Peyton and Eli Manning Can’t Save the NFL

Chalk up one more anomaly to These Unprecedented Times: Something genuinely weird is happening on an NFL broadcast. For this season of its marquee Monday Night Football program, ESPN is airing an additional broadcast featuring the brothers and retired Super Bowl–winning quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning. The “Manning-cast,” as sports media have affectionately dubbed it, has the hangout feel of a Twitch stream: The Mannings break down the game as talking heads from their couches, frequently digressing at length from the on-the-field action to go deep with some football wonkery or welcome a procession of celebrity guests, including LeBron James and Charles Barkley.

If “Tampa 2” sounds more like a vacation booking than football terminology to you, the program also contains a hefty dose and , quoting Shakira, while Peyton sternly argued in real time with a notorious . In the three short weeks the Manning-cast has been on the air (seven more episodes are slotted for the rest of the season), Eli’s home fire alarm has interrupted a broadcast, Peyton has struggled to fit his massive cranium , and the duo have occasionally had to hustle like fast-talking talk-show hosts to get through segments before a commercial break.