Peyton Manning’s dream of teaming up with his former rival has been made official.
Bill Belichick will appear on every episode of the alternate “Monday Night Football” broadcast — ESPN’s “ManningCast” — of the upcoming season, the Hall of Fame quarterback said Friday.
Manning revealed the show’s new addition during a spot on “The Pat McAfee Show,” and added that Belichick will likely come join him and his brother Eli early in the first quarter on each episode.
“That’s the idea that Bill is going to be a permanent guest on every ‘ManningCast’ show early in the game, probably the first quarter to kind of take people behind the ropes as to what this defense has to do or what the quarterback’s challenges are,” Manning explained.
“It was an easy pitch to Bill,” he added. “I said, ‘Bill, we want you to come on. Look, we’d love to go behind the ropes on the defensive side as to kind of what the Eagles are going to have to do to stop Patrick Mahomes, right?'”
To make Belichick feel more at ease, Manning was quick to offer up a roast to Eli as a go-to.
“‘And if you ever run out of things to say, just make fun of Eli, right? That’s always sort of a time-filler.’ And Bill doesn’t like Eli. We all know that — two Super Bowls — so it’s just a match made in heaven,” Manning said.
Manning first made it known he wanted to add the former Patriots coach in March, according to a report from The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand.
Belichick’s run with the Patriots ended after 24 seasons, and despite being known as one of the best coaches in NFL history, he didn’t have any takers for his talents to lead a different team for the upcoming season.
Belichick, 71, then turned to the idea of broadcasting and had meetings with CBS and NBC.
Even McAfee admitted he wanted to try to bring him onto his ESPN/YouTube show.
The “ManningCast,” produced with Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions, is scheduled for 10 games this season and could cover one wild-card playoff matchup.