngelo Williams (@DeAngeloRB) March 7, 2016
But he took umbrage to the person who tweeted, "Break a leg next year! Literally. Overrated trash ass."
His comeback:
Rather than playing the sympathy card, however, he brought the conversation to a de facto conclusion with the following graphic.Wow come on man trash talk is one thing health is another but Ishoukdnt expect u to care for humanity #wow https://t.co/gZUuXOgRNU
— DeAngelo Williams (@DeAngeloRB) March 7, 2016
We're guessing even Peyton Manning might have found that funny.Now I;m moving on if this applies to u fill it out and mail it to me at the facility pic.twitter.com/g5zQ2P91uI
— DeAngelo Williams (@DeAngeloRB) March 7, 2016