The Lead
For a long time, Peyton Manning did not know what he would do after his playing career ended.
"This is a second chapter for me," Manning told Axios’ Kendall Baker. "I never had a plan for what I wanted to do after I finished playing, because I never had time to think about it. I was just thinking about football."
After the dust settled following his 2016 retirement, Manning began a new career in television production. Via Omaha Productions, Manning has been able to still maintain connections to the NFL through shows like "Peyton's Places" and "Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli" — also known as the "Manningcast."
With the latter program, the Manning brothers incorporate special guest from the NFL world and beyond to chat throughout the game, occasionally interspersed with analysis of some of the game's finer points. While fans can still get the dedicated broadcast on ESPN, the Mannings provide a different kind of telecast.
"The second-and-1 running play that nobody really cares about, let's not analyze that," Manning told Baker. "Let's talk to [our guest] instead. I mean, that's how I watch football with friends and family ... just sort of having conversations."
Omaha's "Peyton's Places" show has also expanded into several other sports with hosts like Vince Carter and Abby Wambach, and Baker reports that it will soon have a country music version with Luke Bryan.
But the originator is still going strong; season three of "Peyton's Places" debuted on Sunday on ESPN+, and new episodes come out each week through Dec. 25.
Below the Fold
Is Sunday's win over the Jaguars in London an indication of the way the Broncos can more consistently play? In his weekly column on Monday, NBC Sports' Peter King wrote that it could be.
"One half cannot fix a season," King wrote. "But the second half in London was something close to the way [Head Coach] Nathaniel Hackett thought his offense and defense would play. Let's see if they come back after the bye, in Nashville, and show they're not playing out the string."
