"Peyton Manning"

0:04You know, I'm here because we're recording a new Smartless. And what you can't see is that every time I say smartless, I'm just going off mic on the L into the ESS. So I go smartless. Because it can make you, you can try it at home. Sometimes that L into the S, you can get a little click into it, right? Like if you say the word models, you want to just go off. Or you don't want to explode on your P. You don't want to have the plosions. So if you're going to say, that's perfect. What you can't, I just go perfect. Just off to the side of the mic so I don't go perfect. Anyway, we're a little into the weeds.

0:41We're a little inside baseball in the VO world. But I tell you what, we are not. We are not afraid to give you an all-new SmartLess. SmartLess.

0:57SmartLess.

1:03SmartLess.

1:07So, listener, you're part of a double reboot episode. Yeah, we had two reboots. Both Will and I had to reboot this morning. Which you are the reboot champ of our trio, for sure. Yeah. For some reason, my computer is always the one that's a little, you know, it's Adele. I love her. Great musician, bad computers. Yeah. I want to speak any of great musicians great singers can I just say that within just recently we lost a great friend the great Jimmy Buffett Jimmy Buffett yeah and and it was just such a huge loss and loved the guy and very close friend of yours close friend of the whole family yeah I knew Jimmy a long time I mean we weren't best friends but he was we were definitely good friends and good family friends and the kids and everybody in my, you know, obviously my heart goes out to Delaney and Savannah and Cameron and my dear friend Jimmy's wife, Jane.

2:10Love them all. Yeah, I'll second that. Yeah, you guys know Jane, just one of the all-time greats. She's great, yeah. Yeah, super sad. Super, super sad. Yeah, sorry about that. And a huge, huge loss. What an awesome guy, apart from being an incredible singer-songwriter, just a big-hearted guy. Yeah, he's one of those guys, too, that you hear after how many friends he had. You're just like, oh, my God, everybody knew him. Everybody loved him. Yeah, he was the most generous, kind dude. And I have so many memories of him being really generous and kind, not just to me but to my kids, especially the big kids.

2:42God, spend a lot of time with him. Yeah, just a great example of a person that I'm sure that, you know, since this was tragically not sudden, he had time to review, I'm sure, of how he's used his years and talk about, you know, we're all going. We're all leaving. Yeah. So, like, what do you do while you're here? And how do you help people and help your family and utilize your uniqueness? You know, there's only one of everybody. So he seemed to really be a poster child for that. One of the all-time greats. And so we love you, Jimmy. And we miss you already, but you are not forgotten, my friend.

3:20I love that. Yep. So right before we get to our guest, Sean, quickly, how are you finding your first week back from the Tabasco Theater? I mean, are you enjoying being home in L.A., revisiting with your sheets, your pillows? Yes, oh, my God, it's so nice. My body still thinks I need to be somewhere and perform, but I'm almost over it. They call me, because I know they wanted to do more. They call me, and they said, listen, and they said, you know, Sean's leaving, but would you ever consider it? Sure. And I said, you mean coming to do Oscar de la Ville? And they said, no, forget it. We got the wrong number.

3:56it sounds just like no i'm good i'm i'm happy you mean mario mario brothers you don't take a lot of adjusting to get back into kind of just doing i do actually i'm i'm pretty uh tired i'm uh i'm gonna have energy but you got to the house where your slippers happy to see you they greeted me with open arms and put them right on. How's Ricky? How's Ricky doing? Good. Everything's good. It is weird. That's the dog, Tracy. What's that? I was just telling Tracy that that's a dog. But Tracy knows his dog's name. Tracy knows his dog. She's the aunt. No, I'm excited. Everything's good. Everything's good.

4:37Everything's back to normal. It's like I was gone in two days. Jason's getting ready for his intro. He's still doing some copying and pasting. No, I'm doing, I'm in a deep sweat here trying to find, you know, because of the reboot, listener. Remember we talked about the reboot? I lost my notes during the reboot, but I just pulled them up out of the bin. Great. Guest, you're safe. Okay, guest. Guest. Here we go. Here we go. We got a real superhero this morning, guys. Our guest today is, without dispute, one of the best athletes the world has ever seen. This is my department. And his sport of football, he might be the best we'll ever see.

5:14Wow. He is the NFL's only five-time most valuable player. What? He's a 14-time Pro Bowl selection. It's Peyton Manning. He's the first to win a Super Bowl with two different teams. Yeah, it's Peyton Manning. He's been inducted to the Hall of Fame, and he has more individual records than we've got time to mention. It's Eli's brother. It's Eli's brother. Will! His charitable and philanthropic efforts are equally impressive with his own foundation and scholarship fund. Having mastered playing football, he now dominates television while also finding time to maintain a 23-year marriage. He's a father to 13-year-old twins, and he's able to grade papers as a professor at his alma mater.

5:53Please welcome Will. Peyton Manning. I mean, come on. The sheriff is here. Hi, Peyton. As soon as you said five-time, you said five-time. Yeah, there's nobody left. Wow. Oh, did you have it, guest, Sean? I did. Sean had it. Quite the intro. Peyton, first of all, I've said this a lot over the years. From the first time I saw you on a sketch program, of which I'm not going to mention, and throughout all the number of commercials you've done and things you've done, I have said, and I don't want to embarrass you, Peyton, I think you're the best actor-athlete of all time. Yes, of all time. I have a question about Hall of Fame.

6:32Hall of Fame, awesome timing. And that's not a thin category. It's not. It's a big category. So, and I say this not to embarrass you, talk us through a little bit how the Manning cast started, because I love that you guys ended up doing it and that you're on TV every week, you and your brother. Yeah, he's awesome, too. How did that come about? What was the thing that you guys were like, oh, shit, did somebody come to you or were you like, Eli, we should be sporting our junk on TV every week? Well, yeah, it's funny because I hate to say anything good, you know, came out of the pandemic. but obviously there was a lot of things being done remotely during the pandemic, including broadcasting, certainly.

7:11And so I've been in talks, Will, with doing the traditional broadcasting, right, which I don't think people understand what that really entails, right? The Chris Collinsworths, the late John Madden who really created it, it is go to the town where the game is on Friday, watch practice, interview the home team, Saturday visit with the visiting team coming in, and then sit around all day Sunday or Sunday night or even Monday to do the game. And then when you get back home, you're really not home because you better be studying where the left guard went to high school and what his 40 time is. I mean, you have to know more than a quarterback would.

7:53A quarterback just has to know the defense, right? A broadcaster, you've got to know special teams. You've got to know the depth chart. And so anyway, that's what I did not want to do because I got young kids playing sports, wanted to be there on the weekends. My dad was at my youth basketball games, you know, peewee football games, those kind of things. So that was the priority. And then, so I kind of approached ESPN. I was like, you know, I saw the remote thing. Is that going to continue? I could get my brother. He's unemployed. I could get him, you know, kind of into the mix. I mean, literally, Eli, I mean, he literally thought they were joking.

8:30He's like, wait a minute. They're going to pay me to watch football with my brother from my own house in New Jersey. He's like, yes. I know I went to Ole Miss, but I'm still smart enough to know that's a good deal. I will do this. And so that's how it, yeah, the whole family will. That's amazing. That's how it came about. And so, look, we feel like we are at a bar or on the couch watching the game together, which we would be doing anyway. and the viewer is sitting there with us and our guests, they have to love football. Will, that's the number one criteria. You gotta love football. And what's cool to me - Will called in, right?

9:05Like, I'm supposed to call in. Yeah, we'd love to have, we'd love to have all of it. I mean, now that Sean's an expert, you know, picker of the spread. Yeah, but also, but Peyton, I used to play football when I was a kid. Which is critical, which is critical to being on it. You have to have played flag as a third grader to get on. No, no, I was tackle football. Really? Can you tell us about that, Sean? Sean, your dad watched your games. I heard it through the rearview mirror, right? As he was driving away. A lot of sides. View mirror. As he was driving away, Sean's family, Sean's dad famously left his family.

9:38But Peyton... Top speed. You know what's funny is we started a smart list during the pandemic as well. Top speed. And we can't believe that anybody would want to sit around and listen to us just shoot the shit. It seems ridiculous, even today. It's shocking. It's just, no, it's different. And I think people, like I said, I think when the game's good, we're talking about the game. When the game's not so good, nobody wants to hear about the third and one run play and what defense they were playing when it was a one-yard game. Like, who cares? Let's talk to, you know, Condoleezza Rice about why she likes football.

10:15So I think the cool thing about it, Will, is that there's so many people from different backgrounds. I mean, we had President Obama last year. Condoleezza Rice. Snoop Dogg is a huge football fan. He's been a youth football coach in LA for years. Sean, do you know who Snoop Dogg is? Yes, I do. I do know who Snoop Dogg is. But, you know, I mean, it's like it just brings people together, which I think, which is a cool thing about football. And it doesn't matter what your background is or where you came from. I love football. Liverpool is my favorite team. Oh, boy. I watch every Saturday. And this timed out perfectly right Peyton because you're staying at home your kids are your kids are your kids 13 yeah they're 12 7th grade and yeah I mean boy and girl twins like literally Monday on uh uh my daughter has a volleyball game at four o 'clock mountain time that I'll go to and then at five I'll drive over to my buddy Scott's garage which is where I film it and do the show at 6 15 and I'm home at 9 30 so how did Scott wait how did Scott hang on how did Scott's house turn into the studio Great quick story.

11:19You know, Scott owed me a favor. When you win a football game as a quarterback, you have about 50 texts after a game. When you lose, you have three. Your wife says she loves you. Your dad who played says, hey, tough night. I'm proud of you. Hang in there. Your other brother who's a quarterback, Eli, hey, you know, some tough conditions, you know, get them next week. What you don't do when a quarterback loses is replay the game in the text. Like, you don't say, hey, really sorry about those four interceptions. Yes, thank you. I remember. I was there. It was 20 minutes ago. My friend Scott, you know, we've all done this.

11:56Have you ever texted someone accidentally? You're talking about them and you text the person that you're talking about? Yes. I threw four interceptions against the Bengals one night. I come in, I got four texts. My dad, my brother, my wife. I have a fourth from Scott who texts, says, hey, do you think Peyton has money on this game? Okay. I mean, we've all been there, right? Do I respond? No. Do I know it's an accident? Yes. Does Scott call me on Thursday to say, hey, my 10-year-old was playing with my phone if you got a weird text? I'm like, all right, Scott. The fact that you blamed your 10-year-old son, now I have a problem with it.

12:34So 10 years later, I said, Scott, I need your garage, okay? You owe me. That was mental trauma. So I'm using your garage, and that's how it came about. No. Now, Peyton, do you just not have the space in your studio apartment that you live in? Yes, it's tight quarters in there. The equipment, I didn't know this, stays there all year. I thought it was like we're going to pop in and we'll pop out when we come back in a couple weeks. We only do 10 games, by the way. We don't do all 17. I don't want to see Eli 17 weeks in a row via Zoomer. and so that equipment staying there year-round didn't excite Ashley.

13:10We were doing a little house construction, so that's why I called Scott's Garage. Eli does it from his back house in New Jersey. Scott's got an extra man cave, right? He does. He does, which is not a cool word to use on TV, so we say garage. Yeah, exactly, Jason. How dare you? There might be some good tax implications for Scott, too. Scott's getting a sweet depreciation. I don't really know what he gets out of it. He wants to come before the game. I don't let him come. I'll let him come like twice. Two out of the 10 games he gets to come by, which I think is plenty. You don't let him come by to his own crowd.

13:42He needs to vacate his home? Does he have children or pets or anything? He doesn't live there, you know, at least that I know. He's a car collector, but that's where it is. But, yeah, I think two games is plenty. It's good. You've got to get him on. Oh, God, but he liked that. He would like that so much. He obviously likes football because he was watching that Bengals game in the fourth quarter after I'd already thrown four interceptions, so it's clear that he's a fan. Oh, my God. That is so good. We'll be right back. All right, back to the show. So, Peyton, when you went – I was curious to what Will was saying before about going from, you know, football to acting or, you know, just kind of all-around personality.

14:29What was it like to go – what was it like your first time when someone was like, hey, we want you to do this commercial or this thing or whatever it was, whatever the first thing, and how awkward it must have been not being an actor to kind of look at the camera like, this is bizarre. I don't know if I want this. Or was it something you wanted and you're like, I can do this. What do I do? What was the feeling like? Yeah, it's never really something that I, I guess, wanted or thought that I was going to be able to do. You play quarterback and all of a sudden you start getting asked to do a few different things.

15:02They want you to come speak to a school, right? And certainly you do interviews. Now, I will say my dad having played for 14 years, Sean, that helped me, right? I mean, I think my dad helped me as much with things off the field that come with being a quarterback as opposed to just on the field. I mean, he always said, do your interviews after you lose. Sign autographs. Yeah. And is that something you have to hone, being able to interview and stuff like that? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I mean, you try to, I still say, uh, and you know, too much. And he's always still to this day, my dad texts me and Eli at halftime with like a full, you know, grade of the film.

15:41Like Peyton, you know, quit saying, uh, quit saying, you know, I mean, it's like literally, it feels like we're back in kids. So the commercials, look, you know, I remember Will, you know, saying that to me. People told me, hey, well, you have good timing. I'm like, yeah, I try to throw the ball on time, try to hit the receiver out of the break. They're like, no, in commercials. And so I don't really know what that means, but I know that I like to laugh. I know that my brothers made fun of me a lot, and I laughed at that, and I would dish it back. I know that in an NFL locker room, Sean, you better have thick skin.

16:12You better be able to take it. And so for a football player to take their helmet off and show that they don't take themselves too seriously, I guess that's kind of what I think about. But by no means, don't insult acting by saying I'm an actor, right? I'm an ex-jock that can read a script and can say the line in the way I would normally say it. I think that kind of helps. But you've got an infectious comfort with your own skin. It doesn't seem like it's something that's new. But, JB, I think that that is, and Peyton, you said it, I think it is that you get the sense that you don't take yourself too seriously, which is great.

16:50And having that ability to be able to laugh at yourself is key to it, especially obviously in comedy, not that I'm an expert on comedy, but I think that that is a big part of it. Also, you're not unused to pressure situations. You've been in a few. Right. Right? So when they go action, you're like, okay, I mean, I'm shooting a commercial or I'm doing a thing that's, yeah, I was in the fucking Super, I went to Super Bowls. Like, that's a lot of pressure. I mean, the one thing, and like I said, that, you know, football is live and you mentioned a certain show that's also live. And I wasn't necessarily that nervous when I did that because I screwed up live so many times.

17:31I mean, I threw six interceptions against the Chargers one night, would have thrown seven easily. Thank God we ran out of time. And so - I just texted you about that. You did? You remember that game? Yeah. I just want to remind you about those interceptions. Yeah, thanks for bringing up all my highlights on this show. And so, you know, I guess when you're used to doing live and screwing up live that when you know you can read a line and have a chance to do it again in a commercial if it doesn't go well, I guess that certainly makes it a little less stressful for me. But I'm pretty coachable, I will say.

18:01When the guy says, here's what I want you to say, my Tennessee education goes as far as at least being able to follow those instructions. Right, right. I remember that because I remember when you did that show, and I remember my ex-wife Amy, we talked about, we were like, Man, I didn't talk to you. I wasn't famous yet then, so nobody wanted to talk. None of the guests wanted to talk to me yet, none of the hosts. But I remember us talking about it at the time and being like, man, he was so good and relaxed. That was what it was, is you were really relaxed, which is key. I mean, that was easy to be relaxed because I was around some incredibly talented people.

18:41I think the favorite part about that particular show was being – I got to go in the huddle with, you know, in a football game, Will, you don't get to have a 12th guy in the huddle, right? You don't get to have a shadow for the day. I'm like, hey, you're in the way. Get out of the, you know, running back's path. And so in that deal, I love going behind the ropes in a different field. And so that's kind of what's been fascinating to me in some of the different things I've gotten to do. Yeah. But you definitely needed to find a confidence and a sense of peace with being the center of something and being comfortable with basically having the ball.

19:18You ask for the ball. Yes. So for the people who don't play football, can you put it at the risk of asking a heavy question early on? What is the most important thing that your average person should reach down and grab when they're asked to show their excellence? What is that part of you that you tap into where you're comfortable in a leadership position that you have the confidence to execute? Did that start really young? Is it something that you learned? Yeah, that's a good question because I think, look, for me, it goes back to kind of preparation. I mean, you know, in football, I couldn't throw it, you know, 80 yards down the field like some of these guys can now.

20:03I mean, I think Josh Allen and Mahomes can literally throw it 80 yards on their back foot. couldn't outrun anybody. If you ever watch me play, Sean, you should know that, right? I had a coach tell me once that I couldn't run out of sight in a week. Right. That was nice. Took me a lot of thinking what that meant. But I think it means I'm not fast. And so I was like, I got to out-prepare them. I got to study more film than them. I got to know my plays. My receivers and I got to be on the same page more than anybody. And so I think that preparation has served me in these other capacities. he's like, I am not afraid to ask questions.

20:38I go, hey, Amy, tell me how you want me to say this. Tell me what you want me to do. Hey, director, what do I do? My dad used to give me quotes as a kid, and there was a great quote he gave me when I was in high school. Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Chuck Knoll once said, pressure is something that you feel only when you don't know what the hell you're doing. And, man, that just stuck with me at the time in school, but it applied to football. Nervous? You bet. I got nervous before every game. As a matter of fact, I think it's good to get nervous. That means you care about what happened. The pressure, that's different.

21:10That means you really haven't done your homework, right? That's a bad feeling. Great distinction. So I think that's kind of what always served me well, and it kind of helps me in these other ventures that I'm doing in the second chapter. Yeah, because as a quarterback, I mean, the games I watch, it's like they're always, like Jason just said, you're always the leader. Like you have to have that DNA, that build in order not just to be a great player, but to lead by example, right? It takes a certain intelligence, too. And I'm sure it's rare. That's why it's hard to find so many great quarterbacks.

21:43No, I'm biased. It's a hard position. Yeah, I mean, when you play, I think you've got to sign up for all of it. You've got to accept the blame when you don't win. And when you win, you've got to share the credit with others. And there's no question it's not for everybody. Can I ask a question about a certain play? Sorry, Jay. No, go. Because I really do love football. I've talked to the guys about... What does hot, hot, hot mean? Oh, go ahead. And then ask him about Omaha. And why numbers? 23, 46, hike. No, but, you know, I am fascinated by the science of it. Like by the talent and the science of you in your brain figuring out how hard and fast to throw the ball to reach at a certain distance, a short distance or a long distance or whatever.

22:27That fascinates me. But dumb, dumb question. just as a stupid spectator. Additional dumb, dumb question. They're all dumb, dumb questions. I'm always so curious when there's a play where all of the players are like, you know, stuck together, like in the most dense amount of players, you always throw it to that corner when there's all these defense people around. And then you look from on TV, you're like, there's eight other guys wide up. Like, why did you throw it to the crowded part of the field? You know what I mean? Are you talking about in general or are you actually saying that to Peyton?

22:57No, like in general, in general, in general. Do you know what I mean? I mean, on TV, it always seems like, why do they just throw it to the 17 players that are around the one receiver? The open guy. So, like, the offensive linemen, the big guys, they aren't eligible to catch a pass. So that eliminates those five, right? And so, you know, the left tackle might look open. Well, yeah, he looks open, right? Because nobody's guarding him because he's not allowed to catch a pass. What are you saying? I call him like I see him. I got it. That's a good idea. And plus, Sean wants to know, well, he's the largest guy, so why wouldn't you throw it to him?

23:29He seems like he'd do well with the ball. I'm going to text Mahomes after this and say, hey, the left guard, I got a feeling he's going to be open tonight because of the Lions. That's what I'm saying. That's why you need me. Yeah, I like that. You know, Sean, I don't know how it works. I mean, not as well, but like that thing of like, you know, when players come on, they have to like literally declare their eligibility, right? Like who's on the field. I didn't know that. At risk of boring everybody, but, you know, the ins and outs of the rules. Yeah, I mean, there's five linemen. There's a quarterback.