Interesting comment from this week's Sports Illustrated issue...

There was a story on Cooper Manning, the one of the three sons of Archie that had his football career cut short. He was a lightly recruited wideout with only 4.7 speed, but he still got an offer from Ole Miss, perhaps because of Archie, perhaps because they knew that Peyton and Eli was a promising young football player himself.

In the article, Peyton Manning is quoted as saying, "If Cooper was playing, there's no doubt I would have gone to Ole Miss. Playing college football with my brother was something we always dreamed about."

Hey Vol fans...Pretty nice to know how deep that loyalty runs, ain't it?

 

And Peyton would have likely been a Tiger if we didn't pursue Josh Booty like we did.

 

Peyton

Not if his father had anything to say about it! Archie would rather have died than deliver Peyton to LSU. That's what rivalries are about!

 

Archie would have never allowed Peyton or Eli to come to LSU.

 

Having known Peyton since 5th grade, he did not want to come to LSU because the pressure for him to be better than he was would have been too much for him to try and live up to. I don't think that Archie would have died, but that would have been a bitter pill, even under the best circumstances.

Archie knew that Cooper's back would not allow him to play for much longer than he did. While Peyton would have loved to play with Cooper again, it wasn't going to happen. Cooper playing at Ole Miss was one of his dreams...He likely couldn't have even walked on for LSU.

 

Like em or not, I think that every boy who has a brother would dream of tossing passes to his brother at the University where their father is a football legend.

I could imagine that even a Vol fan could understand it in those terms.......

 

I agree Gus. Just because Peyton said this doesn't mean he's not loyal to Tenn.

 

I hear Cooper was the best athelete of the bunch. I wonder if that was just speulation or what.

 

I've also heard from numerous people that Peyton would have seriously considered commiting to LSU had we not so aggresively recruited Booty...

 

I don't know that one was any better than the other. Cooper was better in basketball, but since this is football, and based upon past performance, I have to lean towards Peyton. Peyton, IMO, has a better grasp of the game. Cooper didn't have as much to think about at WR as Peyton did at QB.

Now if you compare Peyton and Eli, its almost a push. Eli has had the benefit of watching his older brother rip teams apart. But, Eli hasn't had the kind of offensive weapons that Peyton has had either (Not everyone can have the luxury of a MHarrison).

IMO, Peyton and Eli are better athletes than Cooper was.