During Peyton Manning’s retirement press conference, Denver Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak recalled the difficult decisions he had to make at quarterback this past season.

On November 15, 2015 in the third quarter of a 29-13 loss to the Chiefs, Kubiak made his decision. After a troubling, injury filled, nine weeks of poor performance from Manning, Kubiak benched “The Sherrif.”

“We had had a rough day against Kansas City. I knew he wasn’t feeling good. I knew his foot was hurting,” Kubiak said. “We went into my office and I said, ‘You’re going to get well.’ He was not real happy with that, not real happy.”

Manning spent a couple of weeks with his foot in a cast and could be seen haunting the sidelines at home games wearing it. In December, the cast came off and Manning started the steep climb back into his starting role.

“He comes out of the cast and we sit down and I said, ‘ok what’s the next step what do we do here?’” Kubiak said. “He (Manning) said, ‘Well it’s time to go back to work. I’m going to come back. I want to play. I want to finish this thing out the right way.’”

Upon returning to practice Manning made the decision to practice apart from the team.

“I’ll never forget what he told me that day, he (Manning) said ‘Listen, I don’t want to be a distraction. I’m not ready to play yet,’” Kubiak recalled. “’If I go back on that field with the team it’s going to be all about me. You keep everybody focused on the team, I’ll get myself well.’”

With three staff members accompanying him, in a separate practice area, Manning worked to make his return. Kubiak would lead the team in practice and at the end of every day he would watch a recording of Manning’s practice.

“We went through this process for a few weeks and as we went through that process there were some highs and lows,” Kubiak said. “There was one setback if I recall, but we kept pushing and all of a sudden it was different. I knew he felt like it was time, that he was ready to play that he was in the right place.”

The definitive signal to Kubiak came during one of Manning’s recorded practice sessions via a certain hand gesture that could only be interpreted in a couple of ways.

“During the workout, he sent me a signal through the film. ‘Hey you’re number one!’ you can take it that way,” Kubiak said. “I took it as, ‘I’m ready to play coach, ok.” So as I was heading home that night, I texted him. I said, “Hey the workout looked great today and, oh by the way, I got the signal.”

Manning returned on January 3 in the third quarter against San Diego. He came in with the Broncos trailing 13-7 and immediately got to work, leading the team to a 27-20 victory.

“What he proceeded to do over the course of next month in leading these players, this football team, and the coaches and push everybody was the difference in how we ended up as a football team,” Kubiak said.

The rest, as they say, is history. Manning led the Broncos to victory in Super Bowl 50 and became the oldest quarterback ever to win the big game.

“So I have the utmost respect for what you did, the utmost respect. On behalf of myself, the coaches, the players, everybody in this organization, thanks for doing it,” Kubiak said. “I know it was tough and you were special along the way. So it was only nine months for me but I’ll remember it for a lifetime.”

Listen to the full story in the podcast below…

https://soundcloud.com/milehighsportspodcasts/gary-kubiak-shares-hilarious-story-about-peyton-mannings-injury-during-mannings-retirement