In team sports, you’re only as strong as your weakest link. Peyton Manning understood this, which meant that he was incredibly demanding of his teammates and coaches.
Advertisement
During his legendary 14 seasons with the Indianapolis Colts, Peyton Manning played alongside some brilliant teammates. And while names like Reggie Wayne or Marshall Faulk might come to mind first, Jeff Saturday certainly deserves to be recognized too.
Manning’s longtime center, who he of course shared that heartwarming moment with at the 2012 Pro Bowl, was a key part of the Colts’ success in the 2000s.
Saturday played 13 seasons in Indianapolis, so he definitely has spent a good amount of time with Peyton Manning building that special QB-center relationship. Of course, like any pair of teammates, the duo has been in their fair share of arguments.
Some have been famously publicized, like when Manning told Saturday to “quit calling the f**king plays”. But obviously, they would also clash heads behind the scenes.
Jeff Saturday on playing with Peyton Manning: “Sometimes, enough is enough.”
“Of course we’d have arguments,” Saturday told the Indy Star in 2017, in reference to playing with Manning. “We’d challenge each other. He’d pull something out of the playbook we hadn’t practiced since training camp and he’d want to call it on a random Wednesday practice.”
“I’m like, ‘Man, you wanna get yourself killed? You’re gonna get smoked.’ Yeah, you’d get frustrated (with him). He’d be chasing ghosts, what-if you to death. But that’s the way he prepared. It’s not always fun being challenged like that. Sometimes, enough is enough. But it made me a much better football player for a much longer period of time.”
