Peyton Manning tells hilarious story about secretly working out with Tom Brady in Tennessee
NFL Hall of Famer Peyton Manning, a Tennessee Vols legend who spent nearly two decades in the NFL, made his way to Massachusetts on Wednesday for Tom Brady's induction into the New England Patriots Hall of Fame. Manning and Brady went head-to-head 17 times between 2001 and 2015, creating one of the greatest quarterback rivalries […]
NFL Hall of Famer Peyton Manning, a Tennessee Vols legend who spent nearly two decades in the NFL, made his way to Massachusetts on Wednesday for Tom Brady's induction into the New England Patriots Hall of Fame.
Manning and Brady went head-to-head 17 times between 2001 and 2015, creating one of the greatest quarterback rivalries in NFL history (Brady holds the edge in the rivalry with an 11-5 record against Manning).
While on stage at Brady's Patriots Hall of Fame ceremony on Wednesday evening, Manning shared a story about the time the two quarterbacks worked out together in secret in Tennessee during the prime of their careers.
"We actually got together one offseason," said Manning. "In 2009, at the height of our careers — Tom's coming off an MVP season, I'm coming off an MVP season. We met in a small town in Tennessee. I said 'Tom, let's get together, let's kind of go real under-the-radar, don't tell anybody we're coming'. Tom flies in on Mr. (Robert) Kraft's plane — big huge plane. I'm like, that is not what I said. I said under-the-radar. That's against the salary cap, too, by the way…but we won't get into that.
"So we played golf together, we lifted weights together, we threw routes together with these high school receivers. We took their phones away and we said 'if you tell anybody that Tom Brady and I are working out together and that we're friends, we're going to kill all of you'. But it was fascinating to see his work ethic….we were kind of challenging each other to get better. It was a fascinating two days for me."
Now that Manning has shared that story publicly, the high school wide receivers who took part in that work out — they're probably in their late twenties to early thirties now — should be free to share the undoubtedly memorable stories that they have from that day.
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