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Jeff Fisher knows Peyton Manning pretty well. For 13 seasons, Manning's Colts and Fisher's Titans squared off in the AFC. The rivalry got more intense in 2002 when the Titans and Colts joined the AFC South, with the future Hall of Fame quarterback keeping the future Hall of Fame coach from grabbing a division title, except for 2008.
It prompted this famous moment at a 2009 fundraiser:
You can understand Fisher's point of view. Manning has a career record of 13-5 against the Titans. He's thrown for 4,559 yards, 31 touchdowns, 13 interceptions, a 70 percent completion rate and a 101.2 QB rating.
But Manning kind of does that against every team, well, every team except the Patriots.
Oddly enough, Manning and Fisher were both out of football for a year at the same time, 2011.
Images of Fisher in the Manning jersey set off a mini firestorm among Titans fans. It was Dolphins hat conflict of its day. NFL fans can be so constipated.
And what about the Rams and Broncos, the history between those two teams?
One of Bradford's best
The last time these two teams met, regular season or exhibition, was in 2010. Josh McDaniels was still Denver's Steve Spagnuolo at the time. The Rams won that game, 36-33. Sam Bradford threw for 308 yards and three touchdowns in that game, the best outing of his Rookie of the Year-winning season. It's still one of just five 300+ yard games for Bradford.
Team game
The Rams and the Broncos have some preseason history. In eight exhibition meetings, the Broncos are 6-2.
Divided by conference and Denver's relatively short history in the NFL -- they came in as part of the merger with the AFL in 1970 -- the Rams and the Broncos have just 12 regular season games against each other. The Rams have the edge in that series, 7-5.
St. Louis has played Denver four times since the dawn of the Greatest Show on Turf. The Rams have an edge in recent history too, 3-1, with the only loss coming in 2002.
Connections
No players currently on either team's roster have played for the other one. But there are still plenty of connections between the two coaching staffs.
Denver head coach John Fox was a consultant with the Rams in 1996 ... and the experience of working with Rich Brooks and John Shaw didn't frighten him away from the game of football.
Frank Bush, the Rams linebackers coach, worked in Denver with Mike Shanahan from 1995-2002, part of the back-to-back Super Bowl winning teams there. Special teams coach John Fassel is, obviously, the son of former Broncos OC Jim Fassel.