While Peyton Manning was always a demon on the football field, he also has a reputation of being a solid guy away from the field as well. He has had multiple appearances in industries that are quite out of his comfort zone- like TV commercials, appearances at the Saturday Night Live- and also as host of an ESPN series- something which he has handled with grace and panache.
Needless to say, this football legend has a gift for gab which would make an orator jealous. Interestingly, as hyped his speech was at the Hall of Fame awards- he still wasn’t a letdown- as he showed his emotional side while people applauded his mastery with the game.
Peyton Manning Shows Emotion at Hall of Fame Speech
Before Peyton Manning took the stage, several cameras reported him as holding his composure with dignified grace. After that, he went on and had fun with the speech, which albeit short, was peppered with inside jokes, funny anecdotes, and incidents from the football field. He joked about Ray Lewis- and his uber long speeches- which was in direct contrast with the rules this year as the athletes had to keep their speeches minimal.
He also didn’t forget to include his professional rival and long-term friend Tom Brady- who he considered would be a Hall of Famer in 2035- five years after he retires- where his acceptance speech would be a caption on Instagram.
But this is when Peyton Manning showed the emotional side of the superstar. He spoke about the Hall of Famers of the past- naming as many legends as he could and paying his respects to them. He mentioned almost every Hall of Famer from every generation- Michael Irvin, Barry Sanders, Deacon Jones to Steve Largent.
He couldn’t keep the emotion out of his voice when he spoke of his father- who incidentally presented him with the award. Speaking about Archie Manning, he mentioned how his father was his favorite quarterback and was also his hero. Unsurprisingly, Peyton Manning also found time to talk about his brothers- the famed Manning trio.
