Peyton Manning enjoying retirement, turned down joking (?) offer to play again

Frank Schwab
·NFL writer

As Peyton Manning’s great NFL career wound to a close, we all spent time wondering what was next for him. Coaching? Broadcasting? Politics?

It turns out, after decades of grinding on the football field, doing nothing suits Peyton Manning pretty well.

Manning has done a little of everything since retiring following Super Bowl 50, from attending games to golfing with the President of the United States. If he was ever tempted to play again, it seems like perhaps he had an offer to return. The New Orleans Times-Picayune, quoting Manning’s father Archie, said Miami Dolphins coach Adam Gase hit up Manning after quarterback Ryan Tannehill suffered a knee injury late last season. It seems like it was one of those conversations in which Gase, who was Manning’s offensive coordinator in Denver in 2013-14, was kidding around … unless Manning was into coming back.

“It started with Gase,” Archie Manning said. “He said, ‘Hey 18, Tannehill went down.’ He said, ‘I think he’s going to miss some time. The first question I’m going to get at the press conference in the morning is if I’m going to try to bring you to Miami. What do you want me to tell them?’

“The text message came back from Peyton, ‘You tell them I could probably come play, but there’s no way I can miss carpool the next two weeks.’ So, he was done.”

A Manning comeback would have been an unbelievable story last season. But he has clearly moved on.

The Times-Picayune story paints Manning as being entirely content with his post-playing life. He talked about people telling him to not attend games because he’d be miserable, but he found the opposite was true. He liked going to see his brother Eli play for the New York Giants or watching the University of Tennessee.

Maybe at some point Manning will re-emerge as a general manager or color analyst or whatever he decides to do. But he seems in no rush to do anything. It’s not like he needs the money. He has found out this retirement thing isn’t too bad.

“I did it for a long time, and I got to kind of end on my terms and was very much at peace with it all year,” Manning told the Times-Picayune.

Peyton Manning golfing at Pebble Beach in February. (AP)
Peyton Manning golfing at Pebble Beach in February. (AP)

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!