The patriarch of the first family of football winces with the pain for the sport he loves. What football teaches kids today: Greed is good. And that worries Archie Manning, because worry is what a good dad does when the principles he has long taught get trampled by blind pursuit of the almighty dollar.
“If you want to go to a college, it should be because you want to play football there, not because somebody pays you more than the other guy,” Manning told me.
When the father of a football dynasty sounds the alarm, maybe everybody in the sport should heed Manning’s warning and wonder, like he does: How did we get here?
The college game has sold its soul to name, image and likeness, then turned around to make a deal with the devil in the transfer portal, while tossing tradition in the trash heap of conference realignment.
“College football is kind of upside down right now,” said Manning, who admits the upheaval has left his 74-year-old head spinning.
When money means everything, the noble idea of team before self counts for nothing.
“I’m not sure you know the guy getting dressed next to you in the locker room,” Manning lamented. “And if you do, how long are you going to know him? Because if he’s not playing, he’s going to leave.”
In this football-crazy country, we’ve never seen a family with the multigenerational dominance of the Mannings, whose very lucrative brand outshines the four Super Bowl rings claimed by Peyton and Eli while throwing touchdown passes for the Colts, Broncos and Giants.
By today’s diamonds-and-gold standards, the beginning of this dynasty was humble. When he came out of Ole Miss in 1971, with his “Run, Archie, run” legend already cemented as a rambling, gambling quarterback, the New Orleans Saints made Archie their first-round draft choice. They they paid him what was then considered a handsome annual salary of $45,000. During the entirety of his 13-season NFL career, Manning’s cumulative earnings as a quarterback were a tick above $2 million.
My, how things have changed.
Arch Manning is not only the namesake of his grandfather and the nephew of Peyton and Eli, but was also the most-sought recruit of any college freshman in 2023. While Alabama begged him to roll with the Tide, Arch ultimately chose Texas. Although he’s still learning his way around the Austin campus as a back-up quarterback, the worth of Arch’s endorsement deals that cash in on his famous family’s brand is estimated at a tick below $3 million.
Yes, a cool three million bucks, before he throws a single touchdown pass for the Longhorns.
“Letap start with NIL. I don’t have a problem whatsoever with kids putting money in their pockets as college football players, because they’re out there playing on Saturdays. I live in the South, and in the Southeastern Conference, the stadiums are always full, so there’s a lot of money coming in from the game,” Manning said.
“But NIL came in without any limits, without any uniformity and without any restrictions. We’ve got to have some regulations.”
While Manning wants to extend Deion Sanders a heartfelt wish for luck in turning around a long-suffering CU Buffs program, he first needs a question answered: “Are they going back to their old conference?”
But the only thing CU fans really want to know: Are the Buffs bound for glory when they return to the Big 12 after a final season in the Pac-12, which proved to be a football disaster for Colorado?
“I don’t know where any of this is going. I’m not sure if we can sit here and predict what itap going to be like for Deion as a first-year coach in a program thatap been down, with all the other stuff going on in college football,” said Manning, who believes Coach Prime’s charisma will attract talent to Boulder. “But I just don’t know how easy it is to build a program right now.”
If the Buffs don’t enjoy immediate success, however, will players abandon Sanders for greener pastures? For nearly 30 years, the first family of football has run the Manning Passing Academy, where elite teenage quarterbacks hone their skills, learning tricks of the trade from Archie, Peyton and Eli, as well as being coached by 45 accomplished college quarterbacks who serve as camp counselors.
“I get ready to invite them back as a counselor now,” Manning joked, “and I can’t find them.”
Here’s a problem with no easy solutions: Loyalty and perseverance are now uncool at schools where running through the stadium tunnel on Saturday is now a job rather than a labor of love among football brothers. Manning cited this statistic he swore was true: 63% of starting QBs for teams in Power 5 conferences this year are transfers, mercenaries throwing TDs for dollars.
“Letap figure this thing out,” Manning said, “and make sure we don’t mess up whatap been a great game.”
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