August 9, 2025 • 45 mins
Recorded: August 26, 2024 | In this Best of the Bus episode, the boys landed a true White Whale of a guest — the one and only Peyton Manning. Peyton invited Will and Taylor to his Knoxville bar, Saloon 16, to sit down for an interview in what could only be described as a “Peyton Manning Museum” of a room. Everywhere you looked on the walls, there was a legendary moment from the two-time Super Bowl champion’s career.
Peyton opened up about growing up as a Manning and the advice and wisdom his father, Archie, passed down to him. He reflected on his decision to attend Tennessee over Ole Miss, how he approached leadership through the lens of his father and other mentors, and what life had been like after stepping away from the game.
The boys also touched on Peyton’s work in the sports media world, with Omaha Productions making huge moves in digital and broadcast content. His hit show, The Manning Cast, which he co-hosts with his brother Eli, had become a Monday night staple, and Peyton was looking to build on that success.
Of course, Will and Taylor kept things light, digging into Peyton’s rumored history of pulling epic team pranks over the years — and even questioning if Eli might be the real “King of Pranks” in the Manning household.
From Knoxville to Denver to Indy, Peyton left every city better than he found it, both with his on-field greatness and his humility off it. Looking back on his stat sheet, awards, and iconic moments, it’s easy to see why so many around the world considered him one of the greatest of all time.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Boys.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
On this best of the Bus episode, the Sheriff himself,
Peyton Manning, invited us down to Saloon sixteen in Knoxville
for an all timer. We got to talk about what
it was like growing up a Manning while he chose
Tennessee over Ole miss and how Archie helped shape his
view of a leadership. Peyton also give us some insight
in his life after football, building Oma productions and turn
the Manning Cast into a much watch TV And yes,
(00:22):
if you are wondering, we get into the prank wars
between him and his brother Eli. Boys, this one special
tap in. Enjoyed the ride. Let's have a good day,
and while you're here, subscribe on Subscribery, subscribe.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
One of our biggest guests we've ever had, no question
about it, maybe the biggest.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Although Dale earn Hard Junior, that was a big one. Yeah,
that's a big one. But Peyton Manning, welcome to Busting
with the Boys.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Thank you all for having me. Yeah, appreciate that. Honored,
very honored.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Just kick us off.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Brother walking in this room, Like, honestly, it's a rhetorical question,
but I'm gonna ask it anyway. Did you ever think
that you would leave a legacy like this because like
you come from a football family, like you're growing up.
You have all the footage where you're playing in the backyard.
Stuff they like when I'm young and I'm watching you
get you and your brother get talked about an archie
to where you see all the footage and you just
(01:11):
know that little kid in you that loves the game
so much and making such an impact that you've made
on this game, Like do you ever just sit there
and try to take a moment to take it in.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
I'm very grateful and honored for the teams and organizations
that I was a part of, but I cherished my
four years here at Tennessee. And no, I mean, you
have no idea that you're going to have this connection
and relationship with the university thirty years after I came
here back in nineteen ninety four. But I love coming back.
(01:42):
I stayed four years in college. Will I think people
here in Noxvill and Tennessee probably remember that more than
anything more than a throw or a touchdown, that I
turned the NFL down for a year to stay one
more year in college, which spoke a lot about how
much I'll loved the university in the whole school, in
the whole place in order to stay here. So it's
(02:04):
fun to come back. I love coming back to games,
and yeah, this place. After I got drafted by the Colts,
I was moving out of my college apartment. My mom
came up and basically we moved all of my college stuff,
just put him into a like a storage unit and
just it's been sitting here for like twenty years. And
opened this kind of hotel bar and I said, I
got a bunch of my mom kind of things. It's junk.
(02:25):
It's in this storage unit. Yeah, fucking dig in there.
So they went and that's that all this stuff. That's
what my mom thought of this stuff. It was all
basically garbage. But anyway, it's fun to come back.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
With choosing Tennessee, like your old man obviously went to
Old Miss, what was your recruiting process, like way back
in ninety.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Four, Yeah, that was hard. I mean, for years, Taylor,
I thought Ole Miss was the only school that ever existed, right,
I grew up in New Orleans. Of course, you know
LSU was the Bibby, the top school in the state.
But Ole Miss with the games we went to on
the weekends, and then all of a sudden, you're a
junior in high school and you start getting recruited by
other schools. And I really didn't know how serious it
(03:04):
was up until I got my first handwritten letter from
Bobby Ballden at Florida State. And yeah, I guess I'd
heard enough about recruiting. There was a lot of form letters,
the type letters, but you got a handwritten letter. I
mean I checked it. It smeared. I mean, it was
a legitimate handwritten letter, Bobby Ballden, and I was like, Okay.
I figured, if he's writing me a handwritten letter, tell
(03:25):
me he's going to recruit me. Maybe there are some
other schools out there that are interested. And that's when
I started kind of looking around, I guess, opening my
eyes up a little bit. And had a great visit
here to Tennessee. I was snowing, didn't get to really
see the stadium in its glorious view, but met a
lot of good people. And my brother Cooper went to
(03:46):
Ole Miss on scholarship. Taylor had a neck injury had
to stop playing, and he was in the right school
for him if football didn't work out. And that's kind
of when I said, that's really how you should choose
the school. If I get hurt the first day, but
I'd be happy in the school. And that's kind of
how I felt about here at Tennessee. So and my dad,
I give him credit. If he would have said, son,
(04:06):
you're going to Old Miss. That's the end of the story.
That would have been it. I would have said, yes,
sir dev He said, you're eighteen years old, You're old
enough to make your own decision. I'll support you wherever
you go. And he'd call a lot of flak from
Old Miss people, and how could you not, you know,
make your son go to your school. You know, you've
kind of let us down. It was I think. I
know he was disappointed, and a lot of course when
Eli went to Old Miss, everybody made up it was
(04:27):
all good. But I respect my dad for letting me
make that decision. And uh, you know, I think when
you make those decisions, it's kind of you kind of
make it the right decision after the fact by just
going all in and not looking back. And so, uh,
it was a hard decision, but I appreciate my parents
kind of supporting me in it.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Man.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
I feel like if he was my boy he'd be
not to mention.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
He did come back a senior year, and ultimately the
season didn't go. It didn't end the way you wanted
it to.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
Well, look, I mean.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Was it like forty something the seventeen.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
It was it Nebraska? Yeah, I forgot about that game.
There's none of those pictures in here. Well I took out.
That's not just because you're here. Yeah, when you come back,
I mean you sign up for all of it, right,
I mean you sign up for it to be glorious
and to go undefeated and all that. Obviously, if I
would have gotten injured, you know I was. I was
(05:20):
okay with that. I just I felt like I'd rushed
my first three years in college. I was always running
a class, running the new interviews, and I didn't want
to be my age now for eight years old and
kind of wondering what was college even I don't remember
anything about college. My senior year, I slowed down. I'd
already graduated. I got more mentally stronger. My rookie year
(05:40):
with the Colts was a struggle. Right. We only one
three and thirteen twenty eight picks. I don't think I
would have handled that had I not stayed four years
in college. Right, that's the kind of season that can
kind of break you. But I kind of said, you know,
I'm actually doing some decent things. We're not winning any games,
and we went thirteen and three my second year. I
gave all that credit to stay in four years in college,
and so it was the right decision for me.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Now, did you come to come to that decision on
your own or was that sitting down and talking to
your dad, talking to people you loved me and like
what should I do?
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Yeah, it's funny, it's a great question because my dad
was always one of those guys that said, hey, ask
some different people some questions, like call some people that
have had this decision. So he kind of formed a list,
and I guess he I don't know how, Like somehow
he helped me get some phone numbers. So I called Troy,
aightman who stayed four years in college. He said he
really wanted to be the first pick in the draft.
(06:29):
That was important to him, and he was drew BLEDSOE
left as a junior. He said he knew he was
gonna be the first pick in the draft as a junior,
and he was like, I'm ready to go I'm a
totally name dropp here. I talked to Michael Jordan, who
came out as a junior.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
That's a that's a good name drop.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
Yeah, and he just said, look, I thought I was ready,
and so I guess I came away with it that
it's it truly has to be your decision of what
you really want. And I probably would have been the
first pick as a junior. The Jets had the first pick.
Interesting to see think how things would have turned out.
Parcels was the head coach, Belichick was the decordinator. Just
he ended up coaching the Patriots and Brady who knows.
(07:06):
So I just it was the it was the right
decision for me. So uh, Eventually you kind of gather
the information. You sort of had the old yellow notepad
out with the pluses and minuses. You look at them.
You know, it's kind of fifty to fifty either way.
You make a decision, you pray about it, and then
you go with it. Uh. And so it ended up
(07:26):
working out for me.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Your first year. You alluded to with the is it
still the record?
Speaker 4 (07:30):
Yeah, which which is amazing with seventeen games. Now, yeah,
seventeen games. I mean Mahomes is breaking every other record.
Why can't we break record?
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Right?
Speaker 1 (07:39):
How do you keep it?
Speaker 4 (07:40):
But the problem is when they struggled early with picks
that they take them out. Leave them in there, let
him learn right. Yeah, I'm with you, Jeez, I'm over it.
But record, I'm a piece. Eli would have broken it easily. Yeah,
he only started six games that I put him in there.
This is my top. I got a good chance this year.
(08:01):
We got we got several kind of good chance. I mean,
is mey gonna get the starting job? I mean I
don't want Nicks to do it in Denver obviously, but
if he.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Did do it, it'd be like, well that's a.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Right, Yeah, so you know you'll be the first phone
call for that rookie he does do it.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Put you got to say, whoever, whoever beats you to
send a handwritten letter.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Be a sixteen to seventeen game starter or so put
all these guys.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
In the now kind of like as competitors.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
When you start to when you have an up and
down year like that, and then you're three and thirteen,
you're like the you you were the first their first
round pick, and you do set the record for interceptions
like the mental fortitude on trying to keep the noise
out of your head going into that next year, because
I'm just I was obviously young then, but now thinking
about it, if a rookie quarterbacks, a rookie quarterback is
breaking that record, they're just getting drug across the mud.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
It was like it was tough. And I think playing
in Indianapolis probably would have been different had I been
with the Jets. If I would have been with the Jets,
and hey, part would have ventured me way before the
sixteenth game. But I don't know, maybe somewhere Indianapolis at
the time, being a smaller market, maybe that helped me
a little bit. So it was bad. Uh, you know,
(09:12):
we were playing on the CBS, you know, e broadcast
team every weekend, like you know, there was no Madden.
There was no Nance or Summer All or Phil Simms
coming to Indy. Uh, you know, no Monday night TV.
So but yeah, look, it's the kind of season that
can sort of can kind of make or break yet, right,
And I just we actually were in some games, you know,
(09:36):
everybody like nobody was getting up to play us, right.
We played the Niners that year, Steve Young, Jay Rice,
We played the Jets who went to the AFC Championship.
You know, they had us as a circled win. So
we actually had some actually fairly close games. We'd blow
it in the end. But that's what I kind of
went off of. I'm like, I think I actually can
do this if I just don't throw three interceptions in
(09:56):
the first half. So it didn't break me and my coaches.
Jim Mora had a tough coach, but he was loyal.
He stuck, He stuck with me. He said, hey, stay
in there, keep learning. We're going to fight through this thing.
And sure enough we did. I'm not sure if it's
been but at the time it was the biggest turnaround
in history from three to thirteen to thirteen and three.
There's no way I'd do that if I don't play
(10:17):
all those games rookie. So, uh, I tell all these
college quarterbacks. We were talking earlier about that camp that
we have, and I tell all these guys, it's a marathon,
it's not a sprint. Don't don't let them. You know,
a couple of bad seasons break you, right, just keep
learning from it and keep getting better.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Yeah, two thousand and nine, you're playing the Miami dolphins
and John Gruden crowns you the sheriff. Now this is
kind of just Hey, how cool is that nickname? And
also how long did it take the stick? Because sheriff,
unless you're writing a movie, there's no cooler nickname to
be bestowed on somebody.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
I uh, you know, I never ever once, if you
ever hear me referring to myself as a sheriff, shoot me.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
The sheriff.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
I've never wants texted, Hey, you know, sheriff will be
there at three o'clock. You know, please, My brothers would
would have have their way with me. Yeah, Gruden, Uh
what was his expression? You know? Uh? When when Peyton
comes to town, he lays down the law and he
always gets his man. He finds who he's wanting going
to get and he gets his man. So look, I
(11:22):
love Gruden and he was a great broadcaster. It was fun.
So I you love the nickname.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
The nickname, It's okay, it's the best nickname.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
I wave. I'll respond to people never call me Peyton.
They just yell omaha or sheriff and you keep going.
But like I said, I will never go third person
on you saying you know, Sheriff's heare.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
You know where were the teammates ever picking it up
calling you the sheriff.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
Yeah, no, for sure. Oh yeah, Vaughn, I mean von Miller,
I gets that's all they called me.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
That is Yeah, there's there's this legend of Peyton Manning.
I've had some teammates that play with you and they
would say they would tell stories like if a tight
end drop the pass and then a you get him
off the field, and then if a coach tries to
get him back on the field, You're like, no, no, no,
he's got to stay on the sideline.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Whether it was that, whether it was like whether it
was like that or not. When do you feel like
you started to like have that confidence in you two
take over like that?
Speaker 4 (12:18):
Yeah, I mean certainly not early on, not coming off
a tough rookie season, and like, I mean, the number
one thing that you want to do as a NFL player,
you guys know this is try to earn the respect
of your teammates, right, and when you're twenty two years
old as a quarterback, you got thirty seven thirty eight
year old grown adults in that huddle with you. My
first game in college here at Tennessee. I went into
(12:38):
the huddle. I was a freshman. You know, I kind
of had this pre planned speech for my first game.
I know, I'm just a freshman. Let's go down the
field and score where Big Left tackles, like shut the
f up and call the effing play. Yeah, And it
was the most It was like the best thing that
ever happened to me. Because college, high school, NFL, they
don't want to hear that. They want to see you
take a hit. They want to see you take responsibility
(12:59):
for holding the ball too long, right, not blaming you know,
the receivers or o linemen. So that's what I wanted
to do when I got to the NFL. So yeah,
it took you know years before that. I never kicked
the guy out for chopping the ball. I would kick
a guy out if he if he made a mental error,
like if he if he jumped off sides and maybe
(13:20):
did it twice. And the legend, the one, the one
that is, we were playing the Ravens one time and
this guy jumped off sides to start the series. All
we had to do is get one first down. We
were gonna run the clock out, and he jumped off sides.
On the first play, and sure enough we don't get
the first down. We punt to Ed Reid, who's you know,
(13:40):
remembers what I electric he was, and somehow we end
up stopping him and we win the game. So now
we're going to take the knee. We have the ball
with twelve seconds that we're gonna take the knee. So
the guy that jumped off sides is in the huddle
to take the knee, and I said get out and
he's like, he's like, what, We're just taking the knee.
I was like, yeah, get out out and so he
(14:01):
ran out. We had to substitute bring somebody in to
take the knee, and he said his dad asked of
after the games, like, why don't you have to go
out to take the knees? Like, oh, talk about it
killed this play, so uh, you know, But like like
I said, but it was all I was hard on myself,
people could. I probably cussed myself more in practice than
I did anybody else. So I think people knew that
(14:22):
I was hard on myself, and so when I was
hard on them, it was fair, right, And and I hope,
you know, my teammates felt that way, that it was
all about just trying to win. Let's try to do
it together. I never ever wanted to embarrass anyone. This
was a rookie receiver. I'm not going to mention his
name on the podcast. He may live in Nashville, so
he knows who he is. But that was kind of
(14:43):
a one a one off, if you will, dude.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
We had we had earlier this morning, we had Will
Levis on and Will Levis is talking about working himself
into a leadership role on how that looks for him.
At what point in your career did you know, Okay,
I can start telling these guys point blank, this is
how I as opposed to kind of like beating around
the bush.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
Yeah, it's a great it's a great question because it's
a feel h Taylor. I think I think you got
to do some things first, right, I think he got
to lead a two minutes drew that game Will had
against the Dolphins right last year, that was a that
was a good thing, Right. I think he can bank
that one and that that earns you some stripes. So
you love to have some continuity, certainly, you know, leading
(15:24):
a team to the playoffs or winning a division or
beating a team that you're not supposed to just those
kind of things where you just sort of kind of
check some boxes. That's that's how it was for me.
You know, I didn't say a whole lot in my
rookie year. I just wanted to earn their respect. And
you know, I had a two minute drive to beat
the Jets that year, and I was excited. But uh,
(15:45):
you know, I just don't think veteran players, you guys
know this, and they don't want to hear young players,
you know, barking orders until they truly have earned their respect.
And I think that's a process that takes a little time.
But I liked what Will did last year. You know,
he's tougher than nails. He stands in the pocket, he runs.
I like him to slide a little more, just to
(16:07):
stay healthy. Look, that's hard because I never could run.
I never had the option. But these guys that can run,
as you know, you still want to be there all
seventeen weeks, and so I'm pulling for him. I like
Brian Callahan. He was an assistant coach with me in Denver.
I think that could be a good uh you know,
head coach quarterback combo.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
How everybody talks about the Manning Brady rivalry when you
were in it, How real was that in your mind personally?
Like if you when after a game, are you are
you searching to see how he did?
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Like what was that rivalry?
Speaker 4 (16:38):
Yeah? I mean, I mean you always just knew, right,
if there's no Tom Brady, I mean you always you
always knew that, you know that the Patriots had won.
I mean I guess when it really started when we
played him in the regular season so many times, and
if we lost to him, you just knew we're going
to have to go play that New England in the
playoffs and this like we lost to him week one
one time, I'm like, we're coming back here in in January. Yeah,
(17:03):
And so you just knew they were going to be there.
They were so consistent. Look, it was Tom, it was Belichick,
it was defense, it was the whole thing, right, It
was just this kind of this triple headed monster. So
when you played them, yeah, you knew you had to
be on your game. You knew their defense was going
to be stingy. You know, you just they always Belichick,
(17:24):
you know, kind of the easiest way to describe him.
He always took away the things you really liked to do,
so you had to find something else to kind of
do well that game, and then Tom was going to
be on his game, so you had to score some points.
But you know, major respect to everybody during that era.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Yeah, we were.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
You were mentioning in your last answer about how you
feel like you corbacks just seem to do something a
little bit.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
Now.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
I fumbled a big question when we had a Rich
eisend on the podcast because my dad told me something
as a kid, and my dad told me this as well.
But I was told that when you first got in
the NFL, you didn't want to do any marketing stuff
until you kind of proved it a little bit.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
Is that? Yeah, that is true. I just didn't which
people would laugh at. Now. It's like, you know, you
do so many commercials, Peyton, I can't believe there actually
was a time when you didn't do anything. But yeah,
I think there's something to that about just kind of
earning your stripes a little bit and make that the
incentive right to go win some games and then, man,
(18:20):
some things are gonna come your way when you do it,
but not just because you got drafted or whatnot. You know,
to go and earn it and that's Look, those days
are probably out the window now because of what's happening
now in college right with an I l but uh, yeah,
I remember the first real commercial uh that I did
was kind of uh in my second year uh in
the NFL.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
We'd had a good season, so I felt like i'd
kind of maybe earned some stripes. I did a Gatorade
commercial with Michael Jordan another name drop yeah, against but
I can tell you where I was on the totem pole.
I never knew what a what a what a double
was for a commercial. Michael Jordan had this double guy
that looked kind of like him that just made a
ton of money, you know, filling in for Mike on
(19:03):
some of the commercials that he did. So I got
there and they said, hey, your double is going to
be standing in for you. I'm like, oh, I've got
a double. This is this is big.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
You went to see him and.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
They said, uh, they said, your hair is a little
longer than the double. Do you mind if we give
you a little haircut to match the double? I was like,
is that how it's supposed to work?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Like?
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Would you tell Michael to shave his mustache to match
his double? Something? Tells me I was pretty low in
the totem poll. But yeah, look, it's still kind of
my advice to rookies is, man, just go earn it,
go do it. But the team's going to try to
promote you, and the marketing team's gonna want you to
go meet every sponsor. I get that, there's excitement. It
really wasn't me as much Taylor as much as the
(19:44):
Colt's organization. I had a great general manager and Bill
Pully and who just said, hey, let this guy play
football first before you kind of start trying to use
them to promote the team and whatnot. And that really
helped me just kind of concentrate on football.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
With your nephew, has he kind of taken that same
approach that was.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
Kind of with My advice was, look, you know, he's
my nephew. He reaches out to me, you know, for questions,
but his dad's been around the block. You know, Cooper's
giving him great advice. And I think he wants to play.
He wants to establish himself, you know first, and you know,
obviously I think they got a good team this year.
I'm a big fan of Quinn. I've gotten to know him.
He comes down to our camp. The two of them
(20:19):
get along great. So I'm proud of him for staying there.
Most kids probably transfer in that setting, but he stayed there.
He likes playing for SARK, he likes the system, and
when he does get in there, he's going to benefit
from kind of having a little continuity in the system.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Yeah, I know, I know, it's my third one in
a row.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
But you're good.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Your nephew obviously calls you a lot, and I know
you and Eli have a big rivalry. Who do you
think he calls more?
Speaker 4 (20:43):
It's funny, you know, like he's I mean, these these
nineteen twenty year olds. I mean the text response rate
it's not super high, right, it's not a great completion percentage,
So I don't I kind of let him reach out
to me if he has a question. He came to
Denver a couple of years ago. We worked out. That
was fun. And he will every now and then text
(21:03):
me with a question about, Hey, a two minute drill.
This is what happened in practice today, And I'm sure
as soon as he texts me the question he regrets
it because you can't answer a question about a two
minute drill with a text back what the phone is.
You have to go to the voice memo. You have
to and it can't be just one. So you bang
(21:25):
them back with a seven minute voice memo response about
about the two minute about you know what the defense
is doing, and the plays that you like. You got
to go to your staples. Yeah, the plays that you like.
And you finish it and you're like, I didn't even
mention the fact that a defense after a time out
will probably come with an exotic blitz, so you better
call a max protection coming out of the time out.
(21:48):
And then you finish that when that's about a six
minute or and you're like, well, but totally even you know,
forgot about the red zone. Yes, And so three voice
memos later, send me a video back.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
Moore, Who do you think the favorite uncle is?
Speaker 4 (22:02):
So? I don't know if he has one, hope if
you did, I don't know. I mean I haven't really
seen it. I mean, Eli's a good uncle to my kids.
He is, he calls them, He's got nicknames for all
of them, you know, yeah, kids. So I've said we're
probably pretty equal.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Okay, you talked about two minutes, and then there's so
much poetry when you watch a good two minute drill
quarterback go down the field and just pick a part
of defense all the way through. It's truly something beautiful.
Is there a one two minute drive that sticks out
in your mind where you're like you essentially played chess
while the defense is playing checkers.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
I mean I mentioned this this one against the Jets
my rookie year. Belichick's the decordinator, Parcells is the head coach.
They go to the AFC Championship. So I don't know.
We had a fourth and eighteen, which is that you
have him right where you want him right.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Yeah, and it's an ideal situation.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
And so it was fourth and thirteen in Belichick went
all out blitz and so we are not ready for
we're gonna get sacked whatever. We had a false start,
so that takes it to fourth and eighteen. So now
that's always the chess game. Does the defensive coordinator do
the same blitz on the next play or since he
showed his hand, he's gonna do something different. So we,
(23:20):
of course the two and twelve colts go, well, he's
definitely gonna show the same blitz again. So we keep
eight guys in the block, saying like one guy out
on the route, and what does Belichick do? Drop eight
guys in the coverage. There's nobody open, and me like,
by the book, quarterback, hey, if nobody's open, throw your
check down. Probably not what you're supposed to do on
(23:42):
fourth and eighteen, right, But coach I was listening, I
was taking notes, and I throw this checkdown to Marshall
Falch and he breaks seven tackles and gets the first
down and then we go down away and throw a
game winning touchdown. So I always remember that one. But yeah,
the two minute drill to quarterbacks, the pressures on the defense,
(24:03):
they have the lead, It really ought to be a
time for a quarterback to kind of free up a
little bit, right, and let make the defense get tight. Right, Hey,
we can't give up this lead. Hey, let's better not
blitz them. We're gonna give a man a man. And
so you want to try to kind of lean into
that a little bit, But it means you've screwed up
in the first three and a half quarters to get
to that point as a quarterback. So it's your chance
(24:24):
to get out of a bad jam. But hopefully you
can play a little free in that situation, because nobody
really expects you to come back and maybe you can
surprise the crowd.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Yeah what what coordinator gave you the most problems?
Speaker 4 (24:37):
Patriots spellcheck Rex Ryan was tough, you know, he just
did things that didn't make sense to me. I'm like,
there's no way he can bring that guy, and he would.
I was always looking when I watched the defense will Okay,
you know they're never going to bring the will linebacker
and the strong safety, so we can eliminate that. And
(24:57):
then you watch the Jets or the Ravens game against
the Bills and they bring that exact wlitch and I'm like, dang,
you know, and so uh, I had a lot of
sleepless nights getting ready to play against his teams.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
The uh We've talked about you getting on other guys,
and a lot of times when the quarterback, especially an
established quarterback, speaks up as an offensive lineman, you don't
say a fucking word. You just sit there, You take it,
and maybe the locker rooms say, maybe please don't yell
at me in front of everybody like that next time.
But there was one situation when you were at the
Colts Jeff Saturday yelling about running the ball, which is
(25:33):
every offensive lineman's dream. If you if you can just
run heavy the whole game, the pressure's off, you can
bruise it and you walk over there, and this is
just I'm from an offensive line perspective.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
You come over there getting jet.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
And then you got four or five?
Speaker 5 (25:46):
Can you give them the whole listen, It's not that
big of a deal. It's not that big of a
deal that situation. Yeah, I mean, we were all frustrated.
We had this great drive to get down there, and
we called a run play. You remember those days, we
were a one back offense. We never had a fullback.
So the rules were if the defense just put too
many guys in there, you got out of the run
(26:08):
and you threw a quick slant or a fade to
Marvin or Reggie. And so the rams they went to
a you know, a crowded line of scrimmage, like on
first down and second down.
Speaker 4 (26:18):
So we threw through incomplete and we had run the
ball all the way down to that point. And now
on third down it's third and goal from the seven.
You throw again, so we go three straight incompletes. I'm frustrated,
but the line definitely is frustrated. So we're coming off
the sideline. I could just hear them over there talking
to the line. He's barely hearing.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
It.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
Yeah, yeah, I don't know exactly what he's saying, but
I know what he's talking about. And you're just sitting
there breathing. And finally I just go over there. And
as soon as I get over there, I'm like, this
is a bad movie. Oh my god, and they all
stand up. I got no back up. You know, Stokeley's
going the other way to the D B side of
the bench and uh so, yeah, I was miked up
at the time, and so that that lives on forever.
(27:04):
But Jeff was my roommate on the road. Our lockers
were next to each other. My locker in the Coast
locker room was right in between the offensive lineman. You
know a lot of times there's a quarterback section the
receiver section. I put it right in between the five
starting offensive lineman because those are the guys never protecting you.
Those are the guys who were talking all the time
(27:24):
about checks and audibles. I wanted them to kind of
know what I was going to audible too. I didn't
want them to be surprised, And so we'd sit by
each other on the plane ridse but yeah, that one
certainly lives on.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Lives on forever.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
You guys, tell I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
I was going to talk about when it's all coming
to an end, like your mortality. Obviously, you go out
with the Super Bowl, but you had the neck injury,
you had the you know, you had the things going
you had the things going on physically to where you're
throwing for like north to fifty touchdowns, you run forty touchdowns,
and then that last year you kind of know that
it's your last year going out, Like what was it
like for you when that mortality started to set in? Like, damn,
(27:59):
this game is it forever? Even though I've played, Yeah,
felt like forever.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
Yeah, I mean I think you just you just kind
of know, at least for me, when certain throws that
you used to always make that you just don't make
them anymore, and the ball's not going where you're where
it's supposed to, you just sort of kind of go, hmm,
that's different, and and so you sort of accept it.
(28:28):
And so I think somewhere in my last season I
kind of knew it was going to be my last season.
But Derek Jeter, I'm just on a name drop and roll.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Here putting good names out there.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
Announced his decision to retire before his last season, and
he told me that he regretted that because the whole
season was a tribute to Derek Jeter and in a
team sport. He said, it got to the point where
he was almost embarrassed by it because he was going
to play in Milwaukee and they had a and they
were giving him gifts, and he's like, it was all
(29:04):
about me, and the Yankees didn't have a winning season,
and so he said, hey, if you ever know you're
going to retire, announced it the day before you decided,
and then announce it the next day and be done
with it. Don't do it before the season. And so
I always remembered that, and so I kind of knew
halfway through that last season, this is probably going to
be it, but you just don't want to say it
because then it becomes kind of all about you. And
(29:26):
we had a good thing going. And so we got
to the Super Bowl, and of course they asked you
right away that game you kind of want one moment
just to enjoy that game. It was my eighteenth season,
and you know, I had a chance to win the
super Bowl. You want to sort of enjoy that night
and not talk about you right away. So I tried
to pivot and say, I'm just thinking about drinking a
(29:46):
lot of Budweiser tonight. And everybody thought, oh, he's got this,
but I was really I had no relationship. You're not
allowed to have a at the time, a beer relationship
as a current player. I was just I was that's
what I was going to do that night. I was
gonna drink a lot of beer. I was just trying
to get him to stop asking me about retiring.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
And then.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
Tony Dungee had told me, he said, even if you know,
just take one more month, just to let it sink in.
Don't make some emotional decision. Remember Dick Vermil kind of
won the Super Bowl and he said I'm retiring, and
then he missed it and he came back and coached
the Chiefs, and so I took about a month and
then I decided in March that it was going to
(30:26):
be it. I was thankful for the time I got
to play. Most guys get injured, they oftentimes it's not
their decision they get retired. So to be able to
do it on my terms, I was at peace with it,
and I was thankful for the time that I got
to play and the relationships that I made. I mean,
you know, the equipment manager for Tennessee picked me up
(30:48):
today at the airport, right. I cherished my friendship with him.
The equipment manager for the Colts texted me a picture
of his grandchildren today. And so those are my greatest
takeaways from my time playing not game, not a throw.
The friendships, as you guys know, with your teammates and coaches,
of the behind the scenes. The video director here at
Tennessee for me, is now the video director with the Broncos.
(31:11):
And you talk about a guy that's broken more film
down for me, and you know he and I are friends.
So anyway, uh, you don't get to play anymore, but
you still have those relationships.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Is there not a better group in a franchise than
the equipment guys.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
The equipment guys.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Are the number one cats everywhere we go. Guys, my
boy Joey over there, all of them, Yes, air.
Speaker 4 (31:33):
Of those guys. I mean, you know they have they
have what I call thankless jobs. I mean nobody, I
mean people only come to them when they need something.
I need lockers exactly I said, so show show appreciation.
I don't know how y'all did your clubhouse dues or whatnot,
but I was real big on, hey, take care of
these guys because uh, they love football and they want
(31:53):
to win. So uh, I still send my my clubhouse dues.
Do you really to the cults and the Roncos? No ship, Yeah,
I'm retired, and so I just uh yeah, because it's like,
you know, they you know it, don't obviously they're not,
you know, not seeing them every day. But I'm just
thankful for for them for what they did for me.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Did you guys do flat rates or did you do
practice squad as this much veterans or this?
Speaker 4 (32:18):
Yeah, that's the thing. We tried to kind of do
it different ways. I didn't necessarily like, you know, sort
of the public sign up list where.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
It was always Brett Kern for us who would sit
in front of the team. But here's how it's gonna go,
and just kind of label it for everybody. This is
where you're at, this is what you're putting.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
Yeah, which is fair, yes, fair right, because you know,
I think young players don't realize what these guys are doing.
They are staying there at midnight washing socks and jockstraps
or whatnot. So uh but it's a good it's a
good tradition and and uh yeah, it's it's funny. I
mean today I've talked to both those guys today, so
uh great, great memories.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
A good transition into tier talk or a tear talk.
Oh you gotta you got I did.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
But literally as soon as you said tear talk, my brain,
Like Men in Black.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
He was talking about.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
He was talking about like gift giving our cheer talk
we wanted to do with you is the best, Like
in your career, your top three gifts that you've either
given Oligneman, the team. I don't know how you've gifted
everybody but your top three.
Speaker 4 (33:18):
Top three Wow, I guess. I mean you have to
probably ask them, I guess. Uh. You know, Jeff and
Tartlan and those guys. I flew them all to the
Hawaii to the to the Pro Bowl, right, you know?
That was that was kind of one of the first
things that I did, custom made cowboy boots. Okay, I
(33:43):
mean you gotta understand now, this is this is two thousand,
two thousand and one.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Yeah, I mean you flew the O line to the
to Hawaii and there.
Speaker 4 (33:52):
And their spouses. You know, I'm just saying it's like,
I mean mahomes like that, they're like cooler things available
now at least I guess right. And so mom was
from the hard cowboy boots, custom made suits, overcoats, you know,
like always something fitted, you know, bring the guy in
(34:12):
electronics TVs. But it wasn't like it wasn't a it
wasn't a Christmas gift like it was you had to
have blocked well gift. Like one year two thousand and one,
we didn't make the playoffs and my left guards like
with no gift. This year, I'm like, there's no playoffs.
You know you ever seen Team Wolf, No Wolf, no
(34:34):
part you know, no blocking, no gifts. So but like
the rules change. I mean, you know, Tarat Glynn at
one point was making my left tackle was making I
don't know, like twelve million a year. Used to be quarterback,
take care of the poor old offensive line on the
offensive line and they're making banks. They're like, yeah, god bless,
(34:55):
Like what is this watch? I mean right, this is
not it's not even the best role x out there.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
This is right, Yeah, offensive linemen Offenseimemon gotta get paid.
That's a good that's a good call.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
Was there a how about this starting on line?
Speaker 4 (35:08):
No, I took care of all of them. Okay, here,
I took care of the wingman. Uh, you know, the
practice squad guys, and yeah, then you start spreading out
you got the tight ends, uh, receivers and so yeah,
like I felt like, uh, I tried to show, you know,
my appreciation for all those guys because you know, you're
you know, sometimes receiving some of the awards or whatnot,
but those are the guys that were making it, making
(35:29):
it happen. You know.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
I'm walking over to Peyton's locker, like, hey, you got
anything for your boy?
Speaker 2 (35:33):
For linebackers? Yeah, maybe for white middle linebackers.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
Yeah, oh that reminds me. No, never, never, never crossed over.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
We had not for pet Anger.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
We had we had josh Allen and we talked about
going to an empty situation. There's one middle linebacker that
you know is a liability and coverage he goes out
with your running back. Josh An called it a milk check,
white guy.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
I see him. That's why I'm going with I'm staying
in the box there. Yeah, no, no, no, you it
was it.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Did you ever have like a hey, listen over, white
guy out here. We got to take advantage of this
poor soul.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
It's funny. I mean, I think Zach Thomas a bunch
and that was kind of thing we always sick because
he was always in the middle. We were always like,
you know, I'm not sure if he can if he
can cover can we.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
Just can we get him outside the get him out there?
Speaker 4 (36:23):
And he was just what you said. He was so smart.
He never put himself and that.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Oh yeah, you gotta know your weakness and checked out.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
He's like, no, no, you sending the sam out there?
The wheel out there? Yeah, couldn't. We could never get
him in that spot. And maybe look he was a
stud player, so he probably could have covered him. But
so we'll never know.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
I guess no milk checks you. You talk about the
gift giving is great. But one thing that I've always
appreciated you for with some of the clips I would
see about pranks you would do. You'd want to pull,
boil you empty the little thing. Do you have any
like top pranks you ever put on guys in the
locker room at you were like, man, I've done it.
Speaker 4 (36:58):
Just you know, I mean training camp, everybody had golf carts.
Coaches had golf carts. We were always trying to get
those moved, you know into like there was a little
pond in the middle of the training can that had
a little platform out there. We got the golf carts
moved out on that one time, big trash can full
of water leaned against the door in the dorm rooms
(37:21):
on the last night or training camp when their bags
are packed and their luggage should be on the floor
right which you know, oh yeah, last night, last night.
I can't. You gotta be last night. They gotta be
packed because we'd say practice in the morning. I kind
of get up and say, guys, practice in the morning.
I'm telling you you don't want to get on the road.
So you know, I just go ahead and pack up tonight.
(37:41):
It's a nice veterans And you lean that trash can
against that door, you know, about eleven thirty after bed checking,
you just you know, bang on that door hard. And
they opened that door and it's just a tidal wave,
the flood coming in. And like I said, you know,
if it only it's their dorm, it's not really good.
(38:01):
But when he gets that luggage. Oh yeah, they're nice
luggage that they've had. They got their picture with their
girlfriend probably on top of the bag. It's ruined. It's
trying to think. Uh. You another guy, guy in Denver
who had a uh had a picture of his girlfriend
(38:24):
in his room. I think it was like body paint
of her, you know, like I'm just it was an
interesting picture to have in training camp. And we got
it somehow, and we had a security you know, you know,
you have security on the floor right and like these guys,
you know, they take naps like you know, eleven o'clock,
And we put that picture like on the security guard's lap,
(38:46):
like as he was sleeping, and that kind of caused
a little stir. But the player like, why does the
security guard have a my girlfriend and body paint? So uh,
anything to keep you know, keep things loose, you guys
know the grind of train any camp, so just to
make things fun. But yeah, I miss that. I haven't
put a trash can full of water in a hotel room.
(39:10):
You want to mess with Eli Eli's Eli's got some
got some prank game. He's big with the cell phone.
His go to move for years was he could change
your settings you could change the language on your phone.
He'd like say, hey, well let's get a picture, you know,
and and uh, I'll take it of YouTube first. And
he's taken your picture, and he changes your phone to Chinese.
(39:32):
And now you can't get it out.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Now you can, you can't figure it out.
Speaker 4 (39:37):
Yeah, in general and settings are in Chinese. And now
his go to he is is a thing called text replacement.
The feature on your phone would be anything you text
often that's long worded, your address, your email, Hey, what's
your email? You know? Text replacement. If you put you know, p,
it auto corrects to your email. But see it autocorrects
(39:59):
to your Well, you can make whatever you want to
mean whatever you want. So he changes the word yes
on my phone to I just sharded okay. And so
when my wife says, hey, are you going to be
(40:20):
home for dinner? You know, quickly yeah, so she says, actually,
she's like, oh, I'm so sorry, are you okay? I'm like,
what what just happened? So yeah, anyway, respect that's a
good one. Don't mess with him.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
That is a solid one.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
What about this episode to bring you let's lock in?
They taped it, They taped it smart move, smart Move.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
You guys have had so much success with the maning
cast on all productions and everything else. Is there anything
that is there something that you guys are doing different
this year that people can look forward to this year.
Speaker 4 (40:52):
We were talking about him earlier. Bill Belichick is gonna
be a permanent first half guest, permanent in every game
that we're doing this year, to talk about the defense.
We got Niners Jets first game. He'll come on and
talk about, you know, the three things that the Jets
are gonna have to do to stop Purty, you know
what the Niners gonna have to do to stop Aaron Rodgers.
(41:13):
He'll be able to talk about, you know, maybe some
coaching decisions that might happen. Look, I don't enough people
have gotten to hear Belichick's brilliance, right. He never shared
with everybody. His players know. I played for him in
two Pro Bowls. I have a sense of it. But
we've had rehearsals. I come away as a smarter football
(41:33):
fan after listening to him, and he's witty and he's dry.
He couldn't tell in the rehearsal when we were live
and when we weren't a couple of times so some
of the things he said when we were live and
he thought we weren't were great, and like, if we
could just get that a little bit, HELI I could
just trick him, like, Bill, we're not live, what do
you really think right now? So I don't know if
(41:53):
we'll do that to him as a rookie prank, but
I'm excited about that because he's Look, he's a brilliant
football mind, and I think viewers will have the benefit
of hearing from him and Eli and I looking forward.
Plus he doesn't like Eli because Super Bowls making fun
of Eli's encouraged here. So it should be a fun.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
Year, dude. That's that's gonna be awesome.
Speaker 3 (42:14):
Is there anything over these first few years that you
kind of look at and you're like, we need to
get better in these areas because obviously it's a new thing.
Speaker 4 (42:20):
No, we do a study in the off season, just
like you do when you're playing. And look, we have
those these guests on We've learned that when we're interviewing
a guest about why they love football and a big
play happens, we've got to cut him off or her
off and say, hey, hold that thought. I got to
tell you what Aaron Rodgers just did here. He just
(42:42):
checked to a wide receiver screen verse cover zero and
they just gashed the riders. Eli and I weren't doing
that enough because they want to be rude. We don't
want to interrupt y'all. But the fans have kind of
spoken in our little study that we did, and they said, hey,
we want to hear about the big plays that happened.
And Belichick's going to be a first half guest, and
(43:02):
then maybe just have two guests in the second half.
Try to have one former player or a current player,
and then maybe one celebrity. Maybe just to have enough,
you know, a football discussion in the fourth quarter, and
then maybe one celebrity because look, the show it's supposed
to be different than the main broadcast, right. They don't
want just me and Eli talking, so we have to
(43:24):
be different. Those are our instructions. So we think, uh,
you know, being sure the guests are dialed into the game,
and being sure we're always talking about what's going on
in the game. So and then if Eli would just
stop making forehead jokes. It's been four years, it's it's
it's expired.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
Got to find new materials.
Speaker 4 (43:41):
The yeah, you keep going back to the same stuff.
So those are a couple of things we want to work.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
On a couple of things.
Speaker 2 (43:47):
I know you're out of time, and I just want
to say thank you. This has been so awesome. The
stories have been amazing. I want to let you know
that we are also available every Monday, anytime.
Speaker 4 (43:56):
Maybe. Yes, we have repeat guests.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
Yeah, in a pinch.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
Just know that the boys got you.
Speaker 4 (44:03):
You were voted uh high in our off season study.
People appreciate it with the bust and bump, the stories.
Speaker 1 (44:10):
The rating, a little painting at the end.
Speaker 2 (44:11):
Yeah, see here there was a big jump here in
week eleven. That's get the pain we got.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
No, we never got the pain the hang on?
Speaker 4 (44:20):
Did we get the instagrams on the Instagram?
Speaker 1 (44:22):
I was gonna say we got instagram the class.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
But thank you, thank you for taking the time. Seriously,
this was awesome. We've wanted to get you on the
show for a long time. We appreciate you. You're a legend.
Speaker 4 (44:32):
No, no, really are bro.
Speaker 3 (44:34):
My dad's gonna be fired up at the cafeteria in
high school. I battled to the death for you. But
once Tom got a couple more, It's kind of like
but I'm talking every year. I'm like vein coming out
of my neck. I like it, but the boys got
your back. Bro, thank you so.
Speaker 4 (44:49):
Much as thank you appreciate it. Thanks.
Speaker 1 (44:52):
Thanks at
Boys.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
On this best of the Bus episode, the Sheriff himself,
Peyton Manning, invited us down to Saloon sixteen in Knoxville
for an all timer. We got to talk about what
it was like growing up a Manning while he chose
Tennessee over Ole miss and how Archie helped shape his
view of a leadership. Peyton also give us some insight
in his life after football, building Oma productions and turn
the Manning Cast into a much watch TV And yes,
(00:22):
if you are wondering, we get into the prank wars
between him and his brother Eli. Boys, this one special
tap in. Enjoyed the ride. Let's have a good day,
and while you're here, subscribe on Subscribery, subscribe.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
One of our biggest guests we've ever had, no question
about it, maybe the biggest.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Although Dale earn Hard Junior, that was a big one. Yeah,
that's a big one. But Peyton Manning, welcome to Busting
with the Boys.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
Thank you all for having me. Yeah, appreciate that. Honored,
very honored.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Just kick us off.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Brother walking in this room, Like, honestly, it's a rhetorical question,
but I'm gonna ask it anyway. Did you ever think
that you would leave a legacy like this because like
you come from a football family, like you're growing up.
You have all the footage where you're playing in the backyard.
Stuff they like when I'm young and I'm watching you
get you and your brother get talked about an archie
to where you see all the footage and you just
(01:11):
know that little kid in you that loves the game
so much and making such an impact that you've made
on this game, Like do you ever just sit there
and try to take a moment to take it in.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
I'm very grateful and honored for the teams and organizations
that I was a part of, but I cherished my
four years here at Tennessee. And no, I mean, you
have no idea that you're going to have this connection
and relationship with the university thirty years after I came
here back in nineteen ninety four. But I love coming back.
(01:42):
I stayed four years in college. Will I think people
here in Noxvill and Tennessee probably remember that more than
anything more than a throw or a touchdown, that I
turned the NFL down for a year to stay one
more year in college, which spoke a lot about how
much I'll loved the university in the whole school, in
the whole place in order to stay here. So it's
(02:04):
fun to come back. I love coming back to games,
and yeah, this place. After I got drafted by the Colts,
I was moving out of my college apartment. My mom
came up and basically we moved all of my college stuff,
just put him into a like a storage unit and
just it's been sitting here for like twenty years. And
opened this kind of hotel bar and I said, I
got a bunch of my mom kind of things. It's junk.
(02:25):
It's in this storage unit. Yeah, fucking dig in there.
So they went and that's that all this stuff. That's
what my mom thought of this stuff. It was all
basically garbage. But anyway, it's fun to come back.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
With choosing Tennessee, like your old man obviously went to
Old Miss, what was your recruiting process, like way back
in ninety.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Four, Yeah, that was hard. I mean, for years, Taylor,
I thought Ole Miss was the only school that ever existed, right,
I grew up in New Orleans. Of course, you know
LSU was the Bibby, the top school in the state.
But Ole Miss with the games we went to on
the weekends, and then all of a sudden, you're a
junior in high school and you start getting recruited by
other schools. And I really didn't know how serious it
(03:04):
was up until I got my first handwritten letter from
Bobby Ballden at Florida State. And yeah, I guess I'd
heard enough about recruiting. There was a lot of form letters,
the type letters, but you got a handwritten letter. I
mean I checked it. It smeared. I mean, it was
a legitimate handwritten letter, Bobby Ballden, and I was like, Okay.
I figured, if he's writing me a handwritten letter, tell
(03:25):
me he's going to recruit me. Maybe there are some
other schools out there that are interested. And that's when
I started kind of looking around, I guess, opening my
eyes up a little bit. And had a great visit
here to Tennessee. I was snowing, didn't get to really
see the stadium in its glorious view, but met a
lot of good people. And my brother Cooper went to
(03:46):
Ole Miss on scholarship. Taylor had a neck injury had
to stop playing, and he was in the right school
for him if football didn't work out. And that's kind
of when I said, that's really how you should choose
the school. If I get hurt the first day, but
I'd be happy in the school. And that's kind of
how I felt about here at Tennessee. So and my dad,
I give him credit. If he would have said, son,
(04:06):
you're going to Old Miss. That's the end of the story.
That would have been it. I would have said, yes,
sir dev He said, you're eighteen years old, You're old
enough to make your own decision. I'll support you wherever
you go. And he'd call a lot of flak from
Old Miss people, and how could you not, you know,
make your son go to your school. You know, you've
kind of let us down. It was I think. I
know he was disappointed, and a lot of course when
Eli went to Old Miss, everybody made up it was
(04:27):
all good. But I respect my dad for letting me
make that decision. And uh, you know, I think when
you make those decisions, it's kind of you kind of
make it the right decision after the fact by just
going all in and not looking back. And so, uh,
it was a hard decision, but I appreciate my parents
kind of supporting me in it.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Man.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
I feel like if he was my boy he'd be
not to mention.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
He did come back a senior year, and ultimately the
season didn't go. It didn't end the way you wanted
it to.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
Well, look, I mean.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Was it like forty something the seventeen.
Speaker 4 (04:59):
It was it Nebraska? Yeah, I forgot about that game.
There's none of those pictures in here. Well I took out.
That's not just because you're here. Yeah, when you come back,
I mean you sign up for all of it, right,
I mean you sign up for it to be glorious
and to go undefeated and all that. Obviously, if I
would have gotten injured, you know I was. I was
(05:20):
okay with that. I just I felt like I'd rushed
my first three years in college. I was always running
a class, running the new interviews, and I didn't want
to be my age now for eight years old and
kind of wondering what was college even I don't remember
anything about college. My senior year, I slowed down. I'd
already graduated. I got more mentally stronger. My rookie year
(05:40):
with the Colts was a struggle. Right. We only one
three and thirteen twenty eight picks. I don't think I
would have handled that had I not stayed four years
in college. Right, that's the kind of season that can
kind of break you. But I kind of said, you know,
I'm actually doing some decent things. We're not winning any games,
and we went thirteen and three my second year. I
gave all that credit to stay in four years in college,
and so it was the right decision for me.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Now, did you come to come to that decision on
your own or was that sitting down and talking to
your dad, talking to people you loved me and like
what should I do?
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Yeah, it's funny, it's a great question because my dad
was always one of those guys that said, hey, ask
some different people some questions, like call some people that
have had this decision. So he kind of formed a list,
and I guess he I don't know how, Like somehow
he helped me get some phone numbers. So I called Troy,
aightman who stayed four years in college. He said he
really wanted to be the first pick in the draft.
(06:29):
That was important to him, and he was drew BLEDSOE
left as a junior. He said he knew he was
gonna be the first pick in the draft as a junior,
and he was like, I'm ready to go I'm a
totally name dropp here. I talked to Michael Jordan, who
came out as a junior.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
That's a that's a good name drop.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
Yeah, and he just said, look, I thought I was ready,
and so I guess I came away with it that
it's it truly has to be your decision of what
you really want. And I probably would have been the
first pick as a junior. The Jets had the first pick.
Interesting to see think how things would have turned out.
Parcels was the head coach, Belichick was the decordinator. Just
he ended up coaching the Patriots and Brady who knows.
(07:06):
So I just it was the it was the right
decision for me. So uh, Eventually you kind of gather
the information. You sort of had the old yellow notepad
out with the pluses and minuses. You look at them.
You know, it's kind of fifty to fifty either way.
You make a decision, you pray about it, and then
you go with it. Uh. And so it ended up
(07:26):
working out for me.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Your first year. You alluded to with the is it
still the record?
Speaker 4 (07:30):
Yeah, which which is amazing with seventeen games. Now, yeah,
seventeen games. I mean Mahomes is breaking every other record.
Why can't we break record?
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Right?
Speaker 1 (07:39):
How do you keep it?
Speaker 4 (07:40):
But the problem is when they struggled early with picks
that they take them out. Leave them in there, let
him learn right. Yeah, I'm with you, Jeez, I'm over it.
But record, I'm a piece. Eli would have broken it easily. Yeah,
he only started six games that I put him in there.
This is my top. I got a good chance this year.
(08:01):
We got we got several kind of good chance. I mean,
is mey gonna get the starting job? I mean I
don't want Nicks to do it in Denver obviously, but
if he.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Did do it, it'd be like, well that's a.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Right, Yeah, so you know you'll be the first phone
call for that rookie he does do it.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Put you got to say, whoever, whoever beats you to
send a handwritten letter.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Be a sixteen to seventeen game starter or so put
all these guys.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
In the now kind of like as competitors.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
When you start to when you have an up and
down year like that, and then you're three and thirteen,
you're like the you you were the first their first
round pick, and you do set the record for interceptions
like the mental fortitude on trying to keep the noise
out of your head going into that next year, because
I'm just I was obviously young then, but now thinking
about it, if a rookie quarterbacks, a rookie quarterback is
breaking that record, they're just getting drug across the mud.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
It was like it was tough. And I think playing
in Indianapolis probably would have been different had I been
with the Jets. If I would have been with the Jets,
and hey, part would have ventured me way before the
sixteenth game. But I don't know, maybe somewhere Indianapolis at
the time, being a smaller market, maybe that helped me
a little bit. So it was bad. Uh, you know,
(09:12):
we were playing on the CBS, you know, e broadcast
team every weekend, like you know, there was no Madden.
There was no Nance or Summer All or Phil Simms
coming to Indy. Uh, you know, no Monday night TV.
So but yeah, look, it's the kind of season that
can sort of can kind of make or break yet, right,
And I just we actually were in some games, you know,
(09:36):
everybody like nobody was getting up to play us, right.
We played the Niners that year, Steve Young, Jay Rice,
We played the Jets who went to the AFC Championship.
You know, they had us as a circled win. So
we actually had some actually fairly close games. We'd blow
it in the end. But that's what I kind of
went off of. I'm like, I think I actually can
do this if I just don't throw three interceptions in
(09:56):
the first half. So it didn't break me and my coaches.
Jim Mora had a tough coach, but he was loyal.
He stuck, He stuck with me. He said, hey, stay
in there, keep learning. We're going to fight through this thing.
And sure enough we did. I'm not sure if it's
been but at the time it was the biggest turnaround
in history from three to thirteen to thirteen and three.
There's no way I'd do that if I don't play
(10:17):
all those games rookie. So, uh, I tell all these
college quarterbacks. We were talking earlier about that camp that
we have, and I tell all these guys, it's a marathon,
it's not a sprint. Don't don't let them. You know,
a couple of bad seasons break you, right, just keep
learning from it and keep getting better.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Yeah, two thousand and nine, you're playing the Miami dolphins
and John Gruden crowns you the sheriff. Now this is
kind of just Hey, how cool is that nickname? And
also how long did it take the stick? Because sheriff,
unless you're writing a movie, there's no cooler nickname to
be bestowed on somebody.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
I uh, you know, I never ever once, if you
ever hear me referring to myself as a sheriff, shoot me.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
The sheriff.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
I've never wants texted, Hey, you know, sheriff will be
there at three o'clock. You know, please, My brothers would
would have have their way with me. Yeah, Gruden, Uh
what was his expression? You know? Uh? When when Peyton
comes to town, he lays down the law and he
always gets his man. He finds who he's wanting going
to get and he gets his man. So look, I
(11:22):
love Gruden and he was a great broadcaster. It was fun.
So I you love the nickname.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
The nickname, It's okay, it's the best nickname.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
I wave. I'll respond to people never call me Peyton.
They just yell omaha or sheriff and you keep going.
But like I said, I will never go third person
on you saying you know, Sheriff's heare.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
You know where were the teammates ever picking it up
calling you the sheriff.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
Yeah, no, for sure. Oh yeah, Vaughn, I mean von Miller,
I gets that's all they called me.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
That is Yeah, there's there's this legend of Peyton Manning.
I've had some teammates that play with you and they
would say they would tell stories like if a tight
end drop the pass and then a you get him
off the field, and then if a coach tries to
get him back on the field, You're like, no, no, no,
he's got to stay on the sideline.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Whether it was that, whether it was like whether it
was like that or not. When do you feel like
you started to like have that confidence in you two
take over like that?
Speaker 4 (12:18):
Yeah, I mean certainly not early on, not coming off
a tough rookie season, and like, I mean, the number
one thing that you want to do as a NFL player,
you guys know this is try to earn the respect
of your teammates, right, and when you're twenty two years
old as a quarterback, you got thirty seven thirty eight
year old grown adults in that huddle with you. My
first game in college here at Tennessee. I went into
(12:38):
the huddle. I was a freshman. You know, I kind
of had this pre planned speech for my first game.
I know, I'm just a freshman. Let's go down the
field and score where Big Left tackles, like shut the
f up and call the effing play. Yeah, And it
was the most It was like the best thing that
ever happened to me. Because college, high school, NFL, they
don't want to hear that. They want to see you
take a hit. They want to see you take responsibility
(12:59):
for holding the ball too long, right, not blaming you know,
the receivers or o linemen. So that's what I wanted
to do when I got to the NFL. So yeah,
it took you know years before that. I never kicked
the guy out for chopping the ball. I would kick
a guy out if he if he made a mental error,
like if he if he jumped off sides and maybe
(13:20):
did it twice. And the legend, the one, the one
that is, we were playing the Ravens one time and
this guy jumped off sides to start the series. All
we had to do is get one first down. We
were gonna run the clock out, and he jumped off sides.
On the first play, and sure enough we don't get
the first down. We punt to Ed Reid, who's you know,
(13:40):
remembers what I electric he was, and somehow we end
up stopping him and we win the game. So now
we're going to take the knee. We have the ball
with twelve seconds that we're gonna take the knee. So
the guy that jumped off sides is in the huddle
to take the knee, and I said get out and
he's like, he's like, what, We're just taking the knee.
I was like, yeah, get out out and so he
(14:01):
ran out. We had to substitute bring somebody in to
take the knee, and he said his dad asked of
after the games, like, why don't you have to go
out to take the knees? Like, oh, talk about it
killed this play, so uh, you know, But like like
I said, but it was all I was hard on myself,
people could. I probably cussed myself more in practice than
I did anybody else. So I think people knew that
(14:22):
I was hard on myself, and so when I was
hard on them, it was fair, right, And and I hope,
you know, my teammates felt that way, that it was
all about just trying to win. Let's try to do
it together. I never ever wanted to embarrass anyone. This
was a rookie receiver. I'm not going to mention his
name on the podcast. He may live in Nashville, so
he knows who he is. But that was kind of
(14:43):
a one a one off, if you will, dude.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
We had we had earlier this morning, we had Will
Levis on and Will Levis is talking about working himself
into a leadership role on how that looks for him.
At what point in your career did you know, Okay,
I can start telling these guys point blank, this is
how I as opposed to kind of like beating around
the bush.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
Yeah, it's a great it's a great question because it's
a feel h Taylor. I think I think you got
to do some things first, right, I think he got
to lead a two minutes drew that game Will had
against the Dolphins right last year, that was a that
was a good thing, Right. I think he can bank
that one and that that earns you some stripes. So
you love to have some continuity, certainly, you know, leading
(15:24):
a team to the playoffs or winning a division or
beating a team that you're not supposed to just those
kind of things where you just sort of kind of
check some boxes. That's that's how it was for me.
You know, I didn't say a whole lot in my
rookie year. I just wanted to earn their respect. And
you know, I had a two minute drive to beat
the Jets that year, and I was excited. But uh,
(15:45):
you know, I just don't think veteran players, you guys
know this, and they don't want to hear young players,
you know, barking orders until they truly have earned their respect.
And I think that's a process that takes a little time.
But I liked what Will did last year. You know,
he's tougher than nails. He stands in the pocket, he runs.
I like him to slide a little more, just to
(16:07):
stay healthy. Look, that's hard because I never could run.
I never had the option. But these guys that can run,
as you know, you still want to be there all
seventeen weeks, and so I'm pulling for him. I like
Brian Callahan. He was an assistant coach with me in Denver.
I think that could be a good uh you know,
head coach quarterback combo.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
How everybody talks about the Manning Brady rivalry when you
were in it, How real was that in your mind personally?
Like if you when after a game, are you are
you searching to see how he did?
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Like what was that rivalry?
Speaker 4 (16:38):
Yeah? I mean, I mean you always just knew, right,
if there's no Tom Brady, I mean you always you
always knew that, you know that the Patriots had won.
I mean I guess when it really started when we
played him in the regular season so many times, and
if we lost to him, you just knew we're going
to have to go play that New England in the
playoffs and this like we lost to him week one
one time, I'm like, we're coming back here in in January. Yeah,
(17:03):
And so you just knew they were going to be there.
They were so consistent. Look, it was Tom, it was Belichick,
it was defense, it was the whole thing, right, It
was just this kind of this triple headed monster. So
when you played them, yeah, you knew you had to
be on your game. You knew their defense was going
to be stingy. You know, you just they always Belichick,
(17:24):
you know, kind of the easiest way to describe him.
He always took away the things you really liked to do,
so you had to find something else to kind of
do well that game, and then Tom was going to
be on his game, so you had to score some points.
But you know, major respect to everybody during that era.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Yeah, we were.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
You were mentioning in your last answer about how you
feel like you corbacks just seem to do something a
little bit.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
Now.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
I fumbled a big question when we had a Rich
eisend on the podcast because my dad told me something
as a kid, and my dad told me this as well.
But I was told that when you first got in
the NFL, you didn't want to do any marketing stuff
until you kind of proved it a little bit.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
Is that? Yeah, that is true. I just didn't which
people would laugh at. Now. It's like, you know, you
do so many commercials, Peyton, I can't believe there actually
was a time when you didn't do anything. But yeah,
I think there's something to that about just kind of
earning your stripes a little bit and make that the
incentive right to go win some games and then, man,
(18:20):
some things are gonna come your way when you do it,
but not just because you got drafted or whatnot. You know,
to go and earn it and that's Look, those days
are probably out the window now because of what's happening
now in college right with an I l but uh, yeah,
I remember the first real commercial uh that I did
was kind of uh in my second year uh in
the NFL.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
We'd had a good season, so I felt like i'd
kind of maybe earned some stripes. I did a Gatorade
commercial with Michael Jordan another name drop yeah, against but
I can tell you where I was on the totem pole.
I never knew what a what a what a double
was for a commercial. Michael Jordan had this double guy
that looked kind of like him that just made a
ton of money, you know, filling in for Mike on
(19:03):
some of the commercials that he did. So I got
there and they said, hey, your double is going to
be standing in for you. I'm like, oh, I've got
a double. This is this is big.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
You went to see him and.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
They said, uh, they said, your hair is a little
longer than the double. Do you mind if we give
you a little haircut to match the double? I was like,
is that how it's supposed to work?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Like?
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Would you tell Michael to shave his mustache to match
his double? Something? Tells me I was pretty low in
the totem poll. But yeah, look, it's still kind of
my advice to rookies is, man, just go earn it,
go do it. But the team's going to try to
promote you, and the marketing team's gonna want you to
go meet every sponsor. I get that, there's excitement. It
really wasn't me as much Taylor as much as the
(19:44):
Colt's organization. I had a great general manager and Bill
Pully and who just said, hey, let this guy play
football first before you kind of start trying to use
them to promote the team and whatnot. And that really
helped me just kind of concentrate on football.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
With your nephew, has he kind of taken that same
approach that was.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
Kind of with My advice was, look, you know, he's
my nephew. He reaches out to me, you know, for questions,
but his dad's been around the block. You know, Cooper's
giving him great advice. And I think he wants to play.
He wants to establish himself, you know first, and you know,
obviously I think they got a good team this year.
I'm a big fan of Quinn. I've gotten to know him.
He comes down to our camp. The two of them
(20:19):
get along great. So I'm proud of him for staying there.
Most kids probably transfer in that setting, but he stayed there.
He likes playing for SARK, he likes the system, and
when he does get in there, he's going to benefit
from kind of having a little continuity in the system.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Yeah, I know, I know, it's my third one in
a row.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
But you're good.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Your nephew obviously calls you a lot, and I know
you and Eli have a big rivalry. Who do you
think he calls more?
Speaker 4 (20:43):
It's funny, you know, like he's I mean, these these
nineteen twenty year olds. I mean the text response rate
it's not super high, right, it's not a great completion percentage,
So I don't I kind of let him reach out
to me if he has a question. He came to
Denver a couple of years ago. We worked out. That
was fun. And he will every now and then text
(21:03):
me with a question about, Hey, a two minute drill.
This is what happened in practice today, And I'm sure
as soon as he texts me the question he regrets
it because you can't answer a question about a two
minute drill with a text back what the phone is.
You have to go to the voice memo. You have
to and it can't be just one. So you bang
(21:25):
them back with a seven minute voice memo response about
about the two minute about you know what the defense
is doing, and the plays that you like. You got
to go to your staples. Yeah, the plays that you like.
And you finish it and you're like, I didn't even
mention the fact that a defense after a time out
will probably come with an exotic blitz, so you better
call a max protection coming out of the time out.
(21:48):
And then you finish that when that's about a six
minute or and you're like, well, but totally even you know,
forgot about the red zone. Yes, And so three voice
memos later, send me a video back.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
Moore, Who do you think the favorite uncle is?
Speaker 4 (22:02):
So? I don't know if he has one, hope if
you did, I don't know. I mean I haven't really
seen it. I mean, Eli's a good uncle to my kids.
He is, he calls them, He's got nicknames for all
of them, you know, yeah, kids. So I've said we're
probably pretty equal.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Okay, you talked about two minutes, and then there's so
much poetry when you watch a good two minute drill
quarterback go down the field and just pick a part
of defense all the way through. It's truly something beautiful.
Is there a one two minute drive that sticks out
in your mind where you're like you essentially played chess
while the defense is playing checkers.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
I mean I mentioned this this one against the Jets
my rookie year. Belichick's the decordinator, Parcells is the head coach.
They go to the AFC Championship. So I don't know.
We had a fourth and eighteen, which is that you
have him right where you want him right.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Yeah, and it's an ideal situation.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
And so it was fourth and thirteen in Belichick went
all out blitz and so we are not ready for
we're gonna get sacked whatever. We had a false start,
so that takes it to fourth and eighteen. So now
that's always the chess game. Does the defensive coordinator do
the same blitz on the next play or since he
showed his hand, he's gonna do something different. So we,
(23:20):
of course the two and twelve colts go, well, he's
definitely gonna show the same blitz again. So we keep
eight guys in the block, saying like one guy out
on the route, and what does Belichick do? Drop eight
guys in the coverage. There's nobody open, and me like,
by the book, quarterback, hey, if nobody's open, throw your
check down. Probably not what you're supposed to do on
(23:42):
fourth and eighteen, right, But coach I was listening, I
was taking notes, and I throw this checkdown to Marshall
Falch and he breaks seven tackles and gets the first
down and then we go down away and throw a
game winning touchdown. So I always remember that one. But yeah,
the two minute drill to quarterbacks, the pressures on the defense,
(24:03):
they have the lead, It really ought to be a
time for a quarterback to kind of free up a
little bit, right, and let make the defense get tight. Right, Hey,
we can't give up this lead. Hey, let's better not
blitz them. We're gonna give a man a man. And
so you want to try to kind of lean into
that a little bit, But it means you've screwed up
in the first three and a half quarters to get
to that point as a quarterback. So it's your chance
(24:24):
to get out of a bad jam. But hopefully you
can play a little free in that situation, because nobody
really expects you to come back and maybe you can
surprise the crowd.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Yeah what what coordinator gave you the most problems?
Speaker 4 (24:37):
Patriots spellcheck Rex Ryan was tough, you know, he just
did things that didn't make sense to me. I'm like,
there's no way he can bring that guy, and he would.
I was always looking when I watched the defense will Okay,
you know they're never going to bring the will linebacker
and the strong safety, so we can eliminate that. And
(24:57):
then you watch the Jets or the Ravens game against
the Bills and they bring that exact wlitch and I'm like, dang,
you know, and so uh, I had a lot of
sleepless nights getting ready to play against his teams.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
The uh We've talked about you getting on other guys,
and a lot of times when the quarterback, especially an
established quarterback, speaks up as an offensive lineman, you don't
say a fucking word. You just sit there, You take it,
and maybe the locker rooms say, maybe please don't yell
at me in front of everybody like that next time.
But there was one situation when you were at the
Colts Jeff Saturday yelling about running the ball, which is
(25:33):
every offensive lineman's dream. If you if you can just
run heavy the whole game, the pressure's off, you can
bruise it and you walk over there, and this is
just I'm from an offensive line perspective.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
You come over there getting jet.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
And then you got four or five?
Speaker 5 (25:46):
Can you give them the whole listen, It's not that
big of a deal. It's not that big of a
deal that situation. Yeah, I mean, we were all frustrated.
We had this great drive to get down there, and
we called a run play. You remember those days, we
were a one back offense. We never had a fullback.
So the rules were if the defense just put too
many guys in there, you got out of the run
(26:08):
and you threw a quick slant or a fade to
Marvin or Reggie. And so the rams they went to
a you know, a crowded line of scrimmage, like on
first down and second down.
Speaker 4 (26:18):
So we threw through incomplete and we had run the
ball all the way down to that point. And now
on third down it's third and goal from the seven.
You throw again, so we go three straight incompletes. I'm frustrated,
but the line definitely is frustrated. So we're coming off
the sideline. I could just hear them over there talking
to the line. He's barely hearing.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
It.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
Yeah, yeah, I don't know exactly what he's saying, but
I know what he's talking about. And you're just sitting
there breathing. And finally I just go over there. And
as soon as I get over there, I'm like, this
is a bad movie. Oh my god, and they all
stand up. I got no back up. You know, Stokeley's
going the other way to the D B side of
the bench and uh so, yeah, I was miked up
at the time, and so that that lives on forever.
(27:04):
But Jeff was my roommate on the road. Our lockers
were next to each other. My locker in the Coast
locker room was right in between the offensive lineman. You
know a lot of times there's a quarterback section the
receiver section. I put it right in between the five
starting offensive lineman because those are the guys never protecting you.
Those are the guys who were talking all the time
(27:24):
about checks and audibles. I wanted them to kind of
know what I was going to audible too. I didn't
want them to be surprised, And so we'd sit by
each other on the plane ridse but yeah, that one
certainly lives on.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Lives on forever.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
You guys, tell I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
I was going to talk about when it's all coming
to an end, like your mortality. Obviously, you go out
with the Super Bowl, but you had the neck injury,
you had the you know, you had the things going
you had the things going on physically to where you're
throwing for like north to fifty touchdowns, you run forty touchdowns,
and then that last year you kind of know that
it's your last year going out, Like what was it
like for you when that mortality started to set in? Like, damn,
(27:59):
this game is it forever? Even though I've played, Yeah,
felt like forever.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
Yeah, I mean I think you just you just kind
of know, at least for me, when certain throws that
you used to always make that you just don't make
them anymore, and the ball's not going where you're where
it's supposed to, you just sort of kind of go, hmm,
that's different, and and so you sort of accept it.
(28:28):
And so I think somewhere in my last season I
kind of knew it was going to be my last season.
But Derek Jeter, I'm just on a name drop and roll.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Here putting good names out there.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
Announced his decision to retire before his last season, and
he told me that he regretted that because the whole
season was a tribute to Derek Jeter and in a
team sport. He said, it got to the point where
he was almost embarrassed by it because he was going
to play in Milwaukee and they had a and they
were giving him gifts, and he's like, it was all
(29:04):
about me, and the Yankees didn't have a winning season,
and so he said, hey, if you ever know you're
going to retire, announced it the day before you decided,
and then announce it the next day and be done
with it. Don't do it before the season. And so
I always remembered that, and so I kind of knew
halfway through that last season, this is probably going to
be it, but you just don't want to say it
because then it becomes kind of all about you. And
(29:26):
we had a good thing going. And so we got
to the Super Bowl, and of course they asked you
right away that game you kind of want one moment
just to enjoy that game. It was my eighteenth season,
and you know, I had a chance to win the
super Bowl. You want to sort of enjoy that night
and not talk about you right away. So I tried
to pivot and say, I'm just thinking about drinking a
(29:46):
lot of Budweiser tonight. And everybody thought, oh, he's got this,
but I was really I had no relationship. You're not
allowed to have a at the time, a beer relationship
as a current player. I was just I was that's
what I was going to do that night. I was
gonna drink a lot of beer. I was just trying
to get him to stop asking me about retiring.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
And then.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
Tony Dungee had told me, he said, even if you know,
just take one more month, just to let it sink in.
Don't make some emotional decision. Remember Dick Vermil kind of
won the Super Bowl and he said I'm retiring, and
then he missed it and he came back and coached
the Chiefs, and so I took about a month and
then I decided in March that it was going to
(30:26):
be it. I was thankful for the time I got
to play. Most guys get injured, they oftentimes it's not
their decision they get retired. So to be able to
do it on my terms, I was at peace with it,
and I was thankful for the time that I got
to play and the relationships that I made. I mean,
you know, the equipment manager for Tennessee picked me up
(30:48):
today at the airport, right. I cherished my friendship with him.
The equipment manager for the Colts texted me a picture
of his grandchildren today. And so those are my greatest
takeaways from my time playing not game, not a throw.
The friendships, as you guys know, with your teammates and coaches,
of the behind the scenes. The video director here at
Tennessee for me, is now the video director with the Broncos.
(31:11):
And you talk about a guy that's broken more film
down for me, and you know he and I are friends.
So anyway, uh, you don't get to play anymore, but
you still have those relationships.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Is there not a better group in a franchise than
the equipment guys.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
The equipment guys.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Are the number one cats everywhere we go. Guys, my
boy Joey over there, all of them, Yes, air.
Speaker 4 (31:33):
Of those guys. I mean, you know they have they
have what I call thankless jobs. I mean nobody, I
mean people only come to them when they need something.
I need lockers exactly I said, so show show appreciation.
I don't know how y'all did your clubhouse dues or whatnot,
but I was real big on, hey, take care of
these guys because uh, they love football and they want
(31:53):
to win. So uh, I still send my my clubhouse dues.
Do you really to the cults and the Roncos? No ship, Yeah,
I'm retired, and so I just uh yeah, because it's like,
you know, they you know it, don't obviously they're not,
you know, not seeing them every day. But I'm just
thankful for for them for what they did for me.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Did you guys do flat rates or did you do
practice squad as this much veterans or this?
Speaker 4 (32:18):
Yeah, that's the thing. We tried to kind of do
it different ways. I didn't necessarily like, you know, sort
of the public sign up list where.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
It was always Brett Kern for us who would sit
in front of the team. But here's how it's gonna go,
and just kind of label it for everybody. This is
where you're at, this is what you're putting.
Speaker 4 (32:34):
Yeah, which is fair, yes, fair right, because you know,
I think young players don't realize what these guys are doing.
They are staying there at midnight washing socks and jockstraps
or whatnot. So uh but it's a good it's a
good tradition and and uh yeah, it's it's funny. I
mean today I've talked to both those guys today, so
uh great, great memories.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
A good transition into tier talk or a tear talk.
Oh you gotta you got I did.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
But literally as soon as you said tear talk, my brain,
Like Men in Black.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
He was talking about.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
He was talking about like gift giving our cheer talk
we wanted to do with you is the best, Like
in your career, your top three gifts that you've either
given Oligneman, the team. I don't know how you've gifted
everybody but your top three.
Speaker 4 (33:18):
Top three Wow, I guess. I mean you have to
probably ask them, I guess. Uh. You know, Jeff and
Tartlan and those guys. I flew them all to the
Hawaii to the to the Pro Bowl, right, you know?
That was that was kind of one of the first
things that I did, custom made cowboy boots. Okay, I
(33:43):
mean you gotta understand now, this is this is two thousand,
two thousand and one.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Yeah, I mean you flew the O line to the
to Hawaii and there.
Speaker 4 (33:52):
And their spouses. You know, I'm just saying it's like,
I mean mahomes like that, they're like cooler things available
now at least I guess right. And so mom was
from the hard cowboy boots, custom made suits, overcoats, you know,
like always something fitted, you know, bring the guy in
(34:12):
electronics TVs. But it wasn't like it wasn't a it
wasn't a Christmas gift like it was you had to
have blocked well gift. Like one year two thousand and one,
we didn't make the playoffs and my left guards like
with no gift. This year, I'm like, there's no playoffs.
You know you ever seen Team Wolf, No Wolf, no
(34:34):
part you know, no blocking, no gifts. So but like
the rules change. I mean, you know, Tarat Glynn at
one point was making my left tackle was making I
don't know, like twelve million a year. Used to be quarterback,
take care of the poor old offensive line on the
offensive line and they're making banks. They're like, yeah, god bless,
(34:55):
Like what is this watch? I mean right, this is
not it's not even the best role x out there.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
This is right, Yeah, offensive linemen Offenseimemon gotta get paid.
That's a good that's a good call.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
Was there a how about this starting on line?
Speaker 4 (35:08):
No, I took care of all of them. Okay, here,
I took care of the wingman. Uh, you know, the
practice squad guys, and yeah, then you start spreading out
you got the tight ends, uh, receivers and so yeah,
like I felt like, uh, I tried to show, you know,
my appreciation for all those guys because you know, you're
you know, sometimes receiving some of the awards or whatnot,
but those are the guys that were making it, making
(35:29):
it happen. You know.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
I'm walking over to Peyton's locker, like, hey, you got
anything for your boy?
Speaker 2 (35:33):
For linebackers? Yeah, maybe for white middle linebackers.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
Yeah, oh that reminds me. No, never, never, never crossed over.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
We had not for pet Anger.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
We had we had josh Allen and we talked about
going to an empty situation. There's one middle linebacker that
you know is a liability and coverage he goes out
with your running back. Josh An called it a milk check,
white guy.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
I see him. That's why I'm going with I'm staying
in the box there. Yeah, no, no, no, you it
was it.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Did you ever have like a hey, listen over, white
guy out here. We got to take advantage of this
poor soul.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
It's funny. I mean, I think Zach Thomas a bunch
and that was kind of thing we always sick because
he was always in the middle. We were always like,
you know, I'm not sure if he can if he
can cover can we.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
Just can we get him outside the get him out there?
Speaker 4 (36:23):
And he was just what you said. He was so smart.
He never put himself and that.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
Oh yeah, you gotta know your weakness and checked out.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
He's like, no, no, you sending the sam out there?
The wheel out there? Yeah, couldn't. We could never get
him in that spot. And maybe look he was a
stud player, so he probably could have covered him. But
so we'll never know.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
I guess no milk checks you. You talk about the
gift giving is great. But one thing that I've always
appreciated you for with some of the clips I would
see about pranks you would do. You'd want to pull,
boil you empty the little thing. Do you have any
like top pranks you ever put on guys in the
locker room at you were like, man, I've done it.
Speaker 4 (36:58):
Just you know, I mean training camp, everybody had golf carts.
Coaches had golf carts. We were always trying to get
those moved, you know into like there was a little
pond in the middle of the training can that had
a little platform out there. We got the golf carts
moved out on that one time, big trash can full
of water leaned against the door in the dorm rooms
(37:21):
on the last night or training camp when their bags
are packed and their luggage should be on the floor
right which you know, oh yeah, last night, last night.
I can't. You gotta be last night. They gotta be
packed because we'd say practice in the morning. I kind
of get up and say, guys, practice in the morning.
I'm telling you you don't want to get on the road.
So you know, I just go ahead and pack up tonight.
(37:41):
It's a nice veterans And you lean that trash can
against that door, you know, about eleven thirty after bed checking,
you just you know, bang on that door hard. And
they opened that door and it's just a tidal wave,
the flood coming in. And like I said, you know,
if it only it's their dorm, it's not really good.
(38:01):
But when he gets that luggage. Oh yeah, they're nice
luggage that they've had. They got their picture with their
girlfriend probably on top of the bag. It's ruined. It's
trying to think. Uh. You another guy, guy in Denver
who had a uh had a picture of his girlfriend
(38:24):
in his room. I think it was like body paint
of her, you know, like I'm just it was an
interesting picture to have in training camp. And we got
it somehow, and we had a security you know, you know,
you have security on the floor right and like these guys,
you know, they take naps like you know, eleven o'clock,
And we put that picture like on the security guard's lap,
(38:46):
like as he was sleeping, and that kind of caused
a little stir. But the player like, why does the
security guard have a my girlfriend and body paint? So uh,
anything to keep you know, keep things loose, you guys
know the grind of train any camp, so just to
make things fun. But yeah, I miss that. I haven't
put a trash can full of water in a hotel room.
(39:10):
You want to mess with Eli Eli's Eli's got some
got some prank game. He's big with the cell phone.
His go to move for years was he could change
your settings you could change the language on your phone.
He'd like say, hey, well let's get a picture, you know,
and and uh, I'll take it of YouTube first. And
he's taken your picture, and he changes your phone to Chinese.
(39:32):
And now you can't get it out.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Now you can, you can't figure it out.
Speaker 4 (39:37):
Yeah, in general and settings are in Chinese. And now
his go to he is is a thing called text replacement.
The feature on your phone would be anything you text
often that's long worded, your address, your email, Hey, what's
your email? You know? Text replacement. If you put you know, p,
it auto corrects to your email. But see it autocorrects
(39:59):
to your Well, you can make whatever you want to
mean whatever you want. So he changes the word yes
on my phone to I just sharded okay. And so
when my wife says, hey, are you going to be
(40:20):
home for dinner? You know, quickly yeah, so she says, actually,
she's like, oh, I'm so sorry, are you okay? I'm like,
what what just happened? So yeah, anyway, respect that's a
good one. Don't mess with him.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
That is a solid one.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
What about this episode to bring you let's lock in?
They taped it, They taped it smart move, smart Move.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
You guys have had so much success with the maning
cast on all productions and everything else. Is there anything
that is there something that you guys are doing different
this year that people can look forward to this year.
Speaker 4 (40:52):
We were talking about him earlier. Bill Belichick is gonna
be a permanent first half guest, permanent in every game
that we're doing this year, to talk about the defense.
We got Niners Jets first game. He'll come on and
talk about, you know, the three things that the Jets
are gonna have to do to stop Purty, you know
what the Niners gonna have to do to stop Aaron Rodgers.
(41:13):
He'll be able to talk about, you know, maybe some
coaching decisions that might happen. Look, I don't enough people
have gotten to hear Belichick's brilliance, right. He never shared
with everybody. His players know. I played for him in
two Pro Bowls. I have a sense of it. But
we've had rehearsals. I come away as a smarter football
(41:33):
fan after listening to him, and he's witty and he's dry.
He couldn't tell in the rehearsal when we were live
and when we weren't a couple of times so some
of the things he said when we were live and
he thought we weren't were great, and like, if we
could just get that a little bit, HELI I could
just trick him, like, Bill, we're not live, what do
you really think right now? So I don't know if
(41:53):
we'll do that to him as a rookie prank, but
I'm excited about that because he's Look, he's a brilliant
football mind, and I think viewers will have the benefit
of hearing from him and Eli and I looking forward.
Plus he doesn't like Eli because Super Bowls making fun
of Eli's encouraged here. So it should be a fun.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
Year, dude. That's that's gonna be awesome.
Speaker 3 (42:14):
Is there anything over these first few years that you
kind of look at and you're like, we need to
get better in these areas because obviously it's a new thing.
Speaker 4 (42:20):
No, we do a study in the off season, just
like you do when you're playing. And look, we have
those these guests on We've learned that when we're interviewing
a guest about why they love football and a big
play happens, we've got to cut him off or her
off and say, hey, hold that thought. I got to
tell you what Aaron Rodgers just did here. He just
(42:42):
checked to a wide receiver screen verse cover zero and
they just gashed the riders. Eli and I weren't doing
that enough because they want to be rude. We don't
want to interrupt y'all. But the fans have kind of
spoken in our little study that we did, and they said, hey,
we want to hear about the big plays that happened.
And Belichick's going to be a first half guest, and
(43:02):
then maybe just have two guests in the second half.
Try to have one former player or a current player,
and then maybe one celebrity. Maybe just to have enough,
you know, a football discussion in the fourth quarter, and
then maybe one celebrity because look, the show it's supposed
to be different than the main broadcast, right. They don't
want just me and Eli talking, so we have to
(43:24):
be different. Those are our instructions. So we think, uh,
you know, being sure the guests are dialed into the game,
and being sure we're always talking about what's going on
in the game. So and then if Eli would just
stop making forehead jokes. It's been four years, it's it's
it's expired.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
Got to find new materials.
Speaker 4 (43:41):
The yeah, you keep going back to the same stuff.
So those are a couple of things we want to work.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
On a couple of things.
Speaker 2 (43:47):
I know you're out of time, and I just want
to say thank you. This has been so awesome. The
stories have been amazing. I want to let you know
that we are also available every Monday, anytime.
Speaker 4 (43:56):
Maybe. Yes, we have repeat guests.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
Yeah, in a pinch.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
Just know that the boys got you.
Speaker 4 (44:03):
You were voted uh high in our off season study.
People appreciate it with the bust and bump, the stories.
Speaker 1 (44:10):
The rating, a little painting at the end.
Speaker 2 (44:11):
Yeah, see here there was a big jump here in
week eleven. That's get the pain we got.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
No, we never got the pain the hang on?
Speaker 4 (44:20):
Did we get the instagrams on the Instagram?
Speaker 1 (44:22):
I was gonna say we got instagram the class.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
But thank you, thank you for taking the time. Seriously,
this was awesome. We've wanted to get you on the
show for a long time. We appreciate you. You're a legend.
Speaker 4 (44:32):
No, no, really are bro.
Speaker 3 (44:34):
My dad's gonna be fired up at the cafeteria in
high school. I battled to the death for you. But
once Tom got a couple more, It's kind of like
but I'm talking every year. I'm like vein coming out
of my neck. I like it, but the boys got
your back. Bro, thank you so.
Speaker 4 (44:49):
Much as thank you appreciate it. Thanks.
Speaker 1 (44:52):
Thanks at
Hosts And Creators
Will Compton
Taylor Lewan
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