Richard Sandomir at the New York Times often covers sports broadcasting. He must have been as perplexed as the rest of us — or just unusually perceptive — as the passer rating (aka QB rating) of Peyton Manning was announced as ‘perfect’ at 158.3. That incredibly arbitrary number comes from a formula devised by a PR person at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, available for several decades, but only coming into more common usage during the last decade or so. But common usage is a bit overstated — it’s not one of those stats you just calculate in your head, even though it’s based on only four categories: completion percentage, touchdowns, yards per reception, and interceptions. I appreciate that even though the rating hasn’t been around the entire history of the league, it uses metrics that make it easy to calculate ratings for every passer who ever played the game (as long as the stats are there). Read Sandomir’s article before it expires, and let’s appreciate that a reporter realized that the story behind a number was an interesting (if not useful) topic.