Denver Broncos

Peyton Manning attributes late-season slump to illness, not age

Published Aug. 25, 2015 12:40 a.m. ET

foxsports

Don't chalk up Peyton Manning's late-season struggles to old age just yet.

Save for a few fingers, the veteran quarterback feels just fine. But that wasn't the case last winter, when No. 18 caught a nasty stomach bug from his daughter and couldn't rebound in the playoffs.

“I threw up all night,” Manning told Peter King of MMQB.com. “Then, in the game, I moved to the right on a simple scramble and my quad cramped on me. It lingered. I couldn’t shake it the rest of the year."

Manning was worried when the Colts bounced his Broncos. He studied the injury vigorously before deciding to return for another NFL season.

"I just think I got dehydrated, and that caused it," Manning said. "It was just an isolated thing. I’ve made it through every other season, and this offseason I went through a state of the union physically, if you will, and I started training earlier and made some dietary changes.”

Added Manning: "I don’t think you can blame it on my age."

(h/t MMQB.com)