Eli Manning recounts hilarious Peyton Manning recruiting story

There may not be a more iconic sibling duo in all of sports than Peyton and Eli Manning. The NFL brothers stand up to the test of time.

Both brothers are two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks and are two of the most iconic players in their respective franchise’s history (Peyton for Indianapolis and Denver, Eli for the New York Giants). The best part of two all-time players being brothers is hearing stories about their upbringing. Eli and Peyton, hosts of ESPN’s ManningCast, divulge a good amount of these stories on their show during NFL games.

However, Eli Manning joined ‘Bussin’ with the Boys’ this week to recount a never-heard, hilarious story about Peyton’s recruitment across 1992 and 1993. Peyton was the No. 1-ranked player in his class and was hearing from every single program in the country. He ultimately ended up at Tennessee, and the rest is history. However, the road to signing with Philip Fulmer‘s program was a winding one.

“I remember when he was getting recruited in high school, he would talk to every single coach,” Manning said about his brother. “He was probably the No. 1 recruit in the country as a quarterback. He went on recruiting visits to schools like Notre Dame, Michigan, Florida State, and Tennessee. But, he’d talk to every single coach. There was not one school that he was like, ‘I’m definitely not going there.'”

Eli Manning recounts messing with brother, Peyton’s, tape recorders

Many fans expected Peyton Manning to end up at Ole Miss, where his father, Archie, played from 1968-1970. He, instead, committed to Tennessee and etched his name as one of the greatest quarterbacks in SEC history.

“He’d talk to these coaches, and then he’d have an old school tape recorder,” Manning continued. “He’d hit record and then talk into it about what they talked about. He’d be like, ‘I talked to (former Florida State coach) Bobby Bowden and we talked about their offensive scheme and some of the recruits they were looking at.’ I remember going through it and listening to it and he’d leave and I’d all of a sudden record. He still has it somewhere.

“He played it for me one time, because he goes back and listens to them to this day. All of a sudden, he’s listening to one and I pop on and I’m like 11 years old and you just hear ‘(fart noise), that’s a smelly one’. Then I’d run away. That was our relationship. Him being super organized, and me making his life more difficult.”

The 2026 NFL season will be a massive one for the Manning brothers, as they will be hosting the ManningCast for Super Bowl LXI. The event will be broadcast across ESPN’s family of networks (ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, Disney+, NFL+, and Hulu) for the first time. The ManningCast will be on ESPN2.