NFL insider reveals reason why Peyton Manning turned down lucrative ‘Monday Night Football’ opportunity
By SDS Staff
Published:
ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” made a real run at Peyton Manning to be the centerpiece of its 2019 coverage, but Manning turned the lucrative opportunity down.
Now, we know why.
NFL insider and Yahoo! Sports’ Charles Robinson, citing sources, says Manning didn’t feel comfortable analyzing his younger brother, Eli, as well as some former teammates and friends. The “Monday Night Football” schedule includes a pair of New York Giants games in which Peyton would have to analyze (and potentially criticize) Eli and others.
Here’s the skinny Robinson:
“If he ever decides [Monday Night Football] is something he wants to do, it’s going to be after Eli has finished his career and he gets a little bit further from his era of playing and maybe some of his teammates have moved on, too,” one source said. “It would have been a tough position for him this season, with the Giants [and Broncos] being on the schedule. There is a lot of loyalty there for him and I don’t think he’d ever want to be in a position where he’d be conflicted about his analysis. It just wouldn’t have been a comfortable situation this year.”
Peyton can do whatever he wants now that he’s retired from football, but most think he’ll land a NFL front-office gig at some point, if not the “Monday Night Football” role — when Eli retires.
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