Peyton Manning took a funny jab at the New England Patriots for cheating during a TV appearance on Monday night.
Manning and Charles Barkley joined Rece Davis and Kirk Herbstreit for ESPN’s alternate broadcast of “Monday Night Football” between the Las Vegas Raiders and New Orleans Saints. Manning was talking about the way the NFL allows headset communication between coaches and quarterbacks during games. He said the communication is allowed on offense up until 15 seconds before the play. Then he joked that the Patriots allow the communication to last for longer.
“You have until 15 seconds on the play clock, and then somebody cuts the line. Now certain teams, maybe in the Northeast, they don’t cut their lines. They let it go all the way to zero seconds. But most of the teams do cut the line, so you have to get the play in earlier,” Manning said.
Peyton Manning will take a shot at the #patriots every chance given! pic.twitter.com/iqcErXjpvH
— Evan Jankens (@KINGoftheKC) September 22, 2020
That was very clearly a shot at the Patriots.
For years teams have complained about headset issues when facing the Patriots. We wrote about it in 2007, then in 2015, and in the 2016 season. Bill Belichick denied any wrongdoing and said his team experiences the same issues too.
Manning is suggesting the opposite happened; that New England used the headsets to excess.
Manning had a longstanding rivalry in the AFC with the Patriots. He faced them 25 times during his career and went 9-15 against them, though he was 3-2 in the playoffs (including his time with Denver).
Though Manning seemed to be joking with that line on ESPN’s telecast, a teammate recently shared just how paranoid Peyton was about the Patriots cheating.
