Peyton Manning addresses double-bird from Eli on Monday Night Football

Eli Manning on Sept. 27 made an honest mistake while appearing live on ESPN2’s alternate Monday Night Football broadcast, the popular “Manningcast” he hosts with his brother Peyton.

Manning, while commentating the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys’ Week 3 matchup, was retelling a story about playing a game in Philadelphia. Manning found a unique way to make a mistake on live television, while explaining the story to former Eagles defensive end Chris Long.

Turn on the Manningcast to get flipped off by Eli Manning 😂 pic.twitter.com/WDSyTGaROh

— PFF (@PFF) September 28, 2021

Eli Manning, by mistake, retold the story and repeated the nine-year-old’s gesture on live television, flipping the birds to anyone watching ESPN2.

“You go to Philly and you’re getting the double bird right away from a nine-year-old kid and they’re saying things about my mom,” Manning recounted, to laughter from Peyton and Long.

Peyton on Friday shared his first-hand recollection of Eli’s viral mistake, saying that he’s heard Eli share the story “100 times,” but never once expected the Manning brother to make the hand gesture on air.

“Out of all times to actually do it, I was in real shock about it,” Manning said, via TMZ. “But, he felt bad and he apologized. It was not intentional but it was just funny that was the one time he picked to do it.”

Manning-cast draws big guest list, grows in popularity

The Manning brothers and the ESPN2 Manningcast has rapidly grown in popularity over the few-week span in which it aired. Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli has become well known for the constant jokes and lack of professional polish that a traditional NFL broadcast has, making it appointment television for NFL fans.

In the Manningcast show on Sept. 27, the Manning brothers bolstered their show by inviting on a myriad of notable guests. Their first guest of the evening was quarterback Matthew Stafford, followed by LeBron James and Nick Saban, where the brothers tried to find out everything they could about the guests’ football knowledge. Finishing the night was Long, who was present for Eli mistake.

Though the first broadcast of Peyton and Eli Manning’s alternate NFL broadcast received little attention, it generated enough interest from word of mouth and highlights to increase the next week.

For the Week 2 Lions-Packers game, ESPN2 averaged 1.86 million viewers, a +132% increase from Week 1.