No matter how much money ESPN offered Peyton Manning to do "Monday Night Football," nothing was going to outweigh the price of brotherly love.
According to Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports, two sources close to Manning revealed that the future Hall of Fame quarterback declined a lucrative deal in April to join the "Monday Night Football" booth this season largely because he did not want to analyze Eli Manning.
Peyton was offered the opportunity to join the booth in April, but the Giants are scheduled to appear on "Monday Night Football" twice this season and Eli's decline over the last few years has been a focal point of the team. That should be amplified even greater this season with sixth overall pick Daniel Jones waiting in the wings.
While Peyton has been mum on why he declined the offer, he did expand on what it is like watching his brother and former teammates from afar now that he is retired while at the Manning Passing Academy last week in Louisiana.
"It's great to have someone that you're so close to, that you feel invested in, to watch [Eli] play and compete," Peyton said. "I know when Eli stops playing, it will be different, because when you have a brother, you feel a part of it. I pull hard for Eli. ... Anybody that you have a connection to, you feel that connection when you watch him play in person or on TV. So I've been real proud of Eli and I'm looking forward to watching him play this year."
There is continued speculation on whether or not Peyton Manning will turn to a career in TV or perhaps join a front office or executive position with an NFL team, a la John Elway. If it is TV, though, it will be after Eli has retired.
"If he ever decides [Monday Night Football] is something he wants to do, it's going to be after Eli has finished his career and he gets a little bit further from his era of playing and maybe some of his teammates have moved on, too," one source told Yahoo. "It would have been a tough position for him this season, with the Giants [and Broncos] being on the schedule. There is a lot of loyalty there for him and I don't think he'd ever want to be in a position where he'd be conflicted about his analysis. It just wouldn't have been a comfortable situation this year."