NEW YORK — Given their success at raising champions, if Archie and Olivia Manning had produced girls instead, they probably would've named them Venus and Serena.

Instead, they had Peyton and Eli, who grew up, became Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks and went from boys to Manning. In the annals of famous brotherhood, this accomplishment is off the charts. No other brothers can compare. In the political world, the royal family was the Kennedys, except only John got his own airport. In the musical world, where the Jacksons ruled, only Michael could hold a tune for very long.

In the sports world, Peyton won a Super Bowl and Eli won a Super Bowl. Think about that for a moment. You can have your 100 points in a game, or 56-game hitting streak, or undefeated season or whatever. Having brothers go 2-for-2 in back-to-back years in the big game and both win MVP is the record we'll never see matched or beaten in our lifetime.

"It wasn't in the plan," Archie Manning said.

Two quarterbacks share the same position, the same trophy, the same blood. We've had our share of sensational siblings in sports, just none like this. Mostly, we get the likes of John and Patrick McEnroe, one superior talent and the other one just OK. Obviously, it's quite a feat for two brothers or two sisters or a brother and a sister just to reach the highest level of any sport. When both manage to win the biggest prize arguably in professional sports, well, that's called breaking the sperm bank.

"It just happened," said Archie, who quarterbacked the Saints.

Archie had three boys. The oldest, Cooper, a standout wide receiver in high school, couldn't continue in sports because of health issues. The other two stuck with it. They all say their father never pushed any of them toward sports or football or the quarterback position. Archie says he gave them tips only when they asked. He never took a proactive approach, mainly because he wanted to make sure they gravitated to sports because they wanted to, not because he asked them to. He didn't want to burden them with any expectations and therefore take the fun out of sports.

In hindsight, it was a genius move, because the Manning boys never suffered burnout along the way. They didn't come home one day and exchange their helmet for a first baseman's glove. They saw what their father did for a living and no doubt were motivated by it. What little boy wouldn't be? And yet, "My dad never put any pressure on me," said Eli, who was 3 when Archie retired from the NFL. "All he did was support me."

There's also something Archie couldn't give his boys, even if he wanted to: the mental toughness needed to become championship quarterbacks.

For years, beginning in college at Tennessee and continuing through his first several years in the NFL, Peyton dealt with the publicly issued tag of "never winning the big one" and never buckled from it. Eli was dealt a double whammy: being criticized for manipulating the draft and getting himself traded from the Chargers to the Giants, then coping with the demands that come with playing in New York. He might be comparing Super Bowl rings today with brother Ronde. Who else? Phil and Joe Niekro? Jose and Ozzie Canseco? The Alou brothers?

Sorry. Little boys everywhere fantasize about playing quarterback and winning Super Bowls. It's the American Sports Dream. Two boys from the same family lived it and we lived to see it.

"We just raised kids just like other parents raised their kids," Archie said. "I can't