“Peyton Manning knew every single player Archie Manning played with”: When 10-year-old future HOFer would predict games while listening to a radio broadcast

Peyton Manning was one of the most observant and detail-oriented players on the field during his historic career. And this dates back to ever since he was a young 10-year-old.

Peyton Manning had one of the most prolific careers in NFL history. His accumulated list of accolades is lengthy, but includes items like 5x MVP, 7x first team All-Pro, and 14x Pro-Bowler. And perhaps his best quality was his deatil oriented ability to change plays after lining up and calling an audible.

And this quality has been in Peyton Manning ever since he was born.

Peyton Manning could predict future plays

Manning’s High School teammate Justin Reyna opened up about Peyton Manning’s insane attention to detail.

Even when he was a kid, Manning’s memory was something to behold. He could recall the smallest of details and not just sports-related ones. Sometimes it was music.

“Back in those Little League days, sometimes you’d be going to play some game an hour or two away,” Reyna said. “Peyton was with us one time, and my parents put some Motown on the radio. We’re probably 11 or 12. He’s sitting back there naming the songs and who sings them. My parents were looking around like, ‘Who knows these songs as a 10-, 11- or 12-year-old?”

“He loves nostalgia, the childhood memories,” Montgomery said. “Every five years you have your high school reunion, and nobody’s more interested in what our classmates are up to or getting an email chain going: ‘Where are you? Who’s going to be there? How is so-and-so doing?’ There’s this keen interest in looking back.”

Not surprisingly, football factoids were of particular interest. There, he was a walking Wikipedia.

“He knew every single player his dad played with,” Teaford said. “He knew every single play. Would listen to the radio broadcast and he would tell you exactly what the next play was going to be, who the receiver was that caught every touchdown, where they were from, what their brother’s name was. He could tell you stories about people he’d never even met.

“The light switch didn’t just go off when he started playing quarterback at Newman or got to Tennessee or got to Indianapolis. The light switch was on from the second he was born.”

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