Miles
Well-known member
- Mar 18, 2019
- 2,455
- 0
Under pressure
When Peyton Manning goes to the Big Apple, the whole city shuts down.
Well, at least it seemed that way in the second clip, in which Manning tried to recreate a publicity stunt from the 1920s, when the NFL was fighting for any fan it could get. At that time, nearly 100 years earlier, two of the league’s biggest stars headed to Midtown Manhattan’s Bryant Park, where Hinkey Haines caught a pass from teammate Lynn Bomar. Here’s the twist: Bomar was 23 stories up on an adjacent high-rise building’s terrace.
Unfortunately for Manning and Carter, the park’s lawn has since been cut back in front of the building, adding about 50 yards to the distance of the original pass. Whereas Bomar’s pass had a pretty clear path down to the ground, Manning’s had to cross a wide walkway and clear some tree branches, in addition to West 40th Street.
“You kind of did feel the pressure because of all the effort that went into it,” Manning said. “It would be a shame if I couldn’t get it across the trees down there or Cris wasn’t able to catch it. I think it would have felt like we were letting the folks at NFL Films down who were so excited.”
Carter, though, who was on the receiving end of some footballs that were reaching peak velocity or near it as they arced through the sky and floated unpredictably with the wind, disagreed.
“Pressure on him? What was the pressure for?” Carter joked. “I put a little pressure on him, because at the beginning, they kind of doctored up the video a little bit. He took down some trees and everything. I had called for my man, Archie, because Archie’s the best quarterback in the family. And then he was bad-talking Eli. I go, Eli’s got a stronger arm than him! I was like, Let’s go to Jersey and get Eli.”
Putting his kidding aside, Carter said he felt a different kind of weight by taking part in the project.
“This guy is special,” Carter said of Manning. “He is a special human being. I didn’t question NFL Films, because the NFL, they’ve been very good to me. NFL Films, they’ve been very good to me as far as documenting my career and things like that. But when they called me about the project, it was, We’re going to pull this off in Bryant Park, and Peyton Manning has requested you. I was like, What? Oh, I’m available!
“… Look at all the great guys he’s played with. He’s got access to any Hall of Famer, current players. Peyton can get anyone. But Peyton said, No, if I’m going to throw a ball off a building, I need Cris Carter to catch it. That was the pressure that I felt.”
Coat check at the pool party
A student of football history, Manning knew that in the 1960s, Namath conducted a television interview over a game of pool. So he decided it’d be fitting to echo that for his own heart-to-heart with Broadway Joe.
At one point, though, the interview hit a speed bump when Manning apparently went afoul of billiards etiquette, starting a question as Namath was about to hit a shot, bringing about a quick rebuke from Namath.
“I thought he was going to, like, cancel the whole deal,” Manning said with a laugh. “He was like, Hey, hey. I’m still serious about my pool game.”
As for the results of that game, Namath contended that Manning proved to be the more skilled player. Manning, on the other hand, demurred at the suggestion.
“He’s good at everything. He hustled me,” Namath joked. “Did he tell you how much money he won? Huh? And it was on his payroll, of course.”
By the end of the episode, Manning walked out in one of Namath’s famous fur coats. It was just a gift, not payment for a victory in pool.
Now it resides in Manning’s home, another piece of football history in his collection.