Manning family ready for 'Brothers Bowl' this Sunday in New York

INDIANAPOLIS -- Peyton Manning hoped one training camp interview session would end the questions about Sunday's "Brothers Bowl."\nAs his New York brother might say: Forget about it.\nWith Gotham's most hyped brotherly battle since perhaps the DiMaggios, the Manning vs. Manning affair has become the opening weekend's marquis matchup -- much to the family's chagrin.\n"They've both said it's a game between two teams, and it is," father Archie Manning said during Peyton's recent bowling tournament in Indianapolis. "The media is trying to make it out to be Tiger vs. Phil or something, but it's not like that."\nCertainly the Manning clan would prefer to downplay the first-ever football meeting between Eli and Peyton -- Archie's sons who were both taken No. 1 overall in their respective draft classes.\nPeyton, the two-time MVP, tried to diffuse the situation the first week of training camp when he answered the questions he expected from the moment schedule-makers put the Giants-Colts game in prime time on Week 1. Afterward, Peyton said he wouldn't talk about it again.\nGood luck. The blackout will undoubtedly end when Peyton holds his usual Wednesday news conference today. While Peyton and Eli have attempted to focus on the bigger picture -- such as the importance an opening day win might have on their teams' playoff hopes -- others, including the league itself, have used the obvious storyline to their marketing advantage.\nIn the NFL's Kickoff Weekend packet, page 55 is headlined "Manning vs. Manning an NFL QB First."\nSo much for the Giants and Colts.\n"Well, that's the era we live in," Archie said. "There will be a lot of hype, and I'm proud of the way the boys are handling it."\nRelying on 14 years of NFL experience and nine more as an NFL father, Archie Manning has tried to keep things in perspective as the sibling rivalry looms. He's not saying whether the family has scheduled a sewing project to create those trendy half-Giants, half-Colts shirts, and, like his boys, insists Sunday night's matchup really is more than a family affair.\nThe duel has created some intriguing family planning, though.\nLast month, Peyton said he'd already taken care of most ticket requests because Giants players had a limited supply.\nArchie also wouldn't say whether similar comments coming from his sons in New York and Indianapolis were choreographed. Peyton and Eli both said during the preseason they're more concerned with the opposing defensive ends than their own slugfest.\nAnd Peyton believes his father merely wants a high-scoring game rather than picking one son to win and the other to lose.\n"I think my mom will pull for both of us to stay healthy and my dad will pull for a lot of offense," Peyton said.\nThe game itself has a little something for everyone, even those with a different surname.\nColts coach Tony Dungy points to the three Pro Bowl defensive ends, the potent offenses and the playoff-type atmosphere he expects Sunday night.\nPeyton's teammates have another take. They aren't planning to give their quarterback's younger brother the kid-glove treatment.\n"We can't hit ours, so we've got to hit one of them," Colts defensive end Robert Mathis said as the talk began in earnest Monday.\nIt might not be the genteel stuff Archie and Olivia Manning hoped for. Then again, Archie, understands. This is football, and quarterbacks have to take their licks -- even his sons.\nFor the record, Peyton said he hasn't lost to Eli in a sporting event since a pickup basketball game when he was playing at Tennessee and Eli was still living at home. This time, the stakes are much higher, much grander and the loser might have to live with the legacy for not days but years. The Giants and Colts aren't scheduled to meet again until 2010.\nOf course, they could always meet before that on the NFL's grandest stage: the Super Bowl.\nPeyton has tried to lighten the moment with humor.\n"I think he (Eli) wishes I was playing defense and Plaxico Burress was covered by Peyton," he said last month. "I'd take advantage of that, too."\nBut teammates and coaches of the Mannings wouldn't mind if one could offer a few secrets about the other.\n"Absolutely," Dungy said Monday. "We're in this to win, and I'm sure they are, too. Really, Peyton's more concerned with their defense and how to block those two guys (Michael Strahan and Osi Umenyiora) and what we will do on offense. I'm sure they're the same way."\nSo what will Archie be doing Sunday night?\n"I don't know how I'll feel; we've never done this before," he said. "But I look at it as an honor, and we're going to have fun with it. Everybody's hoping for a good game and that nobody gets hurt"