The Denver Post

Manning brothers display sense of humor

- By Arnie Stapleton

Give the Manning brothers this: They’ve always had impeccable comedic timing.

Peyton deadpanned that Drew Brees had ended the happiest stint of his life by breaking his career passing yards record Monday night, and Eli had his own crack when asked about Odell Beckham Jr.’s scathing interview in which he criticized his quarterbac­k, his city, his team and his coach, to name a few.

When Brees broke his record for most career passing yards Monday night in the Saints’ 4319 rout of Washington, a congratula­tory message from Peyton, a New Orleans native whose father, Archie, starred for the Saints, played on the Superdome’s video boards.

Shown slicing tomatoes, Manning said with a straight face that his time as the career yards passing leader had been “the greatest thousand days of my life.”

“Thanks to you, that’s over now,” Manning continued as the laughter erupted in the stands. “You’ve ruined that for me.

“Also, let this serve as the congratula­tions for the touchdown record because as you can see I’m very busy,” Manning added. “I don’t have time to keep doing these videos for you.”

Brees has 499 TD throws, one fewer than Tom Brady and 40 fewer than Peyton, who wasn’t able to make it to New Orleans on Monday, a day after cheering on the Colorado Rockies in the NL Division Series at Coors Field.

Earlier Monday, Eli made it clear he hadn’t seen the interview ESPN played Sunday morning in which Beckham, sitting next to rapper Lil Wayne in an odd optic, steamrolle­d the Giants, the city, his coach and his quarterbac­k.

Manning was asked for his reaction, Eli said, “I don’t watch Lil Wayne much.”

Like his brother, who turned serious in congratula­ting Brees, Eli went on to say he thinks his relationsh­ip with Beckham is fine and he was glad the star receiver had addressed the team the night before their game against the Panthers.

Beckham has taken a lot of heat for his comments but said he doesn’t regret anything he said.

And he had a breakout game against Carolina, catching eight passes for 138 yards and a touchdown and throwing a 57yard TD pass to running back Saquon Barkley after receiving a lateral from his quarterbac­k.

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