Eli Manning is following in brother Peyton’s footsteps once again, announcing Monday that he will host a football-centric show for ESPN like his older brother.
But unlike “Peyton’s Places,” the well-regarded series focused on the NFL, “Eli’s Places” will feature the “greatest stars” and “most iconic places” in college football, the 40-year-old former Giants quarterback said in a promotional video alongside Peyton.
The show will air in the fall on ESPN+, the network’s streaming service, and it will mark Eli’s first job in sports media since the Ole Miss alum retired from the NFL at the end of the 2019 season.
“For the first time, you and I are going to be teammates,” Peyton said in the video, to which Eli jokingly responded, “I give it two years … until you’re my backup.”
The lighthearted Eli does have some TV experience, outside of playing football, having appeared on “Saturday Night Live” and in ESPN’s popular “This is SportsCenter” commercial series.
If Eli can replicate Peyton’s TV success like he did on the gridiron — they both were top-overall picks and won two Super Bowls — then he should fare well.
Since retiring in 2016, Peyton has become a star off the field with “Peyton’s Places” and “Detail,” another ESPN+ show in which he breaks down NFL film.
Peyton, the 44-year-old Hall of Famer, has turned down two of the top broadcasting jobs in football — ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” and Fox’s “Thursday Night Football” — which could have earned him a contract similar to the 10-year, $180 million deal former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo has with CBS.
