Turning Monday Night Football into Gabfest: Peyton Manning Traces Back the Origins of “Manningcast”

Not all things that came out of the pandemic were bad. Hailed as the “best actor-athlete of all time,” NFL legend Peyton Manning, accompanied by his brother, Eli, hosts an unconventional live television broadcast of Monday Night Football, the Manningcast. The show offers distinctive game analysis and commentary, often featuring celebrity guests, and is produced by Peyton’s company, Omaha Productions.

Manningcast is a product of the pandemic and attracts millions of views each week on ESPN. In a recent interview on the ‘SmartLess’ podcast with hosts Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes, Manning delved into the very inception of his show. He revealed numerous lesser-known aspects of both his life and his weekly broadcasting endeavors. 

Peyton Manning on the making of ‘Manningcast’ 

As the ‘SmartLess’ hosts were interested in the answer to the question, “How did the Manningcast start?”, Peyton Manning went on to recite a retrospective tale. He elaborated how during the pandemic he had approached ESPN inquiring about the availability of a certain remote position.

“I can get my brother he is unemployed, I can get him into the mix,” the legendary football player had suggested and the broadcasting network was open to working with the duo, leading to the creation of their very own weekly live broadcasting show, that is surprisingly filmed out of their friend’s garage. Manning recounted the hilarious details of his brother, Eli’s reaction on hearing the news. 

“He literally thought he was joking,” said Manning, his brother a hard time believing that a network was actually going to pay him “to watch football with my brother from my own house.” However, he figured that it was “a good deal” and decided to go through with it. Manning explained the experience of broadcasting and curating content for their show feels as if they were “at the bar or on the couch watching football, something that we would have done anyway,” only with the addition of an audience and occasional guests who love football.

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The only criteria that they had for everyone involved was that they “have to love football.” Speaking about ‘Manningcast’, Manning also disclosed an interesting reason behind his filming it from his friend’s garage and not his own. 

“You owe me”: How Manning managed to shoot in his friend’s garage

Manning’s convincing his friend to lend him his garage for the filming of Manninngcast has its roots in a very special match that took place on Monday, December 22, 2014, where the Broncos defeated the Bengals 37-28. The match had resulted in an incident dated ten years back, that involved his friend, Scott, getting caught-handed mid-way through trash-talking Manning. 

In the game, Manning had thrown three interceptions, and upon returning to the locker room he found four text messages on his phone, “I got four texts: my Dad, my brother, my wife. I have a fourth text from Scott, whose text says “Hey, do you think Peyton has money on this game?” His friend had ended up texting Manning by mistake while talking about him. And later sent him a text addressing the mistake, “Hey, my 10-year-old was playing with my phone, if you got a weird text.’ I’m like, alright, Scott, the fact that you blamed your 10-year-old son, now I have a problem with it.” 

However, ten years later, Meaning held the incident against Scott, “I need your garage, okay, you owe me, that was mental trauma, so I’m using your garage.” This worked out well for the football legend and his brother since ESPN reportedly leaves their filming equipment at the venue all year round, something Manning’s wife was strictly against. Well, Manning sure knows how to score, both on and off the field. 

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