Sometimes you have to step back to realize you are in the midst of a special time. That's what it is every game Tom Brady and Peyton Manning face each other.

It is Ali vs. Frazier. It is Bird vs. Magic. It is Palmer vs. Nicklaus. It is another page of football history whenever they meet.

It doesn't matter if it is a regular-season showdown like last Sunday's prime-time meeting or a playoff game or for the AFC championship. Sometimes you can get so wrapped up in the debate over who's better that you forget these are moments to savor from a rivalry that will be talked about long after both of them are living in high-end assisted-living facilities.

This is one of the great rivalries in pro football history between two of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history, perhaps the greatest individual football rivalry ever because every year, it seems, Manning and Brady square off with something on the line.

It is an annual passion play between two players who greatly admire each other's abilities and two towns that have grown to hate the other's team while grudgingly respecting its quarterback.

"What Tom has done in this decade, it's hard to do it justice,'' Manning said last week. "He's been unbelievably consistent and just seems to get better, year after year. He's had multiple players around him; he's had some coaching changes. He's had some offensive coordinator changes, he's had different guys to throw it to, yet he's remained unbelievably consistent and accurate throughout. That's a great credit to him.''

Brady has more wins against the Colts than Manning has vs. the Patriots, but Manning has won five of the last six vs. the Patriots — including the Week 10 thriller — a sign some feel that he has figured out all the ways Bill Belichick can attack him and now is in command of the situation.

Regardless, at this point Manning has slightly better statistics and Brady has better jewelry, three Super Bowl rings to one. Because of that, the debate has long raged over who is better. The answer should be, "Who cares?" But everyone seems to.

"Peyton Manning is the best pure quarterback in the National Football League,'' said NBC analyst and former Patriots safety Rodney Harrison last week, "but Tom Brady is my quarterback with a minute left and we're down by four points because he's done it.''

Where he did it, of course, was where it counts most. He did it in four Super Bowls, winning three. Had Peyton's little brother Eli not made one of the great escapes from a sack in playoff history, Brady might be 4-0. Yet even with that, Brady knows that the difference between him and his great rival is minimal.

"I'm always keeping up on Peyton,'' Brady admits. "I have a lot of respect for him as a player, and for the role model that he is, the way that he carries himself, the way that he leads the team, and all of those things."

Peyton Manning is in his 12th season, Tom Brady his 10th. They have battled each other for a decade in a way that will be long remembered. That's why it doesn't matter which one is better because both have been good enough to give us what counts most. They keep giving us memories.

Ron Borges is a columnst for the Boston Herald. 

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