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“You never know. There might be a leak in the dome!”: Peyton Manning crazily had Jeff Saturday practice wet ball drills even when the Colts were playing indoors

Ashish Priyadarshi
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Peyton Manning

Peyton Manning had a crazy dedication to football and practicing, even to where he’d confuse his center Jeff Saturday with his commitment to be perfect.

The Hall of Famer enjoyed one of the greatest NFL careers by a quarterback, smashing passing records left and right before he eventually retired. His 2013 season is arguably the greatest season by a quarterback ever as he set the records for passing yards and touchdowns in a single season (5,477 and 55), records that still stand today even though the NFL added an extra game to every season this last year.

Manning had a drive to be the best in the game, and he proved that on a daily basis, whether it was during game-time or during practice sessions, Manning wanted to always ensure things were perfect and that his team would be ready for everything.

That drive resulted in two Super Bowl wins and a list of other accolades that landed him in the Hall of Fame.

Also Read: “I’m not the starter if we lose that game”: Tom Brady reveals Drew Bledsoe would have regained starter status if not for this one game

Peyton Manning had Jeff Saturday confused while running wet ball drills

An integral part of playing in the NFL is knowing that you’ll have to play in all kinds of conditions. Football is the one sport where weather conditions will not stop gameplay.

Come rain, snow, wind, intense heat, or whatever else you can imagine, NFL players will be out on the field giving it their all. Prepping for weather conditions is a big part of a team’s preparation for any matchup, especially preparing for rainy conditions.

Manning recognized this fact and made sure that he had his center, Jeff Saturday, practicing to hand him a ball that may be more slippery. However, sometimes Manning would have Saturday run these drills even when they were playing indoors. The Colts stadium, then the RCA dome, is an indoor field, unbothered by the elements of the outside world. That didn’t matter to Manning, however.

“About once every three weeks, Jeff Saturday and I did a wet ball drill, where we were taking snaps with a ball covered with water. Jeff hated it,” Manning said in the book Super Bowl Blueprints: Hall of Famers Reveal the Keys to Football’s Greatest Dynasties authored by Bill Polian and Vic Carucci. “He just thought it was annoying and irritating because he got soaking wet. The way it worked was, as Jeff was getting ready to snap the ball to me, our equipment managers would spray the ball with the water bottle. Of course, his hands and arms and pants were also getting wet. I remember one time when Jeff said, Why are we doing this? We’re playing in the RCA Dome this week. There’s no chance of it being wet.’ I said, ‘You never know. There might be a leak in the dome. We can’t take any chances. We’ve got to keep doing this drill.’”

In Manning’s first Super Bowl game, he had Saturday practice like that as well.

“Peyton being Peyton, leaving no stone unturned, decided we would practice with a wet ball. As a result, under cloudless skies and 80-degree temperatures all through the week, Jeff Saturday had to snap a soaked football,” Polian would say. “Jeff was not happy.”

Also Read: “Tom Brady at age 43 went through Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, and Patrick Mahomes”: Remembering the NFL GOAT’s legendary Super Bowl run exactly one year ago

About the author

Ashish Priyadarshi

Ashish Priyadarshi

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Ashish Priyadarshi is The SportsRush's content manager and editor. Ashish freelanced for 1 year in the NFL division before taking on an editorial role in the company. He then tacked on managing content while adding on a writing role in the NBA division. Ashish has been closely following the NFL and NBA since the 2012 season when the Patriots lost the Super Bowl and Derrick Rose was at the height of his powers. Since then, Ashish has focused on honing his knowledge for both leagues in, even writing crossover pieces. In his free time, Ashish is an avid basketball player, he loves to watch movies and TV shows, immersing himself in the cinematic world. Ashish studies computer science and data science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and would love to mesh his love for sports with his technical skills.

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