Peyton Manning reveals why he hit a kid in the back of the head with a football for United Way spoof on 'SNL' | CPT PPP Coverage

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Saturday Night Live has entered its 50th season this fall. For five decades, the show has paved the way for some of the best comedians of all time to enter the limelight through its brand of sketch comedy. 

Many different figures from the sports world have hosted SNL over the years. Michael Jordan, Hulk Hogan, Tom Brady, O.J. Simpson, Nancy Kerrigan, and John Madden are just a few to be named off the list, but one, in particular, made a long-lasting impact that would show his versatility in the world of entertainment after he hung up his cleats for good.

Hall of Fame quarterback and head of Omaha Productions Peyton Manning hosted SNL back in 2007. One of their Digital Shorts aired early on in the broadcast, setting the tone for just how good Manning was going to be at his hosting duties. 

The short video spoofed the NFL’s United Way commercials, which showed athletes giving back to their communities. The TV spots were a staple of the era in the NFL; Manning and the SNL writer’s staff decided to take a humorous approach and make Manning look like an athlete who utterly hated playing football with kids. 

In the sketch, Manning led a team of kids out to a game of two-handed touch football and constantly blasted them in the back with the football.

The punchlines of these kids getting hit by the Super Bowl champion quarterback hit big with the audience. 

In a recently published article by the LA Times, Manning recalled his week working on the show. “Once you’re there, either you’re all in, or you’re not, “Manning said. 

The Hall of Famer recounted what it was like shooting the United Way spoof and how they made it look like he was aggressively throwing an NFL football at kids and hurting them. 

“The footballs weighed nothing, making them very hard to throw,” Manning said. “I hit a kid in the back on the way to the portalet. It was one of my greater throws of all time because I don’t know how I got the football there.” The football Manning was using was actually a Nerf ball painted to look like a real football. 

Manning would cuss the kids out when they dropped his passes (or got hit by them).

The direction he was given was something Manning was very used to. “They told me to treat those kids like rookie receivers with bad attitudes. I thought, OK, I can channel that.”

Manning was reluctant about the sketch, but once the parents of the kids egged him on to hit their kid in the face, he joined in on the fun. 
“Some of the kids’ parents were there watching,” he said. “And I heard one of the parents tell the director, ‘I want him to hit MY kid in the face.’ That kind of freed me up. I was like, ‘OK if you want your kid to get a little more air time and take one in the head from me, I’ll do it. I’ll knock your kid out.'”

The sketch expanded past football and showed the two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback teaching the kids in the sketch how to break into cars, drink beer, and get tattoos. 

Athletes hosting on SNL have always had the writers playing things conservative with the jokes. Manning’s appearance on the show became a bit of a trend-setting appearance. Any sports player who would follow that episode took bigger risks in their sketches, all thanks to Manning hitting kids in the back of the head with a football.