For the first time this season on the ManningCast, Peyton and Eli Manning will have a different group of guests for their alternate broadcast of Monday Night Football between the LA Rams and San Francisco 49ers. Peyton revealed on The Steam Room podcast with Ernie Johnson and Charles Barkley that no current players will be a guest during the game.
For Manning, he hopes that the “ManningCast curse” does not become a thing, because unlike another famous video game curse, the athletes aren’t paid to continue to be a part of it.
“If somebody at ESPN said well the Madden curse, players kept doing it no matter what. I said that’s because they were getting paid. If you get paid, you don’t care about a curse. Last time I checked, we are not paying anyone to come on the show. Obviously, I hope it is not true. Right now, it is what it is.”
Some of the guests for this week include Al Michaels and Philip Rivers, so even without current players, it should still be a fun broadcast on Monday.
When Manning is broadcasting the game, he is not exactly the person who is going to breakdown every single play. He likes to watch games with a group of people and he never has had real interest in being an analyst.
“I like being a fan, an ambassador. I like being on the positive side of it. Kept talking to ESPN through the years in this second chapter for me and talked about doing something different. We came up with this concept.”
As for whenever Manning’s name is mentioned in any job opening, he told Johnson and Barkley that while he is flattered by being mentioned for some openings, he doesn’t feel qualified for some of those positions.
“Everybody wants to try to be the one that has the scoop, that’s breaking the news. Some of them don’t say this is what we think is going to happen, some of them this is going to happen. I always thought I would know what job I was going to take. How does this guy know before me? You do kind of laugh.”
