Eli Manning and Peyton Manning are now in year three doing alternate Monday Night Football broadcasts for ESPN. By now, Eli knows when Peyton is bothered by the direction of the conversation or hurt by Eli’s ribbing. In an interview with Dan Patrick on Thursday, Eli explained how he can tell Peyton is losing patience even when the audience can’t.
“He kind of just goes quiet and just kind of shakes his head a little bit,” Eli explained. “Like, ‘hey that’s off limits. Don’t keep going. Don’t harp on that, don’t expand on that. You’re in dangerous territory. Retreat a little bit.'”
After Patrick noted Peyton’s forehead will get a little rosy when his temper flares, Eli had more jokes.
“That’s kind of always the case,” Eli laughed. “The vein starts coming in on the neck and the side of the forehead.”
More from Eli:
“That’s more clock management situations from one of the teams. Clock management is his number one pet peeve. If I were to ever say I don’t think Peyton had good clock management as a quarterback, I think he would burst into flame.”
Considering the Manningcast is built around Peyton’s deep analysis and Eli’s jeering, it’s good they found a balance quickly. Just being brothers doesn’t ensure they can keep their cool together on live television.
Eli is reading not only Peyton’s tone and facial expressions but the movements of his head and the bulging of his veins.
That’s show business. Ed McMahon and Kevin Eubanks could only dream to have the chemistry as sidekicks that Eli has found with his big brother.
