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Peyton's place
Published: 1/21/2007 10:12 PM
Last Modified: 1/21/2007 10:12 PM

As an objective member of the media, am I allowed to be happy for Peyton Manning? I was rooting for Manning to get to a Super Bowl because of first-hand (make that cracked hand) exposure to the Indianapolis Colts quarterback.
Manning came to Tulsa a few years ago to be honored as the male recipient of the Henry P. Iba Citizen Athlete Award.
We shook hands and the thing that I immediately noticed was his hands seemed nearly as big as those in front of Oral Roberts University.
Also, when Manning gripped my hand to shake, it felt like someone was applying crescent wrenches to my finger bones. The man could challenge wrestling/boxing legend Danny Hodge, who crushes apples in his hand, for humanity's most devastating handshake.
Manning is considered too good to be true (that's probably why he didn't win the Heisman as a college senior), but it's hard to get a feel for someone if all you know about them is what you see or read in the media. You can get a better idea of what makes a person tick if you can look them in the eye.
Manning, who sat at the Tulsa World's table during the Iba Awards, was nothing but classy before and during the ceremony.
The first time I tried to contact him for a pre-event interview, he called me on my cell phone while I was covering a state track meet and I politely told him I was too busy to talk because I was watching high school kids from Duncan and Ardmore run and jump.
Many pro athletes would have taken offense and said "we do this now, or we do it never." Manning offered to call back at a better time, and he did, and we talked about stuff like how he turned out to Mr. Clean even though his New Orleans neighbors used to be folks like horror author Anne Rice and Nine Inch Nails weirdo Trent Reznor.
Who says nice guys have to finish last?



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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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