Anyone who spends a lot of time on Twitter during Monday Night Football can tell you that this week’s game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Chicago Bears feels a little different. Or at least, the discussion doesn’t seem to be taking over their timelines the way it has been.
That’s because, love it or hate it, the ManningCast has the week off. Peyton and Eli’s goofy ESPN2 evening of unintentional swearing, chicken dinner mauling, brotherly ribbing, and other antics is taking a break. They’ll be back to cover five more Monday Night Football games this season, although it’s currently unclear which ones those will be. Hopefully, those who were forever scarred by Eli Manning’s middle fingers will take this time to heal.
While many of the special broadcast’s growing audience will miss it, for the time being, one group of people who won’t miss it are NFL quarterbacks who have appeared as guests.
The Manning Curse: Players are 0-6 after appearing on the ManningCast this season.
— Kelce on Week 1, lost Week 2
— Russ on Week 1, lost Week 2
— Gronk on Week 2, lost Week 3
— Stafford on Week 3, lost Week 4
— Brady on Week 7, lost Week 8
— Josh Allen on Week 8, lost Week 9 pic.twitter.com/NLKxqsxXmG— StatMuse (@statmuse) November 7, 2021
The ManningCast Curse, which is based on the cruel reality that every NFL player who appears as a guest during the broadcast goes on to lose their next game might feel silly. But, so far, it’s also very true.
It would have been easy to write this off as a silly coincidence for a while as many of these players happen to play quality teams those weeks. For example, Russell Wilson’s Seahawks took on the Tennessee Titans and Matthew Stafford’s Rams ran into the Arizona Cardinals.
Here's Josh Allen intercepting Josh Allen on the same day Josh Allen sacked Josh Allen. pic.twitter.com/63bj0sR1Vb
— The Comeback (@thecomeback) November 7, 2021
However, when last week’s guest, Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen, found himself on the losing end against the 15.5-point underdog Jacksonville Jaguars, a lot of holdouts to the curse came around real fast.
Buffalo closed as a 15.5-point favorite.
This is the 4th-largest road upset loss since 1966.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) November 7, 2021
Six current NFL players have now appeared on the ManningCast and all six lost their next game, including Tom Brady. All eyes will be on who the Mannings are able to convince to appear during their next MNF appearance as NFL players can be a superstitious bunch. Perhaps coming on the broadcast and openly joking about the curse is what might break it. Then again, who knows, there may not be any way to defeat it at all.
