“Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings.”

— From “It’s a Wonderful Life”

Every time a quarterback points, Peyton earns his praise.

“He revolutionized the game.”

John Elway extolled Peyton Manning on Monday at Dove Valley: a Mile High tribute from one paramount quarterback to another.

At Manning’s retirement ceremony — which passed the gamut from tearful to joyful — the final question was in regard to Peyton’s footprint revolutionizing the position of quarterback, and what impact he would have on future quarterbacks. He responded: “I can’t answer that myself. …”

Moments later he added: “I forgot the first part of the question.”

Peyton would decline to define his legacy. That delineation of influence will be left up to millions of other people, including Elway, Cam Newton and Tom Brady.

It was not just a goodbye Monday.

It was a great valediction.

As could be expected from the extraordinary Manning.

Newton posted on Instagram: “I am grateful to have shared the field in your LAST game but most importantly I am grateful to have mimicked a style you created to bring out the best in ME! And that style is/was mastering the art of PREPARATION. You have changed this game in ways you will never (know), and I admire the man you are on and off the field.”

Brady tweeted: “You changed the game forever and made everyone around you better. It’s been an honor.”

Manning’s foundation is “Peyback,” but he has paid ahead to new generations of quarterbacks, football players and all athletes, young men and women searching for success in and on any field. In his poignant, passionate retirement speech, Manning thanked his family and friends, teammates and opposing players, John Elway and Johnny Unitas, the Indianapolis Colts and the Denver Broncos and football fans everywhere. And he quoted the Bible, Forrest Gump and his daughter, Mosley.

The speech, written and spoken by a speech communication graduate, was as enduring and endearing as his football performances. He was well prepared to play, well prepared to depart.

In answering my last question, Manning said a former coach told him “that I could process a lot of information and make really fast decisions. He shared that with me, and then he said maybe that’s not totally normal, if you will. So that, I think, allowed coaches to put a lot of things on my plate and trust me. I never abused that trust. … It was a fun way to play the game.”

Which is why and how Peyton could retain the data from his film study and his brain bank, analyze and probe defenses at the line of scrimmage, go through real and fake gyrations, change plays instantaneously, point at potential blitzers and cry “Omaha!”

At the end, the body couldn’t always do what the mind demanded.

“It’s time” to retire, he said Monday.

Pro, college and high school quarterbacks — hundreds of whom have attended or coached at the Manning Passing Academy — emulated Peyton. Manning was The Man. He was in the forefront of shifting NFL football to an exhilarating, hurry-up passing frenzy of a game. Think of all the other point-and-pass, plug-and-play, gun-and-go quarterbacks.

Manning was responsible for the quarterback modernization and transformation.

“Dang, why didn’t we think of that?” Elway said of the Manning panache.

Peyton began to think about it as a young boy. He was not born when father Archie was the South’s greatest player at Ole Miss, but Peyton memorized his father’s scores, the stats and the names of every opponent’s quarterbacks. Peyton could have become an eminent historian. He studied quarterbacks and defenses, schemes and systems.

He was not the most athletic quarterback, but surely the sharpest. He practiced, plotted, planned and prepared. In college, he would stop workouts and tell a cornerback to move over a few steps because he knew exactly where the opposing defensive back would line up.

On Monday, Manning remained mostly true to his humble upbringing and unpretentious attitude. But he stepped out of character near the end.

“When I look back on my NFL career, I’ll know without a doubt that I gave everything I had to help my teams walk away with a win,” he said. “There were other players who were more talented, but there was no one who could out-prepare me. And, because of that, I have no regrets.”

Peyton doesn’t wear his deep religious convictions on his sleeve, but he closed with: “There’s a Scripture reading, 2 Timothy 4:7: ‘I have fought the good fight, and I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.’ Well, I’ve fought a good fight. I’ve finished my football race, and, after 18 years, it’s time. God bless all of you, and God bless football.”

It’s been a wonderful football life for Peyton Manning.

He’s gotten his wings.

Woody Paige: woody@woodypaige.com or @woodypaige