Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp is as clinical as it gets in his position, but he recalled making a bad mistake some time ago. The Super Bowl LVI MVP, by no mistake of his own, was ignoring text messages from an unknown person who later revealed himself to be the Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning. Manning, as it turns out, never let Kupp know that it was him trying to reach out to the Rams wideout.

Kupp, feeling strange, chose against replying to those text messages. It was the NFL’s official Instagram account that shared this story shared by Kupp back in November 2021. The simple fact that this did transpire for years shows how creepy Kupp found Manning’s text messages.

While describing the texts, Kupp states that Manning shared the pictures from the time they spent together at the Manning Passing Academy.

While talking about it in retrospect, Kupp states, “I look back through the messages, and they all line up with certain events where we’d seen each other. So I think I’ve been ghosting Peyton Manning for my entire NFL career.” It seems Kupp has some regrets about not getting to the realization of who it is much sooner.

Cooper Kupp and Peyton Manning: Mentee-Mentor relationship

Kupp was a big project for the Rams franchise, and their GM Les Snead also knew this when he fell to them during the 2017 NFL Draft. But it was during the 2015 Manning Passing Academy camp where Snead noticed Peyton taking a young Cooper Kupp, under his wing. It was his sessions with the then NFL MVP, which made the Rams franchise sit up and scout him.

Read More: Super Bowl MVP Cooper Kupp Earns LA’s Adoration After Honoring Kobe Bryant: “Kobe’s a Part of This. He Belongs Here. He Set the Standard”

But the relationship between Cooper Kupp and Peyton Manning supposedly goes much farther back. Kupp’s grandfather Jake Kupp ran blocking for Archie Manning when they played on the New Orleans Saints franchise in 1964.

It seems it was Peyton’s turn to look after and extract Kupp’s best that made him into one of the most lethal players in the league.

The Rams franchise, in some regards, owe a lot to the former Giants QB who put Cooper Kupp on their radar. It further upset Kupp, who might be kicking himself at having failed to recognize Manning was behind the then anonymous texts. Both Kupp and his organization will be thanking Manning for making it possible to combine and add another Super Bowl title to their cabinet.

Watch This Story: Kyler Murray’s Agent Issues Weird Statement After Cardinals QB’s Social Media Drama