Retirement suits Eli Manning.
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The former New York Giants quarterback is teaming up this season with his brother, Pro Football Hall of Famer Peyton Manning, to anchor ESPN’s alternate broadcasts of Monday Night Football.
In doing so, the “ManningCast” has become must-see TV.
Following the New England Patriots’ 14-10 win Monday over the Buffalo Bills, Eli joined NFL Network’s “Good Morning Football” to discuss his broadcasting career.
Kurt Warner, Eli’s former teammate, asked about the favorite part of working on the “ManningCast.”
“You know, I think just getting to hang out with my brother. I don’t get to see Peyton all that often. When we were both playing, he was in Indianapolis or Denver. I’m in New York. So we didn’t get Thanksgiving holidays together and Christmas holidays together, so we were always kind of separate. We try to get together in the offseason but to know, hey, I’ve got 10 Mondays where I get to hang with him, talk with him a bunch during the week, kind of just coming up with funny stories that we can bring up during the cast. And so, it’s been fun to go on Monday nights, get to watch a football game with my brother which I hardly ever get to do and haven’t done in 20 years at least. To get to do that, watch a football game and make fun of him for three hours on live TV. That’s a pretty good scenario I didn’t know existed when I retired. I didn’t know that was a possibility but I found it and I’m very happy.”
And that’s when things got interesting. Eli and Peyton have made America smile this season with their endless supply of one-liners. And Eli was back at it Tuesday when asked what it’s like to team with Peyton as a co-worker.
“Just how I expect him to game plan and to work and to be extremely prepared. He sends a lot of voice memos, and I didn’t know much about the voice memos. It’s different than a voice mail. He does not call me. He just texts me of him talking, a text of him leaving, sometimes they’re four or five minutes. Sometimes they’ll go for like 22 minutes. And I’m sitting in my office, and there’s Peyton talking. My wife will walk in, be like, ‘Who are you talking to? Is Peyton still talking? What could he possibly be talking about?’
“And you know, it’s just what he sees about defenses, stories. About who he’s talked to, what he wants to do. What I need to do. Who I should talk to. What perspective I got to look at. So he has everything game planned and is telling exactly what to do and so, I just shake my head, and he’s telling me, hey I got to watch this detail he did on Mac Jones. I’m like, ‘Just send me a voice memo of what you said in the detail because I’m not watching all these things you’re trying to get me to watch.’”
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Mike Rosenstein may be reached at mrosenstein@njadvancemedia.com.