So it's the last game of the season and you're down 21-26. There's enough time left on the clock for one more play and you've got the ball on the one-yard line with the division title and home-field advantage in the playoffs hanging in the balance. What do you do?Well, if you're Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren, you give the ball to your 6-foot-2-inch, 220 pound quarterback Matt Hasselbeck and tell him to just fall forward into the end zone. So, Hasselbeck snaps the ball and does his best Jerry Lewis imitation face first across the goal line for six easy points. The Seahawks win, take the division and head into the playoffs with momentum and home-field advantage.

There's only one problem.

"I got stabbed in the back," Seattle's star running back Shaun Alexander said after the game. "We were going to win anyway, we were on the freakin' goal line, and I got stabbed in the back."

Those are harsh words for any player to say, but it's even more amazing that Alexander could muster up such animosity while his team was in the locker room celebrating its first division title since 1988. But Alexander wasn't thinking about such trivial matters at the time. He was more worried about his personal goal of winning the NFL rushing title. And he came up a yard short.

A week earlier, another player in another city was trying to secure the division title for his team, but no one was thinking about that at all. Indianapolis quarterback Peyton Manning was on the verge of breaking the single-season touchdown record, and everyone was captivated.

For the last quater of the season, it became less about whether he was going to break the record, and more about when. But when Manning began slowing down towards the end of the season, people began to worry.

Finally it happened, as you knew it would. He is Peyton Manning, a player engineered from birth just to keep the scoreboard operator's hands from getting cold. During a week 16 against the San Diego Chargers, Manning connected with Brandon Stokley for a 21-yard touchdown reception, breaking Dan Marino's 20-year-old record. But the Colts were still down two points, and as Manning had said, he would not allow any diversion or celebration after the historic pass.

He marched his troops to the line and back into the end zone for the two-point conversion, without even stopping to think about what he had just accomplished. He eventually led the Colts to an overtime victory. Talk about keeping your eyes on the prize.

Which brings us back to Alexander, sulking to reporters while his teammates celebrated a division title. While constantly enduring the hype that came with breaking football's equivalent to the home-run record, Manning always said he didn't care about the record. But more importantly, he made you believe it through his actions on the field.

Meanwhile, after realizing that he came up one yard short of the less significant rushing title, Alexander yelled treason.

"I just figured someone was doing the math," he said.

Alexander had been doing the math. He knew that with the Jets' Curtis Martin had racked up 153 yards earlier that day. Alexander needed 81 to take his share of the title. He got 80. Manning, on the other hand, is only concerned with two numbers: wins and losses.

In today's world of record smashing, they are polar opposites, and perhaps the teams reflect their superstars.

Manning passed for a mind-boggling 457 yards in the Colts' demolishing 49-24 wild-card win over the Broncos before his sizzling streak was finally stifled by the unflappable Patriots defense the next week.

Meanwhile, favored Alexander and Seattle could not even muster a wild card win against 8-8 St. Louis at home. Alexander attacked the game like a vicious afterthought, leading the team in rushing...with 40 yards.

For both these players, next year offers a chance at redemption. Manning knows what he needs to do: lead one of the greatest offenses ever to their first Super Bowl.

Next season the 49 touchdowns will mean as little as the rushing title Alexander cared about so much. If Alexander can learn to be more like Manning, he won't come up a yard short again.