Peyton Manning's greatest rival will be on hand to witness him reach football immortality.
Tom Brady will travel to Canton, Ohio, to watch Manning's induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, reports Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times.
"Peyton was someone that I always just admired as a quarterback, as a leader of a team," Brady said during Super Bowl media week in February. "Peyton and I are right around the same age - he's a few years older than me - but I always looked up to Peyton because he was a little older than me, and he was always doing things the right way, and his team was always in it.
"I know our teams had a rivalry against one another, but when you won against a Peyton Manning-led team, you were going against essentially the other best team in the league. It's no real surprise that he'd be a first-ballot Hall of Famer."
Brady went 11-6 in head-to-head matchups between the two quarterbacks and won the first six matchups against Manning. Brady's New England Patriots also eliminated Manning's Indianapolis Colts from the playoffs on two occasions.
But Manning defeated Brady's Patriots in the postseason in each of his three trips to the Super Bowl - once with the Colts and twice with the Denver Broncos.
Though they were ferocious rivals on the gridiron, the legendary passers have formed a friendship off it.
Manning and Brady have shared the stage on several occasions following the former's 17-year career, including as friendly foes in a televised charity golf competition last May.
Brady won't be the only member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers traveling to honor Manning. Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians, quarterbacks coach Clyde Christensen, and offensive consultant Tom Moore will also make the trip.
Arians was Manning's first quarterbacks coach with the Colts from 1998-2000, Christensen was his offensive coordinator in 2010, and Moore was his offensive coordinator from 1998-2009.
