The rivalry between Tom Brady and Peyton Manning isn’t as fierce as we once thought it was. In fact, they seemed to be close friends in secret. Back in the late 2000s, they met during the offseason and swapped ideas in an epic, clandestine meeting of the minds.
They didn’t hang out for long — just a few days — but they shared notes and covered expansive topics about living life as an elite NFL quarterback. While neither quarterback has ever discussed the meeting, Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback coach Clyde Christensen made the big reveal. He worked with Manning in Indianapolis and will work with Brady in 2020.
“I remember one year, we always had a project for Peyton [in the offseason],” Clyde Christensen said on “The Pat McAfee Show” this week, as transcribed by NBC Sports Boston. “We said, hey, bring Brady down to Chatanooga, sit on the lake, work out, throw, exchange ideas. He’s the one guy who really at this point in his career can understand what you go through. It was post-30 [years old for each QB. Manning is about a year-and-half older than Brady]. They had a little one-on-one where they throw all morning, lift weights, run, hit the golf ball around and go sit and talk about everything from how do I handle the media to how do I handle a ‘Bear’ [a.k.a. goal-line] defense.”
Because of that meeting, Christensen had a surprise for Brady when they first got to work after the quarterback signed with the Buccaneers.
“I brought out a file and I had all this stuff about his offense and he goes, ‘Where’d you get that?’ ” Christensen told McAfee. “I know a little bit more than you think I know about you.”
Apparently, Manning’s notes were expansive to the point that Christensen was ready with ideas about what to do with Brady’s offense in New England.
“I had all these pages of notes I start reading them off about Chatanooga, so, of course, I knew about it, but how they kept the thing secret, I’ll never know. No one ever heard about it. It was unbelievable. Those guys went hard for 48 hours, just exchanged ideas,” Christensen said. “Tom said, ‘I’ve gotta pull out those notes. I got so many things from Peyton, too.”
