All great teammates have their disagreements from time to time. Peyton Manning and Jeff Saturday proved this when they got into a heated shouting match years ago.
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Beneath Peyton Manning’s humorous and charming exterior lies a fierce competitor. During his legendary 18 seasons in the NFL, he won 2 Super Bowls and 5 league MVPs.
Of course, this wouldn’t have been possible without some of his most impactful teammates. And while players like Reggie Wayne or Von Miller might come to mind, his longtime Center Jeff Saturday definitely deserves his recognition, too.
Saturday made a name for himself in the NFL, first with the Colts and later with the Packers, which is no easy feat for a Center. He won Super Bowl XLI with Manning against the Bears and was selected to the Pro Bowl 6 times.
Usually, when people think of the Manning-Saturday partnership, their last Pro Bowl together is the first memory that pops up. Although both players were on opposing teams, Saturday played one final snap with Manning as a part of the AFC team.
It was a heartwarming moment for every football fan, regardless of allegiances, and was probably one of the more entertaining things to happen during a Pro Bowl.
However, the pressure of playing in an NFL game meant that even those 2 could get into nasty arguments.
When Peyton Manning Lashed Out at Jeff Saturday On the Sideline
During a game against the Rams, the Colts threw the ball 3 times in the redzone and failed to convert. When the offense came off the field, Saturday suggested that they ought to run the ball. Obviously, this didn’t sit well with the Sheriff.
The moment he heard what Saturday said, he lost his cool. He immediately walked over to his Center and yelled, “Hey! Quit calling the f**king plays, alright? […] We’ll run the f**king ball!”
After a short, and weirdly awkward, fight, another lineman came over and broke it up. Obviously, the pair settled their differences as any competitive teammates would, and even openly spoke about the incident with the former head coach, Tony Dungy, later on.
In fact, Manning actually realized that he was mic’d up during the game and couldn’t help but laugh. At some point after the scuffle, he told Brandon Stokely, “it was better than Desperate Housewives.”
Even while recounting the incident later, he said he was happy they settled their differences the way they did, as apposed to unnecessarily leaking information to the media.
