Mannings OK with Luck

ATLANTIC CITY - Ever since the Indianapolis Colts' season vanished down the tubes, about the same time Andrew Luck emerged as an absolute lock to become the first overall selection in the 2012 NFL draft, the Luck and Manning families have been answering questions about their uncomfortable juxtaposition.

They hadn't been answering them in the same room, until the magic of the 75th annual Maxwell Club Awards brought Luck, the Stanford quarterback, and Archie Manning, the patriarch of America's royal quarterbacking family, together yesterday at a news conference at Harrah's. They also were scheduled to share space at the evening banquet, Luck honored as the Maxwell award winner (college player of the year), Manning receiving the Reds Bagnell Award for contributions to football.

"I tried to get Peyton here," said Maxwell president and former Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski, who has a keen eye for what might bring the venerable institution a little more publicity. "I was with Peyton at the Super Bowl. Obviously, Archie being his dad, I said it'd be good to come down and honor your dad and be here, but obviously, he's got some things that are a little bit more important right now, like getting healthy. But I had envisioned Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck on that dais . . . It'd be a pretty good photo to have, with those two guys."

Luck just spent several days at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis, where he performed in Peyton Manning's shadow literally as well as figuratively. No. 18's photo adorns the front of Lucas Oil Stadium, where the Colts play and the combine is held. Images of the man who might be the best QB of all time also dot the interior of the cavernous arena, as you might expect.

"The Mannings are unbelievable people," Luck said yesterday. He attended their QB camp as an eighth-grader, then served as a counselor there the past two summers - all before he became Peyton's heir apparent. The Colts are expected to release Manning, instead of paying him a $28 million bonus due if he is still on the roster, this coming Thursday. "People do speculate. It's part of the business, how this world works today. Whatever happens will happen for the best, and I'm sure it will work out."

Luck also comes from a football family; he is the son of Oliver Luck, the former West Virginia quarterback, currently the athletic director there, who also played for the Houston Oilers.

"I'm comfortable [being in the same room]. I know Andrew, I know his dad extremely well, they're great people," Archie Manning said. "There's not going to be any trouble between the Lucks and the Mannings. I'm sure they feel just like I do - this thing'll work out . . . We're all crazy about Andrew."

Archie acknowledged that last summer, watching Andrew throw and supervise at the Manning Passing Academy in Thibodaux, La., he had no idea how fate would twist.

"If you followed the Colts over the last decade or so, they usually won about 12 games a year. All of a sudden, they had a year where they won two and got the first pick in the draft. I'm not sure anybody predicted that, but that's football," Archie said. "It's oblong and it bounces funny."

Luck said the Manning camp "was a great experience."

"The Mannings do such a great job of letting college quarterbacks get together, and coach[ing] these kids, and [letting them] sort of congregate as a fraternity of quarterbacks, per se . . . They're the nicest family," he said.

Luck has been reluctant to talk about the Colts' situation; they haven't yet released Manning, and of course, they haven't officially drafted Luck.

"I think you handle your own business and you don't really worry about whatever else is going on," he said. "There's a long way to go before anything happens. I don't really pay attention to what's said. If [getting drafted by the Colts] happens, great. If it doesn't, great . . . I'm not getting caught up in things before they happen."

Theoretically, of course, the Colts could draft Luck to understudy Manning - though a rebuilding team paying $28 million to try to squeeze 1 more year out of a 36-year-old quarterback who didn't play last season because of career-threatening neck surgery would be pretty darned unusual.

"I think you make it work, whatever situation you find yourself in," Luck said. "I'm sure it would be fine."

"I can't speak for Peyton, but we've all thought this through - that's not the Colts team he left," Jaworski said. "It's totally different. It's a new coaching staff. It's obvious they're going in a different direction. If you're Peyton Manning, do you want to go through what you went through 14 years ago, getting beat up for 16 games, before the supporting cast comes along, and then you're 39 and you're done?"

An Indianapolis Star report yesterday said Peyton Manning, working out in Florida, has seen his arm strength return. Earlier, nerve problems associated with his injury had limited his velocity. Archie Manning said he last saw Peyton throw in New Orleans a few weeks ago and "he looked like Peyton. We'll see what happens."

Peyton probably will always be the greatest Colt (in their Indianapolis incarnation, anyway), but Archie indicated his son realizes being a surefire Hall of Famer doesn't mean you get to wear the uniform as long as you want. He said Peyton "gets it" and "is a big boy."

To hear Luck tell it, he barely realized he was in Manning's lair at the combine.

"I was focused on myself. It was a job interview being up there for the combine," he said. "I approached it as a business trip . . . it wasn't hard to stay focused on that task at hand."

Jaworski said he thought Luck could handle the Manning legacy with aplomb.

"This kid is beyond-his-years mature," Jaworski said. "He gets it. There are some guys, they never get it. This guy, at a young age, maybe because of Oliver, and his mom, Kathy, and being around the game - this is a special dude, he really is."

Luck said if he ended up chatting with Archie at the Maxwell dinner, he would just "see where the conversation leads, I guess. I haven't planned out things to ask."

Contact Les Bowen at bowenl@phillynews.com or @LesBowen on Twitter. Read the Daily News' Eagles blog at www.eagletarian.com.