Peyton and Eli Manning have made headlines all season with their special ESPN2 broadcasts of "Monday Night Football," in part because of their celebrity guest lineups. But not everything that's come from the Manning brothers' prime-time spectacle has been good. Case in point: an emerging phenomenon known only as ... The ManningCast curse.
What is it, exactly? Think of it like the famed "Madden" curse, which has unintentionally forecast sudden declines from players featured on the cover of the annual NFL video game. Except, in this case, active players appearing as Manning brothers guests suffer the consequences. And this week it continued, with recent guest Josh Allen's Bills losing as 15.5-point favorites in Jacksonville on Sunday. Here's a look at the biggest names to join Peyton and Eli so far this year, and how they fared in their next game:
| Player | ManningCast appearance | Next week result |
|---|---|---|
Week 1 | ||
Week 1 | ||
Week 2 | Buccaneers lose 34-24 to Rams; Gronk now injured | |
Week 3 | Rams lose 37-20 to Cardinals | |
Week 7 | Buccaneers lose 36-27 to Saints | |
Josh Allen | Week 8 | Bills lose 9-6 to Jaguars; Allen has 0 TDs, 2 INTs |
To review, that's a combined 0-6 record for teams of the active big-name players in the week following said players' appearance with the Mannings, with Wilson and Gronkowski suffering serious injuries in the weeks after their "MNF" gigs. Last week we wrote, "We're not saying the Mannings are trying this, but boy should Bills fans be a little cautious if they're expecting Josh Allen, Week 8's big guest, to easily guide the Bills over the lowly Jaguars in Week 9."
Hmmm. Allen and the Bills then went to Jacksonville and suffered the seventh largest upset since 1990.
As for who could be next, Peyton and Eli will not be doing a ManningCast this week, as they're off for Week 9. They plan to broadcast 10 out of the 17 "Monday Night Football" games, and so far they've broadcasted during five of the nine. ESPN and the Manning brothers have yet to announce what the remainder of their schedule will look like, so we don't know when they'll return ... but it's not unreasonable to think that it could be more difficult for them to find active players as potential guests.
