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Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Football season is upon us - Who is Peyton Manning?

This past weekend, I saw a rerun of Saturday night live with Peyton Manning as the host. I have to say, he's actually a pretty funny guy...

There was one piece of information I always thought I knew about the guy and now I find out it's not true... I always thought he went to Ole Miss and it turns out he is a graduate of University of Tennessee. My father-in-law was a professor of Business at UT and he could have had him in a class... Who knows... I guess I just always assumed he went to Ole Miss because that's where his father and younger brother, Eli, went to school. I also thought I read somewhere that he had an even younger brother who was at Ole Miss now, but it turns out he doesn't. Eli is the last of the line. His brother, Cooper, played football but his career was ended by injuries before it even started. Cooper DID play football with Ole Miss but apparently he suffered a spinal cord injury and didn't play after that.

But, after seeing Peyton on SNL, you can tell his life isn't just football. He has a natural ability to deliver comedy that you don't get by accident. In his opening monologue, he is telling, "...those of you who don't know it..." that he comes from a football family. He tells of his father being Archie Manning, one of the greatest QB's of all time, he tells of Eli being the QB of the New York Giants and then he tells of his mother, who tried football but couldn't make it. "She got cut by the dolphins, she tried football in Canada for a while. Yeah, she's our greatest disappointment." And the whole time, his mother and father are laughing in the audience. You can tell this is an old joke in the family and that they tease each other. Had this been the first time he had made this joke, had this been the first time he actually "hacked" on his mom, I don't know she'd be laughing.

You could tell, this is a family that laughs together. You can also tell this is a family that loves each other fiercely.

One question though... Where was his wife? Why wasn't she in the audience? I read something somewhere that she prefers to stay out of the spotlight and let Peyton shine. One thing about Peyton is evident... When he walks into a room, he's going to shine no matter WHO'S there; he has that kind of persona, that when he walks into a room, even if he weren't one of the greatest QB's to play the game (I say one of because I am an Elway fan. Always have been, always will be), he's larger than life, so dominant is his personality.

Is there another reason? I can only speculate at this point. I mean, she met him before he was who he was so the argument could be made she loves him for him, not for his job. But, why wasn't she in New York with him when hosted Saturday Night Live? The rest of the family was there so it was obviously a family event. It was his birthday and she wasn't spending it with him? Is she REALLY happy to "let him shine" or is she just an ego away from resenting his shining over hers?

I didn't start this blog to hack on Ashley Manning. I'm sure she's a lovely girl with many wonderful attributes so let's go back to Peyton...

As I sat there watching SNL and Peyton, it occurred to me... He could easily carry a situation comedy. Once he's done with football, he really should consider a career in television or comedy movies. He's got GREAT comedic delivery and with good writers, he could have a second career as a "great one".

Here are some links on YouTube:

Phony United Way Commercial
SNL Monologue
Sprint Commercial
Several MasterCard Commercials:
Commercial 1...
Commercial 2 (this one is my favorite...)

The point is, this is a funny person and he's not afraid to show it. He probably has more commercials I haven't even seen but the one's I have seen are friggin' hilarious! If you do a search on YouTube, you'll find more.

So, I'll sign off for now; I need to take my son to school. But I HAD to blog this because this is worth telling the world, Peyton Manning is probably as funny, if not funnier, that a lot of comedians out there in sitcoms. Someone should take a look at him, perhaps put him in a sitcom on the off-season? Film it in Indy so he can still be with his wife and base it around, I don't know, stupid stuff like these commercials... I think it would be huge!

But then, what do I know?