Stump the Stiffs: will Peyton Manning retire?

Peyton Manning should ride off into the sunset. It’s the perfect ending to an excellent career, a guy who carried his team year after year and fell short on all but one of them finally has his team carry him to a championship. Yet, what once seemed to be a foregone conclusion is now muddled with indecision and while I think that he should retire, ultimately Peyton should do whatever he wants to do and no one really has the place to say anything different. If he feels that he is healthy enough to be still effective as a starting QB and is willing to confront the possibility of playing somewhere other than Denver then by all means Sheriff, keep on keeping on.

If we could ask just one favor, can you make a decision this week so we can avoid any controversy in our highly competitive Stump the Stiffs contest? Indeed, Peyton’s big decision makes the list of picks this week on StS along with our Denver Nuggets and a few other, as the Kiwi’s would say, choice match ups. In order to close the gap in records between the three teams, the Stiffs staff is busting out the heavy hitters in the upcoming weeks and we’ll start with our founder, the big stiff (and apparently Denver fashion icon) Andrew Feinstein. The Stiffs commenters were not about to be out done and thus they’ve electd one of the longest tenured commenters here on the site, confirmed actual feline, SDcat09. Finally, the Nuggets subreddit has enlisted the help of a guy who pretty much only goes to Reddit to talk about basketball, /u/Orod23. Pick time!

Andrew Feinstein (@afeinst21): I’m going all chalk with the game winners! And yes, Peyton will announce his retirement – albeit VERY hesitantly – within the next week. He will go down in history with a mixed legacy. While on the one hand he is the ONLY quarterback in NFL history to start four Super Bowls with four different coaches and win two Super Bowls with two different teams, his performance in his two Super Bowl wins are among the worst ever for a winning quarterback. That said, he should avoid a Johnny Unitas-on-the-Chargers ending and retire while on top.

SDcat09 (@RoxCat2011): Oh boy. Without Danilo Gallinari (RIP) this becomes much more difficult. BUT the Nets are legitimately worse than the Nuggets. My MVP for the game will be Emmanuel Mudiay. Plus, we deserve a nice thing right now. #insightfulcommentary. Hornets beat Pacers. I think they’ll have the home court advantage. Kemba Walker will be the key to that victory. #insightfulcommentary. Blazers at Raptors is impossible. These teams are so evenly matched. The Blazers have a nice road winning streak under way but I give the edge to the Raptors at home. But it could really go either way. #insightful commentary. Grizzlies at home…because F the Jazz #insightfulcommentary. But really Grizzlies have the advantage because they are at home. Will Peyton Manning announce his retirement in the next week? Yes. #insightfulcommentary.

/u/Orod23: Last game Brooklyn won with a miracle one-legged shot by Joe Johnson. No Joe but no Gallo who had 24 that game. Nuggets allowed 2nd year backup Markel Brown to go off for a career high 19 points. My pick is that the Nuggets get revenge at the Pepsi Center. Going with Hornets against the Pacers. They’ve been playing well lately (especially at home with a mark of 20-9) with loses only to Cavs/Hawks, but two wins over Indy in the last 10 games. Marvelous Marvin Williams has a big game. My pick is for Portland against the Raptors. Blazers have stepped it up as of late, especially with Lillard having dropped 30+ vs NY, Indy & Chicago. Best match up of the night if you ask me. Memphis wins against the Jazz. To the surprise of many, Memphis has not folded since losing Marc Gasol in early February. I believe they’ll pull out a close victory in this one. Peyton retirement – No. Still think he retires but not within the next week. I feel like this announcement should’ve already been made!

And there you have it! Reddit is out on the limb this week, will they recapture the lead or will the commenters become the new front runners? If you'd like to participate, please get in touch with Russ Hamilton (@rscotham) on the commenters side and Alec Gwin (u/IdRatherBeLurking) on the Reddit side. Also a small correction note, back a month ago everyone picked The Revenant to win best picture at the Oscars, since we had to wait a month to find out the result we just awarded everyone a win but now that we know the winner was not The Revenant the scores have been adjusted to reflect that.

If you're keeping score:

Stiffs Staff: 42-48

Stiffs Commenters: 47-43

Nuggets Subreddit: 47-43