When Peyton Manning once woke up ex-Colts OC to study film at 2 am on flights - "Doesn’t care if you’re sleeping"
Everyone knows who Peyton Manning is: one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. He has two Super Bowl titles, was adjudged the MVP in one of them, and has a record of five regular-season MVP awards, 14 Pro Bowls, and ten All-Pro selections, among other accolades.
He was also known for his competitive drive and desire to win games, to the point that he once arranged for a film study mid-flight. Speaking to Zak Keefer, then a writer for the Indianapolis Star, former offensive coordinator Clyde Christensen recalled:
"I’d be asleep on the plane ride home coming back from a road win, sometimes at 1, 2 in the morning, and the stewardess would come tap me on the shoulder. 'Peyton wants to see you in the back of the plane.' I’d tell her to tell him I was sleeping.
"She’d come back a few minutes later. 'He said he doesn’t care if you’re sleeping.' So I’d walk back there and we’d go over the entire game, play after play after play. He loved every single thing there was to football. He noticed every detail."
What other stories about Peyton Manning's love of football were revealed to Zak Keefer?
One of Manning's favorite targets, Reggie Wayne, also remarked at said drive, saying that he was very committed when it came to football:
"I feel like Peyton has his day planned out before the day even starts. He knows what time he’s going to wake up, what time he’s going to brush his teeth, what time he’s going to go to the store. That’s how he prepared for games... Everything was football to him. He was a workaholic, basically had no social life. That’s one thing you can respect."
Former backup quarterback Jim Sorgi revealed that Manning, even while injured, would continue watching film:
"He did it day in and day out for 18 years. Any normal human being would take a day off. Even the year he was hurt and missed all of training camp (2008), he was in his room, watching film of every single practice."
The future Hall of Famer even showcased his ability to remember past games:
"We’d be in a meeting and he’d say, “Hey, Sorgi, I want you to go grab the film from the 1999 season, the third game, the second quarter, the camera looking left to right from our bench, go grab it.”
Of course, that is not to say Manning was a dull character. Off the field, he was known to be a prankster, as former teammates and coaches would attest.