-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ⌂SportsChargers / NFL NFL Insider: Kids will defer to Peyton Manning or Tom Brady 10:01 a.m.Jan. 3, 2013Updated5:45 p.m. Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning, left, and New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, right, meet after the Patriots' 31-21 win in their NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2012, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ⌂SportsChargers / NFL NFL Insider: Kids will defer to Peyton Manning or Tom Brady 10:01 a.m.Jan. 3, 2013Updated5:45 p.m. ⎙Print 🔖Save 💬Comments 7 Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning, left, and New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, right, meet after the Patriots' 31-21 win in their NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2012, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) — AP ✉7 Comments Watch out for the old guys. Everybody’s all about the kid passers who’ve reached the Super Bowl tournament that opens Saturday in Houston. Underclassmen are quarterbacking half of the 12 teams, and it's been a fun show already from the freshmen, Robert Griffin III, Andrew Luck and Russell Wilson. Along with sophomores Andy Dalton, Colin Kaepernick and Christian Ponder, the rookies aspire for New Orleans, where the Super Bowl will be contested on Feb. 3. Joe Flacco has never reached a Super Bowl, and two of the other veteran QBs who are still playing, Matt Ryan and Matt Schaub, are without playoff victories. The Been There, Done That crowd numbers three: Tom Brady , Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers, who've all won the Lombardi Trophy. They and three other active quarterbacks – Ben Roethlisberger, Eli Manning and Drew Brees -- have collected the last nine Lombardis. A Super Bowl newbie from the NFC, we foresee, will make it to New Orleans -- but he’ll lift a gumbo spoon, not the trophy. It’ll be either Brady, 35, or Manning, 36, raising the silver football, assuming their old bodies haven’t given out by then. Having the best team helps, and with the 49ers weakened by recent injuries to Justin Smith and Mario Manningham, Manning’s Broncos and Brady’s Patriots have the most horsepower in the field. The rookies will catch our eye, too. The first weekend’s most compelling matchup features Griffin III and Russell Wilson, in a D.C. duel that sure beats Obama-Boehner. We deemed Griffin III the rookie of the year, though by only a sliver over Luck/Manning 2.0. But because the better defense is Seattle's, look for Wilson and the Seahawks to prevail on Sunday. A few words about Wilson, who would’ve been my Rookie of the Year in many other seasons. At 24 he's older than many NFL sophomores, among them Chargers lineman Corey Liuget, a 2011 draftee who's 17 months his junior. If diversity of recent performance matters, Wilson is even further ahead of the rookie curve. Only two winters ago he quarterbacked Philip Rivers U (North Carolina State) to a bowl victory over West Virginia, and was in Pasadena last January guiding Wisconsin to 38 points. Unfortunately for the Badgers, favored Oregon scored 45 to win the Rose Bowl, but the outing capped a 27-game stretch for Wilson in which he led two different schools to a total of 20 victories. In those two years, he also played minor league baseball in either Washington state or North Carolina. Impressed more by his athletic intangibles than his baseball skill, the Colorado Rockies had paid him $250,000 after drafting him in 2010. We'd like to think that the Champs Sports Bowl changed its name to the Russell Athletic Bowl to honor Wilson, its final MVP.

Manning, Lewis prepare for final matchup with plenty on the line Updated: 2:38 p.m. They will probably lock eyes more than a few times Saturday, one of the best offensive players of his generation staring straight ahead at one of the era's best defenders. For a generation of football fans, the Broncos' Peyton Manning and Ravens' Ray Lewis defined their positions. One is the cerebral quarterback, cool in the most difficult of situations. The other is a speech-giving linebacker, equal parts instinct, fury and film study. They'll spend the game trying to out-think each other, as always, and pushing toward an AFC Divsional round win.