Peyton Manning Once Accused Tom Brady of Stealing a Play That Catapulted Rob Gronkowski’s Career by 50%

The Hall of Famer Peyton Manning and the seven-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady were each other’s biggest rivals on the field, but they were great friends who had the utmost respect for each other off the field. The two GOATs of the NFL faced each other a total of 17 times, with Brady winning 11 of the 17 games. They went against each other each year except for 2002, 2007, and 2011. Out of all the time, Brady and Manning faced each other, they got to learn new things about each other.

When the top signal callers in the league were active players, they spent a few days swapping secrets and tricks of the trade. This tip given by the former Indianapolis Colts QB to the former New England Patriots QB proved fruitful because it helped star TE Rob Gronkowski strengthen his career even more.

The tip worked very well; hence, the two-time Super Bowl-winning QB once accused TB12 of stealing a play from him and even asked Brady to credit him entirely for the impressive play.

Peyton Manning threw shots at Brady and Gronk for stealing his play

The future Hall of Famer Tom Brady appeared on an episode of ‘Peyton’s Places’ in 2020. In the fun episode, the arch-rivals hit golf balls at Jim Nantz’s backyard and reminisced about their iconic battles.

In one part of the show, Brady asked Manning to throw his favorite pass. Tampa Tom’s favorite pattern was throwing seams, while Manning’s was a trap-pass.

The Sheriff said, “Gronk ought to send me...” Brady continued, “Father’s Day gifts?” Manning completed his sentence by saying, “Money. Because y’all took the okay from us.”

The trap pass has a long history between Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. The strategy shared by Peyton with Mahomes involved the offensive team pulling the front side guard or center, along with the offside guard in some cases. This trap pass technique proved successful for tight end Rob Gronkowski, who scored more than 50% of his touchdowns against the Broncos.

Tom Brady accepted the help he got from Manning

The counter-hot offensive line protection shown by Manning to Brady made for an advantage in the passing situation. Tom stole the concept and changed it for his former fans. No other player than Gronk benefited from it.

When Brady appeared on an NFL network for the NFL 100 Series, he recounted the events as follows:

“I swear to God, off of that action, we do a lot of things. We call that protection at least one or two times per game against them (the Colts). And Rob Gronkowski has probably spent 50 percent of his offensive production on that play. So, to use that play against them as well as have Rob become a dominant player in the league off that play is thanks to Peyton Manning.”

Bill Belichick was asked how hard it was to play against Peyton Manning, his response was that while it was hard, it wasn't as hard as facing @TomBrady at practice.

Brady then shared a story about Manning and how QBs learn from each other.https://t.co/DcqLxZ9k10

— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) December 28, 2019

This proves that even your greatest rival can teach you treasurable lessons.