Eli Manning take hilarious jab at Peyton following the commitment of Arch Manning

At the Manning Passing Academy, a big topic of conversation was the commitment of No. 1 overall 2023 recruit Arch Manning to Texas. Reporters asked Eli Manning what he thought of his nephew’s low-key reveal and the former New York Giants star took the opportunity for a little jab at his brother, Peyton Manning. Instead of a song and dance with hats on a table, the five-star prospect tweeted, “Committed to the University of Texas.” The brief message has almost 220,000 likes.

“That’s more Peyton’s style, kind of the flash and the press conference,” Eli Manning said. “He had a press conference at a bar his high school year to decide where he was going. So I think Arch has been very under the radar, just keep things simple. People were kind of expecting a lot, but that’s not his style. I think he was just ready to be done with it and say, ‘Here’s where I’m going, let’s end this thing and let me enjoy my senior year of high school.'”

Like Arch, Peyton Manning was a heavily sought-after quarterback prospect coming out of Isidore Newman High in New Orleans. Ultimately, the decision came down to Florida and Tennessee. Ole Miss fans got their own Manning offspring five years later.

Peyton Manning chose Tennessee over Florida after visits

NFL legend Peyton Manning told reporters at the MPA what the final days of his recruitment were like in the mid-1990s.

“I shared with Arch last week that I took a visit to Tennessee, then I had one more visit left to go to Florida,” Manning said. “I really liked Tennessee, but I really liked Florida too. So I kind of went into that Florida visit, it was kind of between those two it felt like. Got back from Florida and I just said, ‘I think Tennessee is the place for me.’”

Manning shared the deliberation it took before he felt comfortable announcing. He took a day off of school, holed up in a Hilton hotel, and continued thinking about his decision. He announced the next day at a bar.

“Tuesday morning at Tabby’s sports bar I announced I was going to Tennessee,” Manning continued. “I don’t know that it was the right thing for a 17-, 18-year-old to do but the Hilton manager was a good friend of my dad’s, Paul Buckley. So that’s how that went down. But yeah, I went through the process. I like these kids that visit different places and go see, get to meet people, you never know who you might end up working with down the road. But I remember what a good feeling was once I finally made that decision, and I’m sure Arch has that same feeling.”