Tom Brady fires joke back at Peyton Manning on Hall of Fame ceremony

Thursday night, Peyton Manning confirmed reports that his longtime rival Tom Brady would be making the trip to Canton to watch Manning’s induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  

Now, Brady, too, has acknowledged the reunion via a light-hearted Twitter joke.

I just need to make sure he’s really done. Can’t risk this guy coming back… https://t.co/8afUVxicjO

— Tom Brady (@TomBrady) August 6, 2021

Manning corroborated the special guest when he joined Troy Aikman and Joe Buck in the booth on Thursday night during the Fox broadcast of the Hall of Fame Game between the Cowboys and Steelers. He joked about having his longtime rivals sit with his former teammates. 

“It’s an honor for me to have so many old teammates, even got some old rivals,” Manning said. “Tom Brady is sitting in my section. I’m not sure how my Colts teammates are going to feel about that, but it means a lot that he’s taking the time to fly out here to Canton and celebrate with me.”

Are Manning and Brady friends or foes?

NBC Sports named Manning vs. Brady the top sports rivalry of all-time, but it is clear the two are great friends. 

Each sports rivalry is unique, but there’s often a common theme: respect for the game and the opponent, though it’s unlikely Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier were taking weekend vacations during the height of their reign in boxing, 

So what about Manning and Brady? 

Longtime Colts assistant Clyde Christensen provided a behind-the-scenes into the relationship. 

“Even before Manning’s playing career ended, he was forging a close, personal relationship with Brady,” Christensen said. “There was no peer to talk to that understood what they were going through except each other. The demands, the lights, the pressure — all those things. They had a little summit where they worked out together and they threw together and they trained together and then they’d sit and talk, and they had a great list of topics they went through. How do you work out now? How do you handle blitz packages? How do you handle a difficult receiver? How do you handle the media?

Looking back at all of the heated battles, it’s almost difficult to envision this scene. Still, any NFL fan would love to be a fly on the wall for those conversations. 

“For the great ones, it’s about getting better and playing great, and they do bring that out in each other. Also, they’re willing to help each other. No one but Brady and Manning pull that off, and nobody knew about it,” Christensen said.

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