Once upon a time, Peyton Manning ran routes with Deion and Shedeur Sanders. Except this time, the roles were reversed – Manning was the defensive back, while Deion ran the routes and Shedeur threw the passes. The video, produced by Omaha Productions, became a hilarious hit as fans watched a retired Peyton trying his hand at a position that was completely out of his element.
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That’s right, Manning played the position that he used to pick apart during his career. The video, which aired last year, comes from an episode of Peyton’s Places, an ESPN+ show that he dove into following retirement. He invited Deion and his son Shedeur to an empty stadium to toss the pigskin around and work out.
Deion let Peyton know that his son had about 13 or 14 scholarship offers for college. Then suddenly, Peyton threw a twist at the father-son duo. He decided to go toe-to-toe with one of the greatest dual-threat players of all time, but this time Peyton would be guarding Deion as a corner while Shedeur tried to throw his father open.
Peyton encouraged Shedeur. “You can be the first guy to say he threw a touchdown on Peyton Manning to Deion Sanders.” That seemed to get Shedeur’s attention. “And we plan on doing that too!” Deion responded.
Initially, Peyton was getting skinned by Deion. The former two-way star blew past his opponent on a short post for a score. Peyton commended Shedeur for throwing a good pass, but anyone probably would have been able to throw it to Deion because he was so open.
Then Coach Prime ran a fade route and Shedeur hit his father with a perfect back-shoulder pass for another score. However, this time Deion told Peyton he had good coverage. But Manning wondered if he was just being nice.
“Are you just saying that?” Peyton asked. “No, no! Really, it was good!” Deion confirmed.
And Peyton was doing well because later he jumped a slant route and nabbed an interception as he high-stepped his way towards the end zone. By the end of the video, the 49-year-old said that he could maybe transition to the position but physically he doesn’t know if he can hold up.
“I feel like from the intelligence side I could do it, I could transfer to DB,” Peyton professed.
“Well your upper body says yes, but your lower body says no,” Deion responded.
It was a funny way to end the video. While this clip brought laughs, it also reminded fans of a historic moment from their professional careers.
When Peyton Bested Deion
Deion Sanders is one of the greatest DBs of all time. Peyton himself has called the 57-year-old the toughest one he has ever faced. Yet, there was a rare occasion when Manning got the best of Sanders.
Deion opened up about this moment to Shedeur when he got outclassed by Peyton.
“You know he beat your dad deep, son. He beat me for six… They were running it down our throats, and I said lemme go up here and get this run before it gets started. And I saw the naked hand. We always say when you see the naked hand, you can start the band. When you see that naked hand that Peyton gives you and he pulls it, it’s over.”
Peyton successfully sold Deion on a play-action pass and tossed a long TD to Marvin Harrison. It’s one of the few times in Deion’s career where he was beaten on a deep ball. He was known for being an excellent man-coverage DB. But that time his instincts got the best of him.
The episode is a great one to look back on. We get to see a young Shedeur before his college career. And Deion is in great shape as well. To this day, Shedeur is still the only person to have thrown a TD on Peyton Manning. What a fun title to have.
