NFL coach had ruthless reason behind Peyton Manning's backups lack of practice

02 July 2023 , 17:47

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Tom Moore was the offensive coordinator for Peyton Manning for 11 years

As a coach when you have a quarterback, who has a strong case of being the greatest of all-time, you're not going to be overly thrilled about the prospect of not playing him.

And that's exactly what the Indianapolis Colts were thinking when they had Peyton Manning - who hadn't missed a game throughout the first 13 years of his career.

Manning had hardly given his back-up a slither of an opportunity - only coming out of the game and giving them reps when the Colts had an unassailable lead over their opponents.

During a pre-season session, fellow NFL coach turned analyst Jon Gruden noticed that Manning's back-ups were not being given much time with the offense to practice, and decided to ask Colts offensive coordinator Tom Moore why that was.

Moore hilariously responded: "Fellas, if 18 (Manning) goes down we're f****d, and we don't practice f****d."

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Indeed, Moore turned out to be correct in his harsh but valid statement. Out of nowhere, Manning was ruled out for the entire year in 2011 after undergoing two neck surgeries - which threatened the future of his career.

That season, the Colts were the worst team in the league. Manning's back-up was Curtis Painter and the franchise also signed Kerry Collins out of retirement.

Manning did eventually miss a season in 2011 - with the team hugely struggling

Both quarterbacks could not come close to replicating what Manning brought to the team, as they had the worst ranked offense in the league and finished with a 2-14 record.

That saw the Colts given the number one draft pick in a class which was slated to have the most highly-rated quarterback prospect to be available in decades, Andrew Luck. The team ultimately decided to move on from Manning to draft Luck.

Manning went on to join the Denver Broncos - leading them to having statistically the best offense in NFL history in 2013, when he threw for a whopping 55 touchdowns. The Broncos eventually went to the Super Bowl that season, but were dominated by the Seattle Seahawks.

Two years later though, Manning won a Super Bowl with the Broncos in his last ever game, retiring after that season.

Charlie Wilson