Manning getting to the Super Bowl is proof of this, just as is Brady having the ball and a chance to win the game and losing it — throwing the big interception that stopped the last-minute drive. In crunch time Sunday, Manning was as good as anyone has ever been. And Brady wasn’t.

And if that can happen to Brady and Manning, it can happen to any of us. Manning’s triumph gives all of us hope. And Brady’s loss makes him human in a way that all of his wins couldn’t.

Joe Montana didn’t win every time out — a couple of years, in fact, he was utterly flogged by the New York Giants in the playoffs. Babe Ruth once made the last out in a World Series by getting caught stealing. Derek Jeter makes outs in big games. Larry Bird missed a free throw now and then. Okay, Michael Jordan won every NBA Finals he played in, but he went a few years in the beginning of his career and more at the end without getting to the championship round.

Manning isn’t out of the woods yet. He still has to win the Super Bowl or risk being the man to set every significant passing record and didn't win a ring. The man whose records he is looking to break, Dan Marino, is saddled forever with the title of best quarterback never to win the big game. He got to it only once, at the beginning of his career, and never got back. And although Marino didn’t always play for great teams, the fact that he never won a title is always part of every discussion of his career.

Marino isn’t the only great quarterback who never won a title. Jim Kelly had four shots at it and lost them all. Fran Tarkenton lost three times. Dan Fouts never even got to the big game. But just because there’s good company among the ranks of the forever disappointed doesn’t mean you want to be one of them.

It's better to be Julius Erving or Walter Payton, great players who waited forever to finally get to a championship and made the most of it when they did.

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That’s where Manning is trying to go. He’s still relatively young, so he doesn’t have the nostalgic appeal that the great Doctor and Sweetness had. But he’s been through a lot of heartbreak, and he’s used it to make himself better. He may have lost, but he never gave up on himself.

There’s a lesson there for all of us.