DENVER — Archie Manning is not only the patriarch of the NFL’s Royal Quarterback Family, he as a longtime resident of the New Orleans’ famed Garden District well knows the Broncos’ new head coach.
Sean Payton was the Saints’ coach for 15 seasons over 16 years from 2006-2021. He averaged better than 10 wins a season, won the 2009-season Super Bowl by defeating Peyton Manning’s Colts, and suffered at least two playoff heartbreaks during his term in New Orleans.
“I think it’s a great hire,’’ Archie Manning said in an interview Wednesday morning with 9NEWS prior to his role as the keynote speaker at the Boy Scouts Sports Breakfast that was held at the National Western Events Center. “Sean is a really good football coach. He’s a good guy – he’s a tough guy. A demanding guy. But he knows how to win and that’s what we want to do.
“You know one of Sean’s mentors is Bill Parcells who was a great football coach. I always saw some similarities with Sean and Bill Belichick. He did a great job in New Orleans, had some wonderful teams. Actually came very close to doing more. They were really so close a number of times but I think Denver’s going to like and enjoy Sean Payton.’’
Before Peyton, Eli and Cooper Manning became national commercial celebrities, Archie was a star quarterback in his own right. Back in the three network television station days, no one was bigger than Archie at Ole Miss from 1968-70. He was the No. 2 overall draft pick of the Saints in 1971 and while he was consistently one of the NFL’s better quarterbacks in the 1970s and early 1980s, he played on some dreadful teams.
Sons Peyton and Eli would grow up in New Orleans and later became two of the 10-most prolific passers in NFL history with each winning two Super Bowls. After a highly successful four-year term with the Broncos to end his career, Peyton and his wife Ashley decided to stay in the Denver area to raise their twins Marshall and Mosley.
Archie Manning
“I don’t need a big reason to come to Denver,’’ Archie said. “We (Archie and wife Olivia) love to come to Denver and see family and grandchildren but also I was on the Boy Scouts board for years in New Orleans. It’s a great institution and I appreciate the invitation.”
Peyton and Eli seem to be more popular and in marketing demand during retirement than they were during their near two-decade-long playing careers.
“They stay busy,’’ Archie said. “I just visited Eli and his family up in the New York area not long ago. Eli’s got four kids so they’re busy. Peyton and his family are doing fine. Football’s kind of in the air -- we’re getting close to the high school season kicking off, college right around the corner, pros will be teeing it up, so great time of year.”
Oldest son Cooper, an excellent high school receiver who had to give up football at an early age for medical reasons, has a son Arch who was a high school phenom from New Orleans and is now a highly touted freshman at the University of Texas. The Manning family often does humorous-bent commercials together, most notably with Caesar’s Sportsbook. Archie is sometimes included, most recently with Eli for Quaker Oats.
“Oh, it’s fine,’’ Archie said about doing commercials. “It doesn’t bother me if I’m not asked to be in a commercial but if they ask me I’ll join. We have fun. We do have fun. We’ve done some things with all three of my boys and with everybody being kind of spread out we don’t get to see them enough so it does bring us together and we do have fun.”
During his playing days with the Saints, Archie crossed paths with Broncos’ inside linebacker Randy Gradishar, who is an odds-on favorite to become a senior players nominee for the Pro Football Hall of Fame that will be announced later Wednesday morning.
“No one deserves it more,’’ Archie said. “I played against Randy Gradishar. I was talking last night about playing against those Bronco defenses, Randy Gradishar, Tom Jackson. But Randy was a great player and what a super human being. He gets my vote.”
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