Peyton Manning sent an apology to a ref after going off on him in a game
Peyton Manning is a pretty amazing quarterback, but many say he is a better person. Just how amazing is he? Mark Wiedmer of the Chattanooga Free Times interviewed former NFL referee Butch Hannah, who shared an amazing story about Peyton Manning.
“Peyton’s next-to-last year, the Broncos were facing the Dolphins in Denver and the whole game was a struggle for them,” Hannah said. “I called back two Denver touchdowns. But they pulled it out by two or three points (39-36). But late in the game, the clock about to run out, Peyton mistimed a snap and they had to run one more play. Peyton said something off-color to me, which was not at all like him.
“I told him, ‘Peyton, you’re better than that.’”
Manning sent Hannah a FedEx package with a hand written letter:
“He said he wanted to apologize for his reaction to me that day against the Dolphins,” Hannah related. “Would I please accept his apology? That’s the only time that’s happened to me in all my years of officiating.”
Manning never heard back from Hannah, so before a pre-season game, he confronted Hannah to see if he received the package.
“It’s Peyton,” said Hannah, who’s known Manning since both were in the SEC in the mid-1990s. “He asks me, ‘Did you get my card?’ I said, ‘Peyton, you’ve got to let this go.’ He says, ‘You have no idea how upset I was with myself.’ That’s the kind of son Archie and Olivia raised. Pretty impressive.”
I love hearing these kind of stories. What a great piece, and amazing gesture by the future Hall of Famer.
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