How obsessive is Peyton Manning? Even Broncos' keep-away celebration of record-breaking TD was scripted

DENVER – In the end, the Peyton Manning playbook extended all the way to the touchdown celebration.

When Demaryius Thomas dragged his toe into history Sunday night against the San Francisco 49ers – and Manning touchdown No. 509 was in the books – Thomas already knew the call. Manning had gone over the audible the previous Friday: Keep-away, on four … specifically, Thomas, Wes Welker, Emmanuel Sanders and Julius Thomas.

So that's how it went in the Broncos' 42-17 blowout. The quartet gathered around Manning and hot-potatoed the Canton-bound football beyond Manning's reach, with the quarterback gator-arming at each pass and aw-shucking into the cameras. Fans roared in laughter, television analysts swooned and Manning silently delighted in his ruse.

He scored twice on one play. It might have been the most Manning moment in history.

"He actually planned that himself," Demaryius Thomas said with a smile, drawing chuckles from a collection of half-surprised reporters. "He came to me, it was either Thursday or Friday. [He said], 'If anybody scores 509, this is what we should do.'

"So he came to me and said, 'Keep the ball away, hop-scotch or whatever.'

"I was like, 'Cool.'

"So we got everybody in on Friday and we practiced it, and it happened tonight."

There you have it, a perfect little cocoon of Manningocity, dovetailing with all the other yarns and tales about his obsessive genius. Of course Manning prepared the light-hearted celebration. This is who he is. The slant of the spoon in his oatmeal comes with a plan. What more did anyone expect?

Some reporters shook their heads afterward, after having unknowingly witnessed part of the routine on Friday. During stretches, they saw Manning hopping around between some wideouts. It looked odd, like another awkward Manning dance. When the same two-step broke out after the record-setter, it looked very familiar.

Not that Manning didn't try to maintain the façade.

"I can't believe they actually did it," Manning said in a tone that, in retrospect, was a tad hammy. "We sort of joked about it during the week. I'm a little bit hurt by the fact that they could do that – that they're kind of picking on me. I've lost my vertical leap. It's not there anymore. My side-to-side agility is not quite as quick."

Some might be deflated by this – that not even a seemingly real emotional moment could come without a Manning script. But in a weirdly obsessive, maniacal way, this is what makes Peyton Manning who he is. You'd be hard-pressed to find many moments that don't display his football nerdiness. Even Sunday night, in the midst of each and every touchdown – both before and after setting the record – Manning was immersed on the sideline in a stack of black and white snapshots of San Francisco's defensive alignments.

"That doesn't surprise me at all," Thomas said. "He's always going to be on it. He knew what was going on the whole time."

Maybe that's the most apt description of Manning. He's the guy who always seems to know what is going on.

That's why he gets a lion's share of the credit for inventing the "check-with-me" revolution, in which the most elite quarterbacks are allowed to change or call plays at the line of scrimmage. It's why he gets credit for popularizing the 60-minute version of the hurry-up offense, which operates at a tempo that decimates defenses. And that's why you heard stories about offensive rookies getting calls from Manning on draft day in order to set their first 1-on-1 workouts with him … sometimes scheduled for the day after they are selected. And it's why opposing defensive players say he's the one they worry about, first and always.

Guys like Broncos cornerback Aqib Talib, who faced Manning when he played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New England Patriots. Talib said facing Manning is as bad as it gets in the NFL.

"You don't even have to worry about the receiver when you're going against Peyton," Talib said. "You got to worry about him. He checks off of what the cornerback is doing. He'll put the ball on the money – he's definitely a problem."

Right up until Manning pulled his hot-potato theatrics, media spent the week combing over Manning's career to find a defining snapshot of his relentless pursuit of perfection. One that has always stuck out happened many years ago, by virtue of Indianapolis Colts wideout Reggie Wayne.

At the time, Wayne was relating the moments that made him realize how special Manning was. In particular was a game against the Buffalo Bills early in Wayne's career. With the Colts in the red zone, Manning looked over the defense and saw an opportunity. So he looked in Wayne's direction and gave a signal for a play that hadn't been in the Colts' playbook for years. Still, Wayne knew what Manning was looking for.

He nodded to Manning. The ball was snapped. A touchdown ensued.

Sunday night was no different. Not if you witnessed the first touchdown of Manning's career, which looked remarkably familiar more than 16 years later. No. 1 came on a 6-yard lob, with Manning freezing Miami Dolphins cornerback Terrell Buckley with a hard pump-fake, then placing the ball just where wideout Marvin Harrison could grab it and touch his toes inside the end zone's right sideline.

Manning's record-setting 509th? Perfect symmetry, finding almost the exact spot in the end zone, from almost the same distance out (8-yard line), and with Thomas touching his toe just as Harrison had on Sept. 6, 1998.

The only difference now is that instead of throwing a meaningless touchdown in a shipwrecked season, Manning is arguably on top. And that's where this little bit of history ends and the rest of Manning's career begins.

As nice as it is to sit atop the all-time touchdown pass list, it comes with a troubling reality: Take Manning, Favre and Dan Marino – Nos. 1, 2 and 3 on the all-time passing touchdown list – and add their careers up. In 50 NFL seasons between them, that first-ballot Hall of Fame trio has a grand total of two Super Bowl wins.

Undoubtedly, this is what makes all these touchdown passes the penultimate goal. Like the little act with his receivers, it's the stuff of counterfeit celebration and well-rehearsed theater.

Peyton Manning has the wins. He has his statistics. And he has voluminous tales of wow. But the next Super Bowl ring is still out there. And for years it has been the only thing that Manning can't script into submission.