Super Bowl XLVI is just two days away. The New York Giants vs the New England Patriots from Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Eli Manning vs Tom Brady. Coughlin vs Belichick. Road warriors vs home monsters. New York vs Boston. Super Bowl XLII rematch. Truly how much better can it get? Two teams that are almost at completely opposite poles in terms of football face off for the championship.

Yet, the talk isn’t all about the great match up. Indianapolis is the full focus of Super Sunday, and as a result the man of Indianapolis has to be talked about: Peyton Manning.

I know: I couldn’t avoid talking about this circus. The only Manning focus at this time should be about Eli. It should be about Eli trying to duplicate his Super Bowl XLII run against Brady once again, and the talk about whether Eli has transcended to that ultimate QB level. But because of the Super Bowl being hosted in big brother Peyton’s city, the talk keeps on ending up with Peyton. Is Peyton Manning healthy? Will he play in a Colts uniform once again? Will he ever play football again?

Despite it being the Super Bowl and the fact that all this talk about Peyton can wait a week until the season is over, everyone keeps on asking the same questions and bringing the topic up again and again. And now, I can’t avoid it either. I’ll talk about it for this brief time.

I know, aren’t I annoying? Unfortunately, I must tarry on - and not because I can’t take the constant talk about Peyton. No, it’s about the last interview Peyton Manning gave. It raised intrigue and sparked my curiosity too strongly to avoid writing about this.

Something was wrong. Peyton didn’t seem to be the normal Peyton in that interview. Yes, he looked healthy and was certainly energetic and happy when he talked, but he honestly seemed too happy. He almost seemed nervously happy.

Now, Peyton Manning is by no means a man who will get nervous in an interview. Four MVPs, a Super Bowl ring, two Super Bowl appearances, a Super Bowl MVP, 11 Pro Bowl appearances – heard enough? Peyton Manning knows how to deal with attention and interviews. So, why did he seem to be nervous in his last interview? The usual confident, grinning Peyton wasn’t there. Sure, he was bouncing his head around in amusement and had that usual Peyton likeability to him. But it was different this time. He sped through questions, didn’t answer much of anything about his health, and just seemed like he wanted the interview to be over as quickly as possible. He simply seemed nervous.

Players often don’t give much of a clear-cut answer to anything when they’re being interviewed simply because they can’t always be too honest. They have a mastery of dodging questions by ranting about procedures and spewing the classic expressions, “Only time will tell,” “I’m taking this one day at a time,” “I want to play as soon as possible and I’m taking the path to that.” Okay, maybe the last one is a bit paraphrased, but you get the idea. Players often will say clichés and not give much information simply because they can’t or don’t want to. Sometimes injuries are worse than they want to say or they are ordered by their teams to not give away their hand just yet. Peyton clearly can’t come out and say, “Doctors haven’t confirmed it yet, but I think my body can’t hold up anymore,” or “I’m ready to play, and I will.” He could, but that would be too straight forward, too simple, and too outlandish. And Peyton would never be straight forward about such a crucial injury that causes such a circus about the fate of his playing career. He has to be professional and dodge the tough questions – and he did. But the way he did it was odd and a bit alarming. It was too obvious that he was perturbed by the questions about his health. He seemed to just be trying to put on a fake smile and hope that the interviewer would leave him alone. Adding that onto the fact that his answers didn’t say anything about his recovery process and there were some startling clues in that interview.

Now, I am by no means an expert at interpreting body language. Peyton may have just had some extra sugar before the interview and wanted to speed through it to get back to slapping his little brother across the head. But to me, his demeanor simply wasn’t right. He wasn’t acting like a player with a normal injury and recovery that knows he’s coming back from and is just waiting to heal. What could possibly make Peyton Manning so nervous and worried?

The obvious answer is what is alarming. It seemed like Peyton was so nervously happy because there is a real issue with his health. He very well may not be right anymore. He very well may not ever play in a Colts uniform again. He very well may never step onto the field again.

Nothing about the usual discussions about Peyton ever alarmed me and made me come to such strong conclusions until now. Jim Isray said Peyton won’t be cleared to be play yet; the NFL Network made a report claiming the Colts don’t want to pay Peyton his guaranteed $28 million; Isray and Manning are set to meet after the Super Bowl to discuss Peyton’s future. Yeah, this is all nice, but I haven’t seen or heard much of anything from the man himself to give me an indication about his future. They were all bylines that basically said, “This is the worst development!” even though there was no real development. It was all just reports highlighting relatively normal concerns about money and an injury simply because no one knows the future just yet.

But the interview Peyton himself gave was what was actually something solid. It wasn’t someone speculating about Peyton Manning’s future; it was the man himself talking about his recovery. But he may have revealed too much. He may have lost his cool and had to grin and barrette through. And for a guy like Peyton Manning who pretty much never loses his cool and puts on a fake smile, that’s worrisome. Was he truly worried about his recovery so much that he couldn’t act normal and hide his true emotions? Was he unable to take the usual player path of hiding the real information because things were so bad? Nervousness may not seem like much, but it’s enough information to generate a somewhat realistic hypothesis about a player. It’s a player’s actual emotions and not the narrative that comes from Public Relations or the front office.

In the end, we truly don’t know yet what the real situation is. I, along with so many others, will interpret Peyton’s reactions and interviews, looking so hard for some clues about the reality. But it’s all speculation – including this article. We won’t know what the future holds for Peyton Manning until it’s truly confirmed – until he’s out on the field or stays retired. Until then, all we can do is enjoy the real show from Indianapolis: Super Bowl XLVI. I think we can all live with that show and hold off our questions and concerns about Peyton until Monday. I’ve added enough fuel to the fire with this article. It’s time we all shut our mouths and watch the other Manning show for the next few days.