Peyton Manning’s Monday Night Football debut filled with heady analysis, humor, notable guests

Peyton Manning’s broadcast debut connected Monday Night Football was everything you’d expect:

A mesh betwixt the acquisition of drinking brew connected the sofa with your buddies portion watching the game, and a Hall of Fame backmost unlocking penetration arsenic the enactment unfolds successful beforehand of you.

The ex-Broncos QB, alongside younger member Eli, hosted the Ravens-Raiders crippled connected ESPN2 arsenic the archetypal of 10 alternate broadcasts for MNF this season. The “ManningCast” featured heady X’s-and-O’s investigation interspersed with Manning’s emblematic self-depreciating humor, anecdotes and 4 notable guests successful Charles Barkley, Ray Lewis, Travis Kelce and Russell Wilson.

There were impersonations (Peyton did Raiders manager Jon Gruden diagraming a play and Ravens QB Lamar Jackson audibling, portion wearing a helmet aggregate sizes excessively small), replay breakdowns and a accumulation level that astatine times felt similar nationalist entree television.

In the Raiders’ melodramatic 33-27 overtime win, Eli had repeated mic issues, the amusement kept cutting to commercialized mid-conversation, determination was a occurrence alarm going disconnected connected Eli’s acceptable earlier halftime and Kelce casually swore astatine 1 point.

Despite that, arsenic good arsenic the wide rawness of Eli’s on-camera ability, it felt arsenic if the spectator was sitting connected the sofa with Peyton and Eli. That gave the broadcast an intimacy astir lack, adjacent if the brothers sometimes veered off-track with their commentary, lacked an wide cognition of each roster and the crippled itself often felt similar a sideshow.

Peyton’s assorted riffs included however to get the location assemblage to beryllium quiescent for its discourtesy (QB Derek Carr needs to tweet astatine Raider Nation, helium says) and the fig changes successful the NFL that Tampa Bay’s Tom Brady railed against this year.

“Tom doesn’t similar it, but it doesn’t fuss maine truthful much,” Manning said. “But what bash I know, I’m sitting connected the sofa and he’s throwing laser beams astatine 44 years old.”

As a guest, Kelce stole the amusement during his third-quarter appearance. The Chiefs choky end, appearing successful a T-shirt and relaxing connected a sofa successful beforehand of foliage, forgot Kansas City was playing Baltimore successful six days successful a marquee Week 2 matchup. That had Manning rolling successful laughter, arsenic did Kelce’s not-safe-for-network-TV statement of however the Chiefs discourtesy engineered a second-half comeback triumph implicit the Browns successful Week 1.

“The champion portion is, if it’s close earlier the play, I’ll look astatine Pat (Mahomes) and springiness him the eyes like, ‘Yeah, I’m astir to marque immoderate (stuff) up close here,'” Kelce said.

The Manning brothers besides had a bully clip ribbing the Raiders’ sputtering discourtesy passim the game, arsenic good arsenic Las Vegas’ overtime mismanagement arsenic the location squad astir gave distant a definite win. But the Raiders rallied from their ain miscues to triumph connected Carr’s touchdown walk to Zay Jones.

On that note, a bizarre crippled ended successful bizarre fashion, and Peyton had conscionable the sarcastic remark for the infinitesimal pursuing the walk-off TD by a comparatively no-name wideout.

“Carr to Jones, 1 of the large tandems retired there,” the 45-year-old quipped close earlier a final, poorly timed chopped from the broadcast.