Presented here is arguably the most significant Peyton Manning Colts jersey to ever hit the auction block, hailing from the game in which the legendary quarterback reached 50,000 career passing yards. Indianapolis hosted the New York Jets at Lucas Oil Stadium on December 27, 2009, with a chance at a perfect season, having run off 14 straight wins to start the season. Manning entered the contest needing 159 yards to join the elite 50K Club which, at the time, had only three members: Marino, Elway and Favre.
With the AFC’s #1 seed locked up, the Colts seemed more concerned about their health and pulled several starters, including Manning, leading 15-10 late in the 3rd quarter. But not before Peyton hit the milestone mark. He finished an efficient 14-of-21 with 192 yards before giving way to backup Curtis Painter. The Jets rallied for a 29-15 victory, a must-win to keep their playoff hopes alive. The two teams would meet again in the AFC Championship where the fully committed Colts won convincingly to earn a trip to the Super Bowl. If not for another future Hall of Famer named Drew Brees, Peyton would have a third title on his resume. As for the 2009 campaign, Manning threw for 4,500 yards and 33 TD’s to take home his 2nd straight MVP. He is currently the all-time leader in passing yards with 71,940.
The blue Reebok mesh/knit jersey shows evenly distributed wear throughout. Inside the rear collar is a strip tag with “09-50” for the year and size. The Reebok NFL Equipment label appears on the left tail with 4” L.B. and size 50 flag tags. Manning's iconic No. 18 appears on the front, back and both shoulders in white tackle twill. "MANNING" appears across the back also in white over a blue nameplate. The sleeves have blue and white knitted shoulder stripes along with the embroidered Reebok logo patch. On the v-neck is the NFL Equipment shield patch, with his Captain “C” patch embroidered on the right upper chest (three gold stars and one white). Manning has signed the back in 9/10 black marker with “game used” inscribed.
Fresh to the market, the jersey has been conclusively photo-matched to the 12/27/09 milestone game by the experts at MeiGray using three Getty images (95424990, 95425021 and 95425339). Two of these plus five other printed 8x10 game photos are included with the MeiGray LOA. The autograph and inscription come with a Steiner COA and are pre-certified by PSA/DNA.
See the moment he surpasses 50K yards here:
http://www.nfl.com/m/share?p=%2Fvideos%2Fnfl-game-highlights%2F09000d5d8154c346%2FPeyton-Manning-hits-50-000-yards