Notebook: Manning, McNair share MVP honors

It seems fitting Peyton Manning and Steve McNair shared The Associated Press NFL Most Valuable Player award yesterday. After all, their teams finished with the same record and tied atop the AFC South.

In the third tie since the award began in 1957, the premier passers each received 16 votes from a nationwide panel of 50 sports writers and broadcasters who cover the NFL.

Manning and McNair led their teams to 12-4 records, with Manning's Indianapolis Colts edging McNair's Tennessee Titans for the AFC South crown by winning both games against the Titans.

But they deadlocked for MVP.

"It is great," said McNair, who led the league with a 100.4 passer rating to Manning's 99.0. "My words can't express how I feel being co-MVP with another great quarterback like Peyton. It's very emotional right now for me that people look at me as being one of the top quarterbacks of the NFL, one of the top players, and a co-MVP."

Manning, naturally, felt the same way.

"This is such a tremendous honor," Manning said. "Obviously you look at all the former winners, it really is an honor to be on that same list, and to have such great teammates and a coaching staff that allowed me to go out and make plays.

"And to be sharing it with Steve, a player I have the most respect for and who has had a tremendous year, and to be ahead of guys like Tom Brady, who's a friend of mine, and Jamal Lewis, a former teammate of mine at Tennessee who easily could have been there, as well, it's tremendous."

New England quarterback Brady finished third with eight votes, followed by Baltimore running back Lewis with five. Kansas City running back Priest Holmes got three votes, and Baltimore linebacker Ray Lewis received two.

The other ties came in 1997 (Brett Favre and Barry Sanders) and in 1960 (Norm Van Brocklin and Joe Schmidt).

Comeback Kitna

CINCINNATI — Jon Kitna's career has been about comebacks.

Written off in college, he made it to the NFL as an undrafted free agent out of Central Washington. He led Seattle to the playoffs, only to lose his job. He came to Cincinnati as a starter and lost his job again.

Now, he has pulled off another comeback.

With Carson Palmer, 2002 Heisman Trophy winner, waiting to take his job, Kitna helped keep Cincinnati in playoff contention until the final game.

Yesterday, he was honored as The AP Comeback Player of the Year.

"My whole life, I never had anything handed to me," said Kitna, who went to Tacoma's Lincoln High School. "Nobody thought I was 'the guy.' I was always a pretty good athlete, but I was never one that people clamored about or anything like that."

Notes

• Jim Fassel and Washington owner Dan Snyder concluded more than 12 hours of talks over two days in San Francisco. Both sides will now check out other possibilities, with Snyder preparing to talk to Dennis Green and Seahawks defensive coordinator Ray Rhodes, and Fassel departing for Arizona, Chicago and Buffalo.

• Tim Ruskell, Tampa Bay interim general manager, interviewed with the Miami Dolphins, who are seeking a new GM.