Still basking in the afterglow of winning Super Bowl 50, current Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning still hasn’t thought about his life post-football. He has until 4 p.m. ET next Tuesday to decide whether he’ll remain in the NFL or retire. If Manning doesn’t file retirement papers with the league, the day afterwards, Manning’s $19 million salary will be guaranteed.
At an event in Jacksonville, FL on Wednesday, Manning looked at an audience, took a deep breath and came out with the following statement;
“Many of you have probably heard that I have a significant announcement to make, so I thought I’d go ahead and make it with all of you here tonight,” Manning said. “Papa John’s is offering 50 percent off tonight through Friday.
“I’m sure that was the response you were looking for.”
That was the only reference to his post-football life. But he did give a clue about his life when he was out with a foot injury last season. Manning said he didn’t travel with the team for some of the road games and during home games when he was at the stadium, but couldn’t stand on the sidelines per doctor’s orders, he watched the games on television.
“I had the TV on mute so I wouldn’t be distracted by what the announcers were saying,” Manning said. “It was absolutely excruciating. I could hear the roar of the crowd, and there was nothing I could do except wait and continue to work to try and get healthy.”
But as far as retirement is concerned, Manning is still undecided as to what he’ll do:
“It’s hard to say,” Manning said. “I think the one reason I’ve enjoyed my current job so much is I’ve been all in on it. I have not thought much about anything else beside the job that I was currently employed to do. I understand we’re closer to that point in time now, but I felt like I owed it to the teams that I played for, I owed it to my teammates, my coaches, to the fans, that I was 100 percent all in on this current job. When that stops then I’ll kind of move to plan B.”
So the saga on what Manning will do continues and the NFL and the TV networks executives who hope to hire him will just have to wait for a a little while longer.
[ESPN/Pro Football Talk]
