Throughout the NFL season, the ESPN2 Manningcast with Peyton and Eli has been a highlight, as the two brothers present an almost weekly side broadcast of Monday Night Football. Part of the appeal of the Manningcast is how laid-back it is — though it could need to be a little more polished when it comes to talking over guests — blending their strong football analysis with guests who bring humorous anecdotes to the show.
The Mannings had David Letterman join them during the Patriots-Bills wind-wrecked catastrophe of a game in Buffalo, as the Indiana native is a great fan of Peyton’s from his time with the Colts and has spent enough time in New York to be extremely familiar with Eli. Letterman brought his usual caustic wit to the proceedings, including a jab at Bill Belichick as he entered on the show, as the Patriots coach was caught on camera wiping snot off his sweatshirt, much to Dave’s amusement.
He really got going near the end of his visit in the second quarter, when he started talking about being in Indianapolis to speak at Peyton’s statue ceremony and a comical interaction with Roger Goodell. When ESPN unexpectedly went to commercial in the middle of the tale, he was just getting into how much he appreciated the commissioner being booed horribly by Colts fans, as Goodell had warned him would happen.
The Manningcast is used to guests being cut off by a hard commercial out, but this one was unusual because the game was still playing on the splitscreen as the other half switched to an ad. It’s odd to believe the line is drawn at maybe mocking Roger Goodell, given that this is a show that has refused to push the dump button on people cursing and Eli throwing up the double birds on camera.
