And by the time Tom is inducted in his first year of eligibility in the year 2035, he’ll only time to have to post his acceptance speech on his Instagram account.”īut after the jokes and the laughs, after the nod to history, after the emotional words of gratitude for his father and presenter, Archie - “my favorite quarterback, my hero, my role model,” Peyton called him - Manning turned to his greatest love: football. “And speaking of rivals, my good friend Tom Brady is here tonight. Next year, acceptance speeches will probably shrink to four minutes. Ray just finished the speech he gave in 2018. “I wanna thank my old rival, Ray Lewis, for being here tonight. “The 2021 class wants to thank the previous inductees who gave long-winded acceptance speeches, forcing us to have a whopping six minutes to recap our football careers,” he said to a chorus of laughs. He began with a few jabs at a few former rivals. With Manning, there was always time for one last audible. While Hall of Famer Drew Pearson spoke, Manning flipped through the hard copy of his speech from just a few feet away, making last-second edits with a black pen. Even in the 15 minutes before he stood before the lectern, gold jacket on, bronze bust unveiled, 17,021 at Tom Benson Stadium here waiting on his every word, Peyton Manning couldn’t help himself. His speech, a shade under 10 minutes, was scripted down to the very last word, just as you knew it would be. He spoke passionately and purposefully, like he was addressing his offense the night before a big game. They are the men, as of Sunday night, he considers teammates now and forever. He faked a handoff to Barry Sanders, fired a pass to Michael Irvin and outsmarted the great Vince Lombardi - in a dream, at least. CANTON, Ohio - He zinged Ray Lewis and he ribbed Tom Brady.

Peyton manning hall of fame speech