Peyton Manning Seemingly Calls Out Brock Purdy For Toyota Gifts To O-Line: “We Have To Use Our Own Money”

Peyton Manning had to get something off his chest before he signed off on the ManningCast for the final time this season. In the final minutes of their alternate broadcast of the last NFL Wild Card Weekend game, as my Minnesota Vikings got obliterated and embarrassed by the Los Angeles Rams, Peyton told his brother Eli that he needed to vent about something before the broadcast concluded. Since nothing exciting was happening on the field (can't believe I got my hopes up about the Vikings again), the former New York Giants QB told his brother to go ahead with whatever it was he wanted to talk about. That's when Peyton decided to rip the younger quarterbacks of the NFL a new one over the trend in offensive lineman gifts. If you didn’t know, it has become a tradition for NFL quarterbacks to buy gifts for the guys on the O-line that protect them (at least most of the time) from getting tackled by the defense. It’s always cool to see what quarterbacks – who are typically the highest paid players on the team – splurge on to treat their upfront guys. Kansas City Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes got a lot of attention online for buying his offensive line Yeti coolers, boots, Rolex watches and other expensive items, and Cincinnati Bengals QB Joe Burrow turned heads when he gave his O-line units samurai swords. But the biggest offensive lineman bonus of the year was San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy gifting his 10 linemen brand new Toyota cars and trucks. It was wild: https://twitter.com/49ers/status/1869925690742845651?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1869925690742845651%7Ctwgr%5E74067db435978582860a3a74feb084b17a423b16%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.whiskeyriff.com%2F2024%2F12%2F20%2Fbrock-purdy-gifts-10-brand-new-toyotas-to-his-linemen-which-probably-cost-nearly-all-of-his-900000-salary%2F However, as I pointed out when I originally covered that story, the math just wasn't mathing with Purdy's gift. At the time of the Brock Purdy acting as "Santa Purdy," he was on a $900,000 per year contract. The cars he gave away equated to $750,000, meaning that he would have had to spend over half his salary (and a little more) on the automobiles. Upon further inspection, Brock Purdy has a national partnership with Toyota, so the car company undoubtedly gave him a pretty good deal on the 10 vehicles - if they ultimately didn't just give them to him for the publicity of it all. Peyton Manning never named any names in his rant, but it certainly seemed like he was directing the message at least partially at the 49ers quarterback: "These linemen gifts now, okay? Couple rules. You and I did them, right? And you take care of these guys because they deserve to be taken care of. But we have to spend our own money, quarterbacks. We can't be using sponsors and credit and putting it all on TV. We have to actually spend money. I'm not accusing anyone of not spending money, but let's be sure we keep spending our money to take care of our lineman." Hey Peyton... you could have just said, "I'm looking at you Brock Purdy." Eli Manning pointed out that some of the gifts this year have seemed more promotional than anything, which was basically Peyton's point (classic Eli comment). And the Manning brother with the bigger forehead wasn't done there. He also said that offensive lineman gifts are something that the O-line has to earn through doing their job well: "The other thing... it's not a Christmas gift. You have to block well to get a gift. Couple years we didn't make the playoffs, I didn't get my guys anything. Like, you didn't block that well. So don't feel obligated quarterbacks if your team doesn't make the playoffs. That's like a participation medal. Block well, I'll give you a gift." Hey Peyton, you could have just said, "I'm looking at you Joe Burrow." But I have to agree with Peyton on that too. That being said, Peyton Manning wanted to make it clear that he's not against quarterbacks gifting their offensive linemen with presents. He's just suggesting that there are some guidelines that need to be followed, and implied that the younger QBs in the NFL were kind of skating by through the use of their sponsorships. And his last jab was that you don't have to post about the gifts all over social media: "I took care of all my guys. (Jeff) Saturday and Tarik (Glenn) will tell you I took care of them. I'm a big believer in taking care of them. But you gotta spend your money from your pocket. And we don't have to put it on TV. We can just do it in the linemen room. Make it a personal thing." https://twitter.com/OmahaProd/status/1879020211074191582?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1879020211074191582%7Ctwgr%5E80b37dda95ff32552c1d25f7e9299f6d72ae5e93%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.si.com%2Fnfl%2Fbengals%2Fallbengals-insiders-plus%2Fwatch-peyton-manning-calls-out-quarterbacks-like-joe-burrow-for-giving-bad-offensive-lines-gifts-01jhjcmm50nb