"Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk sat at a table inside Lucas Oil Stadium, the massive state-of-the-art facility that dominates the city landscape.

Faulk knows who built this.

"Peyton Manning," he said.

"Without Peyton, this stadium wouldn't be here. The Super Bowl wouldn't be here. Peyton's brilliance and the consistency of winning afforded the Colts the opportunity to build this stadium. And it's a huge stadium. It looks out of place. It's so big, it looks like it doesn't belong in this city. But the giant that Peyton is, he brought this giant of a building here."

Though Manning hasn't played a down of football all season while rehabbing from his third neck operation, the Indianapolis Colts quarterback is still the No. 1 story of Super Bowl week.

The four-time NFL Most Valuable Player is hovering over the New York Giants, the New England Patriots and his little brother, Eli. Even when he's not there, this stadium remains Peyton's place.

Eli Manning is fine with that. He's five years younger than Peyton. He's comfortable with Peyton's status as the alpha Manning. It's been that way since childhood, when Peyton would hold Eli down and make him recite all of the football teams in the SEC. That assignment accomplished, Peyton would demand that Eli name all of the NFL teams. And only then would he allow Eli to get up."