Peyton Manning is going out on top, leaving the NFL as a reigning Super Bowl champion. And not to take anything away from him, but that final victory is owed in large part to Denver Broncos' linebacker and defensive star Von Miller. The man known for wearing big glasses and making quarterbacks shake with fear racked up 2.5 sacks and two forced fumbles (one of which was returned for a touchdown) against Cam Newton and his Carolina Panthers. It won Miller SB50 MVP honors—and got Manning his fairytale ending. We caught up with him last week, before the news of Peyton's retirement (Miller thought Manning would come back, saying, "His legacy is already cemented...but if somebody asks me, I feel like he still physically can go. And mentally. With that said, I don’t see why he wouldn’t."), and he talked to us about the post-Super Bowl party scene, how many pairs of sneakers he owns, Johnny Manziel's recent struggles, and whether or not he'd let his son play football.

Got to know: what was that post-Super Bowl locker room scene like?

It was great. I got there late, after a lot of people. I was the last one out. I lost my pants. So it took me a little bit of time to find my pants. And the crazy thing is my pants were like five feet away from my bench, they were sitting right there. I just got all lost in the mayhem and forgot where I forgot my pants. I remember I’m in the locker room asking everybody, “Hey, y’all seen my pants?”

Was Peyton getting down? He's known for being serious all the time.

I didn’t get a chance to party with Peyton but he had a wonderful time, from what I heard. It was a good time. We all enjoyed the win.

"It is shocking when you see a legend struggle and have challenges, and the stuff [Peyton]'s having challenges with he’s made look so easy in the past. But that’s the humbling part of the National Football League: everybody can’t do it for ever."

Was it strange watching him struggle early in the season? I mean, he’s Peyton Manning!

It is shocking when you see a legend struggle and have challenges, and the stuff he’s having challenges with he’s made look so easy in the past. But that’s the humbling part of the National Football League: everybody can’t do it forever. What’s more special is he just altered the way he played for it to be effective for him. Some of the stuff he knew he wasn’t able to do, he just didn’t do, and he just perfected all of the stuff that he was good at. It was good enough to get us through to the Super Bowl.

You’re a self-proclaimed nerd. What’s the biggest “nerd” habit you still have?

I like the sci-fi channel. Just science in general. I came across a segment on time travel and how time travel is possible. We create a spaceship that’s moving at almost the speed of light, we go in that spaceship in outer space and we fly around for a year, when we get back to Earth, Earth would’ve aged 10 years. But we’ve only aged a year. So I thought that was dope. And if you could slow time down, why can’t you speed time up? That’s just the stuff that intrigued me.

Alabama Running Back Derrick Henry’s NFL Combine stats are almost identical to yours. Have you convinced the coaches to let you pull a J.J. Watt and play some offense?

Man, I’ve tried everything in the book. Coach Kub [Broncos Head Coach Gary Kubiak] is open to it, but we got guys that can score the ball. We’ve got big time tight ends. There’s going to come a time and place where I’m on offense catching the ball—just right now we got big-time guys over there.

You're one of the great sack dancers in the league. Does your mom ever give you grief?

Nah. She like ‘em all. She’s in love with ‘em.

There was all of that backlash against Cam Newton for his dancing. What did you make of all that?

I mean, when you win, I feel like you can do whatever you want to do.

Does it make sacking him anymore satisfying?

Naw. I think it’s just cause everybody recognizes him and knows how good he is, how talented he is. So any play you make on him is times ten.