Same, Luke… same.
On Monday night, Luke Combs appeared on ESPN’s alternative ManningCast broadcast with Peyton and Eli Manning, which started in 2021 on ESPN2, and has been a big hit among football fans. Luke is a huge Panthers fan, and seeing as the Carolina Panthers and San Francisco 49ers were facing off on Monday Night Football, he was the perfect guest for the show (I don’t want to talk about the end result of the game).
And of course, considering what Peyton did to the Panthers during Super Bowl 50 in February of 2016, Luke had to bring up the fact that Peyton crushed his childhood “hopes an dreams” when the Denver Broncos beat the Panthers 24-10. I think their win had more to do with Von Miller having Cam Newton’s number all night, but I digress…
Luke explained that he confronted Peyton about it the first time he met him, and he recalled “crying” in his Nashville apartment watching the game after rushing back from a gig in Alabama to be back in time for kickoff:
“…The chance to be first in the division, that’s somewhere we haven’t been since 2016, maybe. When Peyton crushed us in the Super Bowl. So that’s really great.
Yeah, I mean, I told him the first time we met, I’m like, ‘Hey, man. I just hope you know that you crushed my dreams as a child. So you’ve met a child you have impacted and crushed their hopes and dreams directly… I know you never thought we would meet.’ I was crying in my apartment in Nashville this particular night.
I remember, we hammered down from a gig in Alabama to get home so that we would make kickoff for the game, and the first drive, I was like, ‘Well, that’s it.'”
It is a bit traumatic for me too, and Peyton took the chance to rub it in, showing off some of his Super Bowl 50 memorabilia:
“I’m in Knoxville right now, they actually have my uniform from that game in this room where I’m doing this show. I probably won’t show you that… look at these cleats, you can see the confetti on the cleats, Luke. That’s the actual confetti. So, sorry to bring that up.”
Luke responded:
“Only hurts a lot, Peyton. It only hurts a lot. It’s good, man, I’m glad you have all that stuff, I’m glad you have all those great memories. I’ve got nothing here. I’ve got no rings, no memories, but I’m glad you’re there in the shrine in Knoxville, that’s lovely, you know. That’s lovely.”
The wound is still a little tender…
Eli joked how weird it was that Peyton had all that stuff in his bedroom, and Luke told them that he’s actually been on a mission to meet all of the players who made his childhood miserable when it comes to NFL football, and he’s already got Peyton, as well as former New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, off the list.
He says Tom Brady is the last one, who led the New England Patriots to victory over the Panthers in 2004 by a score of 32-29 with a last-second field goal from Adam Vinatieri, and if you remember some of the accusations about the Patriots following that game than you know my opinion on it, but I need Luke to confront Tom face to face on behalf of all of us Panthers fans who are still salty about it:
“It’s finny, I’m on a lifelong mission to meet all the players that broke my heart over the years. Peyton was the first, I got to meet Drew Brees at Stagecoach this year and tell him he ruined my childhood as well.
Now I’m just waiting to met Tom Brady and tell him that he also ruined my childhood by beating us in the Super Bowl, so I’ve got really two out of the three guys that were constant source of sadness throughout my Panthers fandom… if you guys could maybe facilitate me meeting Tom and telling him how much he ruined my childhood as well, that would be real nice.”
Luke was a great guest for this edition of ManningCast, and he’s a real ride or die, and I certainly appreciate that about him… there’s always next season, Luke.
You can watch some of the highlights from his appearance on the ManningCast below.