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Peyton Manning and Eli Manning were back last night for their second ‘MNF’ football broadcast on on ESPN2 and I have to say – this one might have been better than their first one from last week, which got really good at the end.
The Lions-Packers game turned into blowout in the second half as Aaron Rodgers (who bounced back from an ugly Week 1 with 4 TD passes) and Green Bay ran away from Detroit for a 35-17 win.
Peyton and Eli were so good throughout the night that I don’t know how anyone watches ESPN’s traditional broadcast that airs on their main network. Play-by-play guy Steve Levy gets way too excited about everything that happens on every play. Brian Griese is Brian Griese – totally forgettable. Louis Riddick is the strongest of the three on that broadcast but doesn’t come anywhere close to what the Mannings are doing.
Last night’s show kicked off with Peyton taking some funny shots at the Patriots for bugging locker rooms and he joked about how he would only talk to his receivers in the shower area because he thought the whole place was bugged.
They later had on Rob Gronkowski, who had a terrible internet connection but did have some fun moments when he said he didn’t watch film because he had Tom Brady do that for him. Oh, his dog made an appearance after barking in the background, which was too good.
Pat McAfee was a great guest in the fourth quarter, as he was his usually entertaining self and had fans calling for him to be a permanent guest on the show.
The only bad part was when they had Brett Favre on for a bit in the second half. Boy did he stink at it. At one point Favre told the Mannings that he didn’t watch the first half and asked how Detroit “looked or played” in the first 30 minutes. Ugh. He sounded as thoughtful and insightful as Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite and didn’t need to be on the show for long. Eli did have a good story, though, about sneaking into a bar while underage to hang out with Favre, but for the most part Favre was a bore on the show.
Last week’s show struggled a bit early on when the Manning brothers tried to do too much and be too zany, which is understandable – any first show of anything is generally going to have some bad moments. People try too hard to be good and then later learn that they don’t have to do that. Just be yourselves and you’ll be fine.
Peyton and Eli did that last night and were strong throughout the game because they mostly focused on the good stuff – breaking down the plays as they happened. That’s all we want from these guys. We want to be flies on the wall as they talk about what’s really happening on the field and in the players’ heads.
Having some guests on is good (just no more Favre ever again) and breaks things up a bit but this show is at it’s best when its Peyton and Eli doing their thing. It’s actually really good TV and a really fun way to watch the game.
It was so good last night that I never even thought of switching over to the normal game broadcast and I don’t know how anybody would choose to do that. The Mannings are like having dinner at a good steakhouse while the normal broadcast is like picking up a combo meal at McDonalds – both will get the job done and make you full but one is clearly far better than the other.
Peyton and Eli signed a 3-year deal with ESPN this past summer and will do 10 games a year during that stretch.
Now I’m wishing they were doing every Monday night game because it is going to be rough when they’re not on.
Quick hits: Supercut video of lame taunting calls makes the NFL look bad… Marlins OF makes bare-handed catch… Better loses $737K parlay thanks to Lions… And more.
– This supercut video of all the lame taunting calls made by refs in Week 2 should really make the NFL rethink this whole stupid thing about taunting calls.
– Marlins right fielder Jesus Sanchez made an awesome bare-handed catch on a fly ball last night, which had fans in awe.
– A bettor lost $737K on a 16-leg parlay thanks to the Lions losing to the Packers last night. Ouch.
– Kyler Murray has never seen Star Wars.
– Charles Curtis has some players you should be looking at on your fantasy football waiver wire, including Cowboys RB Tony Pollard.
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