Already retired professional football quarterback broke many records, won five NFL MVP awards, and two Super Bowls. Learn more about his sporting background and career.
Early Life
Peyton Manning was born on March 24, 1976, in New Orleans, Louisiana, the second son of Archie and Olivia Peyton. His father, Archie, was a glorified footballer, playing quarterback in college for the University of Mississippi and several NFL teams during the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s. The senior Peyton decided to become a radio sports newscaster for the Saints. Throughout their youth, Manning and his brothers, Eli and Cooper, were enjoying to accompany their father when the Saints were in town practicing during offseason. Sometimes the team members and reputed coach Jim Mora would even let the boys throw the ball around on the field.
Throughout his school days at Isidore Newman High School in New Orleans, Peyton was partaking in a diversity of sports. He was part of basketball team for two years and part of the baseball team too. However, football was his biggest passion—a passion he merits his father for infusing in him. Still, he always speaks for media that his father never forced him to be in the sport.
He gave an explanation on his official website, “It was a policy in the house growing up, dad would help us out and be glad to play catch with us … but we had to go to him for help. He wasn’t going to come to us and say, ‘All right, you do this, you do that.”‘
Football star improved his skills by playing with his brothers and neighbors. As he said: “I think that’s why I have a love for football still today because it was fun for me as a kid.”
Throughout his school years at Isidore Newman, he was the unchallenged team member and had amazing statistics; he passed for 7,207 yards and completed 59.4 percent of his passes with 92 touchdowns. As a superior, he got an announcement of the Gatorade National High School Player of the Year.
Professional Career
Famous footballer attended the University of Tennessee, where he was a communications and business major. He finished his bachelor’s degree in three years only, ending up with a 3.6 grade point average. As an outcome, he got qualified to graduate at the end of his junior year. The NFL was looking for him already, but he decided to postpone the start of his professional career. He wanted to wait until the end of his senior year. He gave another explanation on his website, “My college experience was a really good one, so I decided to stay all four years. I just wanted to enjoy being a college senior. For some reason, people had a very hard time believing that.” It was definitely worth to wait for it because in 1998 grown up, and stable footballer became the NFL number one signing for big teams to pick, and the Indianapolis Colts caught him. The Colts coach was an old family friend Jim Mora, who had the opportunity to watch him throwing the ball when he was a child.
This team offered him an amazing contract – $48 million over six years. Still, the fresh player had a slow start, but very soon, he put his game on a higher level through dedication, persistence, practice, and his standby way of studying football film footage late into the night before every game. In the coming years, the starting quarterback got all the trust and admiration of his team members and coaches, for his manners, personality, outstanding energy, and his winning desire.
Once Colts’ coach Tony Dungy told Silver, “I’ve never seen a guy with so much ability and the dedication to match.” This capability and dedication brought great success and a solid income to Colts. By 2005, he was playing the best football of his life. The biggest achievement was on December 26, 2004, when he broke the record for most touchdown passes in a single season. With this event, he left a signature in a history book of football. He had the potential to become the best quarterbacks ever.
In March 2004, Colts offered him a new contract on $99.2 million, which included an NFL-record $34.5 million signing bonus. He retired from football at the age of 39, and he is in the group of the oldest quarterbacks who won the Super Bowl.
Personal Life
The celebrity football star got married in 2001 to Ashley Thompson, and they have twins – a boy and a girl.
Net Worth 2024
As of February 2024, Peyton Manning has an estimated net worth of $200 million, and this bank account puts him on the top 11 wealthiest NFL players in the world.
