Miami ? Archie Manning stood nervously in the tunnel leading to the field in Indianapolis during the final minutes of a comeback that would put his middle son in the Super Bowl for the first time.

He didn’t want the television cameras to see him, didn’t want to intrude on the spotlight.

He could barely bring himself to watch.

The head of football’s most famous quarterback family had endured countless losing seasons as a player himself. Now he was just a proud father, peeking around the corner and praying that his son would succeed where he never had the chance.

Eli Manning, his youngest, paced next to him as the final seconds ticked off the clock and the RCA Dome erupted in jubilation.

The Colts were going to the Super Bowl. A Manning had finally won a big one.

In the bedlam, Peyton Manning looked for his dad and his brother. The quarterback father and his quarterback sons embraced in a hug born of both jubilation and relief.

“Maybe,” Archie Manning said, “there was a little fate there.”

If any family deserved some good karma on the football field, it might be the Mannings.

And, if any father deserved a good moment from the NFL, it surely would be Archie Manning.

“Obviously my dad knows how difficult it is to get there,” Eli Manning said. “He played 15 seasons and never made it to the playoffs. He knows it’s not easy. Everything has to go the right way.”

Nothing ever seemed to go the right way for Archie Manning in the NFL. In a decade and a half, he never played for a winning team, never came close to sniffing the postseason.

Archie Manning, left, didn't have many chances to win a big game, having never played for a winning team in his 15 NFL seasons. His oldest son, Peyton, right, will quarterback the Colts in the Super Bowl on Sunday. The youngest Manning, Eli, center, is the starting quarterback for the New York Giants.

His team had records like 1-15 and 3-13. Winning a handful of games in one season was cause for celebration.

Manning wanted better for his quarterback kids.

They have had their own struggles, despite playing on teams loaded with the kind of talent that only came to New Orleans for an occasional Super Bowl in Archie Manning’s day.

Peyton Manning labored for years with the label “Never Able to Win the Big One” seemingly plastered directly over the No. 18 on his uniform. He has his father’s arm and talent, but in eight years as quarterback of the Colts the Super Bowl was always tantalizingly just out of reach.

Eli Manning came into the league with great fanfare, but the results after three years so far have been mixed. New Yorkers grumble about his inconsistency as quarterback of the Giants, and he often seems flustered on the field.

Could there be such a thing as a Manning curse?

“Nobody has ever asked me that,” Archie Manning said. “I’d say absolutely not. I was one of those kids who just wanted to play, and I did it for 15 years.”

Peyton Manning says he doesn’t feel as though he has to win the big one and isn’t trying to win it for his father, but it can’t be that far from his mind.

Watching nervously from a suite above will be Archie and the rest of the family. That’s their designated spot, anyway.

Keep an eye late in the game on the tunnel leading to the field. That’s where one proud papa will more than likely be, peeking out to see his son.