The Peyton Manning-Tom Brady rivalry continues on.
Well, in the name of charity, at least.
Manning, the legendary former Indianapolis Colts quarterback, and Brady, who at 42 just signed a free agent deal to continue his playing career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, are set to face off against each other in a round of golf over Memorial Day weekend.
Manning is teaming up with Tiger Woods, and they'll take on Brady and Phil Mickelson in "The Match: Champions for Charity" on Sunday. The event, which will be televised on TBS and TNT, begins at 3 p.m. ET from Medalist Golf Club in Hobe Sound, Fla.
The first nine holes of the contest will consist of a best-ball competition, while the final nine holes will be a modified alternate shot format. By the time the match is over, the group, combined with WarnerMedia, will have donated a combined $10 million to coronavirus relief efforts.
The "Champions for Charity" match will give Manning and Brady, considered by many to be the top two quarterbacks in NFL history, a chance to reignite a little bit of the rivalry the two shared on the football field from 2001 through 2016.
While Brady's New England Patriots teams bested Manning's Colts and Denver Broncos teams in the overall series, 11-6, it was Manning that had the edge, 3-2, in their all-time postseason series history.
Colts owner Jim Irsay on Thursday added some more perspective to this historic rivalry.
"Tom is awesome and he's earned the Hardware the right way;but there's only ONE Peyton!" Irsay tweeted. "Peyton is the most iconic NFL player in a 100 years!SNL,the commercials/ hell; there's a million babies named after him in this country! Go Peyton/Tiger!Thanks to all 4 guys"
And, of course, Manning couldn't help but take a couple digs at Brady in a recent video conference interview about the upcoming "The Match: Champions for Charity" event, in which Manning, Brady, Woods and Mickelson all participated.
Referring to a recent incident in which Brady accidentally walked into the wrong Tampa home looking for Buccaneers offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich, Manning joked: "The tournament had to be in Florida — after Tom's B&E arrest, with the ankle monitor, he couldn't leave the state. So it had to be in Florida. Tiger and I talked to the sheriff in Tampa; he's going to be allowed to go to Palm Beach to play."
Manning continued with the barbs from there.
"I'll be honest: I've never played Tom very well on his home turf," he said. "I would have loved to have this tournament in a place where they don't like Tom very much: Indianapolis, Denver, Boston — after he betrayed them and broke their hearts."
Peyton can certainly talk the talk with the best of them, but will he back it up on the golf course? The answer to that question is: quite possibly. Jeff Sherman, a golf odds specialist who has researched Manning and Brady's golf games, told ESPN he would put Manning around a 6 handicap, and Brady at an 8 handicap.
Manning also has plenty of experience golfing alongside Woods. The two have played together in at least four public pro-am events over the years, including at the 2019 Memorial Tournament Pro-Am event in Dublin, Ohio, where Woods was clearly impressed with the work put in by Manning since they last teed it up together.
"He's gotten so much better," Woods said, via USA TODAY. "When we first played, he was just kind of starting out in the game. But now that he's retired he can play a lot more golf. That's been pretty cool for me to be able to play with him throughout the years. To know what he's gone through and see him get ready for the season and what he's been able to accomplish after all those surgeries, to walk around greatness like this, it's always fun."
