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One day after the Pey­ton Manning/Colts sep­a­ra­tion, the large mural of the famed quar­ter­back still dom­i­nates the north exte­rior of Lucas Oil Sta­dium in Indi­anapo­lis. Foot­ball and civic pride aside, I can’t help but think about Pey­ton as a brand.

Pey­ton has grown into a larger-than-life per­son­al­ity, on and off the field. Stars come and go, but pitch­men like Man­ning are indeed rare. His mar­ketabil­ity has never been in ques­tion. The likes of Mas­ter­Card, Reebok, Sony and Gatorade con­fi­dently put their mar­ket­ing mus­cle behind him as a front man. And, he’s deliv­ered win­ning (and mem­o­rable) mar­ket­ing cam­paigns through the years.

So how did a well-mannered, shy New Orleans kid build such a pow­er­ful brand? With his fourteen-year career as a case study, it’s safe to say his brand is about more than foot­ball. As an Indi­anapo­lis res­i­dent (and Colts ticket holder), I’d argue that his authen­tic­ity has as much to do with the Man­ning brand than does his on-field per­for­mance. Let me explain.

In my youth, I was a ball boy for the Indi­ana Pac­ers. Over this seven-year time period, I met a myr­iad of play­ers (like Michael Jor­dan) with gigan­tic brands. Yet, so many of these per­sonal brands felt man­u­fac­tured. You never felt the true essence or per­son­al­ity of the pub­li­cized, endorsed ath­lete. That’s where Pey­ton is different.

In my gen­er­a­tion, Man­ning is the first high-profile ath­lete who appears legit­i­mately com­fort­able in his own shoes. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of ath­letes who are con­fi­dent in them­selves, but with Pey­ton, the brand feels authen­tic. He’s mas­ter­fully embraced his south­ern “aw shucks” per­son­al­ity. He wasn’t afraid to poke fun at his quar­ter­back per­sona either (have you re-watched the SNL skits recently?). As another exam­ple, his Indi­anapo­lis exit will be remem­bered as a classy depar­ture. This good-guy, city-first, “class” image has always felt like an exten­sion of the real Pey­ton. Few ath­letes (or per­sonal brands) have enjoyed this benefit.

From a pure brand­ing stand­point, it will be fas­ci­nat­ing to watch the next few months and years unfold. The Colts have cer­tainly ben­e­fited from the Man­ning effect, mea­sured by win­ning foot­ball games and increased club value. Yet, I can’t think of any other team brand more closely asso­ci­ated a sin­gle player. By many counts, Man­ning has been the Colts brand. While the team is unlikely to for­mally “rebrand”, there is no doubt that the very identity/perception/value of the Colts will evolve in the com­ing seasons.

Assum­ing he’s the same Pey­ton at the start of this sea­son, there’s lit­tle doubt about the future of the Pey­ton brand. I’d expect to see more of the same from #18. The Colts brand, how­ever, will be fun to watch. With a new set of play­ers on the hori­zon, a suc­cess­ful Super Bowl hosted, and socially-connected owner, the brand will live on … the ques­tion is, what will it stand for with­out Peyton?