Peyton Manning is no stranger to changing teams late in an NFL career after already becoming an all-time great.
Following 14 seasons, one championship and four MVP awards with the Indianapolis Colts, Manning joined the Denver Broncos and won his second Super Bowl and another MVP before retiring.
Another all-time great QB, Tom Brady, will make his debut with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the 2020 season after 20 seasons with the New England Patriots.
Manning spoke to ESPN’s Hannah Storm on Sunday and said that he’s surprised Brady is switching conferences, but that the six-time Super Bowl champion will be in great hands with his new team.
“He seems happy, he seems excited, I’m a little surprised he jumped over to the NFC, I always see Tom Brady as an AFC guy, he’s going to have to go through initiation to learn the ropes of the NFC,” Manning told ESPN. “They have a great team around him, (Buccaneers head coach) Bruce Arians was my quarterbacks coach in my rookie season and my first few years in the NFL, Tom Moore, my offensive coordinator is down there, Clyde Christensen. Tom is going down there to get coached by guys that I’m very familiar with, guys that know football, that love football and everyone knows how hard he’s going to work.”
As for the competition, Manning does not expect the rest of the division to roll out the red carpet and welcome the future Hall of Famer.
“He’s got a tough division, I don’t think the (New Orleans) Saints, the (Atlanta) Falcons and the (Carolina) Panthers are just going to just let the Bucs roll into town, so it could make for some interesting division games and matchups.”
Manning also has experience as the number one pick in the NFL Draft, he was selected first by the Colts in 1998. He recently spoke to LSU quarterback and presumptive number one pick in the 2020 Draft Joe Burrow and gave him some perspective on what it’s like entering the league after being selected first overall.
“I told him, when you’re the first pick in the NFL Draft, you are going to a team that has really earned the first pick in the NFL Draft,” said Manning. “There are going to be some holes there. There was a reason the Colts were picking number one that year, there is a reason the Bengals are picking number one this year, the Giants when they had Eli, other people have to step up and give him some help.”
“I tried to tell him, it’s a marathon, it’s not a sprint, I lost more games in my rookie year than I had in my entire high school and college careers combined, I threw 26 interceptions, that’s still an NFL record. If Joe wants to break that, I’d be OK with that, we’d still be friends. I tried to learn a lot that year, Jim Mora never took me out, I learned a lot of things in the fourth quarter of those blowouts about what it took to be an NFL quarterback and the next year we went from 3-13 to 13-3.”
Manning is also participating in the All-In Challenge to help raise funds for COVID-19 relief. His brother Eli is putting up one of the cars he won as Super Bowl MVP. Peyton thought about contributing a football experience, but changed his mind to something else due to a famous and viral video.
“The first thing I thought was coming and playing a football game with your kids, unfortunately I think people think all I do when I get around young kids is peg footballs at their heads like I did in that Saturday Night Live skit, so I’m not sure people would’ve bid on that,” said Manning. “I called Omaha and I’m going with golf in your hometown with your buddies and then going to a local restaurant with more of your friends to support that restaurant, tell some stories, talk about Brad Paisley and Nationwide commercials, have some laughs and raise money for a great cause.”
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