“You can’t beat the sheriff on the draw. He wins.” — Outlaw in Creede, Colo., 1892

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Peyton Manning is Colorado’s most legendary sheriff since Bartholomew Masterson.

And he won’t be beat Sunday.

The Sheriff will earn his 200th victory in Superb Bowl 50. Think of the symmetry, the harmony and the finality. Peyton will end his Supermanning career with more combined regular-season and postseason triumphs than new Hall of Famer Brett Favre (199) and everyone else who has played quarterback in professional football.

And, as running back C.J. Anderson suggests, Manning “rides off into the sunset.”

With his second Super Bowl victory, like John Elway.

Denver and the Broncos have been more fortunate than most. No other NFL franchise has appeared in more Super Bowls than the Broncos. No other franchise has been home to The Duke and The Sheriff. (And Tim Tebow, who has been appearing daily in San Francisco.) No other fans have been blessed to watch both the Orange Crush and the Phillips Screwdrivers. No other team is so privileged to reside in Colorado. No other franchise has Elway as the best general manager in the league. No one else had Pat Bowlen as the owner.

Now, a third Super Bowl victory is possible for the once pitiful, pathetic Broncos — who won only 53 games from their inception in 1960 to their 13th season in 1972. They won five games or fewer in 12 years and didn’t have one winning season. For the past 38 seasons the Broncos have been one of the elite — even with a record five defeats in the Super Bowl.

Super Bowl 50 has a ring to it for the Broncos.

The Broncos are underdogs again, as they have been in all of their Super Bowls except one (48). Every dog has its day. Sunday is Denver’s.

For what it’s worth, I am the only mediarite to have covered all eight of the Broncos’ Super Bowls. I’ve been witness to “This one’s for John” (Bowlen’s spoken words after XXXII) and “this one’s for the john” (my written words after XLVIII), blowouts by the opposing team in New Orleans (twice — XII and XXIV), San Diego (XXII), Pasadena (XXI) and, of course, N.Y.-N.J. two years ago, and the two Super Days for the Broncos in San Diego and Miami (XXXII-XXXIII). I’ve seen it all in another 30-something Super Bowls since X.

I was asked constantly this past week about my most vivid memories. Well, there is John’s Helicopter, and the Broncos coming out on the field to play the Cowboys for XII (and nothing good happening afterward), and SB X and SB XIII between the Cowboys and the Steelers, both special. During No. 10, I watched the filming of some scenes in the Orange Bowl for the movie “Black Sunday” — which centered on terrorists attacking the Super Bowl by placing a bomb in the Goodyear blimp. The NFL actually cooperated with the making of “Black Sunday.”

I saw Peyton Manning get his only Super Bowl win — in the rain in Miami — and lose his other two. I saw the Broncos’ Craig Morton removed with a 0.00 quarterback rating, and I saw Phil Simms not throw one incompletion in the second half against the Broncos when the Giants won big in the Rose Bowl.

“The Broncos had their chances in the first half, but didn’t put us away. That gave us confidence and momentum for the second half, and they couldn’t stop us,” Simms told me Tuesday. Giants 39-20.

Simms and Jim Nantz will do the call Sunday on CBS. They have been on the mikes for more Broncos games, by far, than any other announcing team. Simms won’t predict, but will proclaim: “The Broncos have the best defense in the league. The Panthers have the best-looking defense in the league when they get off the bus. I think the number is 24. Whichever team can score 24 will win.”

The Broncos can score 24.

The Sheriff is in town.

Manning had the strongest session of his season Thursday, the last major practice. He was hitting Emmanuel Sanders and Demaryius Thomas deep; he was popping D&D — Owen Daniels and Vernon Davis — shallow; he was active and rolling out.

Peyton’s game will rise.

One of his most trusted associates told me midweek that Peyton “is ready.”

“Ready for the game?”

“Yes, but he’s also ready for retirement.”

This is it, and it’s time.

Think Gary Cooper as Marshall Will Kane in “High Noon.” He announced his intention to retire and move on. But there was one more gunfight for the lawman.

He won, then threw his badge in the dirt.

Bat Masterson was a fabled sheriff and gambler in the West and spent years in the mining towns of Colorado. He realized when it was over. Masterson became a sportswriter in New York City.

Manning won’t become a columnist. But he probably will become the part owner and general manager of the Tennessee Titans, and, ultimately, the governor of Tennessee. First, though, there is a last game.

Broncos 24, Panthers 23. Outlaws and outliers must agree.

The Sheriff wins.

Woody Paige: woody@woodypaige.com or @woodypaige