Eli Manning has played in Super Bowls and absorbed some of the hardest hits in football. However, the iconic quarterback could not best a safety harness while shooting for a commercial.
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On the Hustle Like You’re Broke podcast, co-host Constance Schwartz-Morini took him back about 15 years, when he and Deion Sanders were DirecTV ambassadors. The concept was that the two were DirecTV fairies who would encounter fans that did not have an NFL Sunday ticket. Either Manning or Sanders would then magicaly load it on their screen by throwing some pixie dust, saying, ‘It is on!”
In a photo from the shoot, Sanders and Eli Manning can be seen raised in the air with harnesses.
“The harness is like pulling you up a little bit just so it’s not loose,” Manning said. “After like, five minutes, we haven’t done anything. I’m like, ‘Hey, I’m getting a little lightheaded, like something’s up. I got to get down.’
“… It was just pulling and hitting something, where it was just cutting off some blood, cutting off some circulation, and I’m like, ‘Get me down. I got to get down.’ I’m yelling at everybody on the set.”
That is where the story ended up. Here is how it started. Eli was standing on a 20-foot wall in a harness, waiting to jump off and float through the sky for the cameras. However, as Manning recalled, the shot was not taken for those five minutes. The waiting proved costly.
Then the story took a turn. His agent had been missing for a while, and then he suddenly showed up with a little haircutting bib around his neck. He had been in the back getting the makeup artist to give him a trim.
Eli could not believe it. He was 20 feet in the air in a harness, and his agent decided that was the perfect time for a free haircut. You have to admire the timing, even if you cannot admire the manners.
The job got done, of course. After the break, they went back and finished the shoot, and the fairy business carried on. The project also had Peyton Manning in some of the ads.
It was silly and a little strange, and it fit the Manning brothers perfectly. Eli did not say which shoot he was describing.
This is not the first chaotic story Eli has told on the show. He also recalled the first episode of the ManningCast, when Peyton insisted they have a skit for the show. Eli said they won’t need one, since they will be analyzing the game. But Peyton did not agree, leading the two to settle on a coach-quarterback communication skit. The elder Manning was the QB, while the younger was the coach.
However, the earpiece in Peyton’s helmet fell off as he was trying to get it on. He couldn’t hear anything. But they were on air, and as instructed, Eli started calling the play. But with no audio input, Peyton then started calling the play himself.
“It’s a total disaster,” Eli Manning said, laughing.
So the next time you see Eli in a goofy commercial, remember what it takes. A harness, a missing agent, and a haircut nobody asked for are all part of the job. And somehow, he still got it done.