Peyton Manning Criticized By Tennessee Fans For Rooting Against Volunteers

Sports admin September 22, 2026 0 Comments

Peyton Manning Criticized By Tennessee Fans For Rooting Against Volunteers

Peyton Manning’s alma mater is playing host to a huge college football game on Saturday. Tennessee will be hosting No. 1 Texas at Neyland Stadium. ESPN’s “College GameDay” will be on site.

But Manning will not be rooting for the Volunteers.

Instead, Manning has made it clear that he will be rooting for his nephew, Arch Manning, who plays quarterback for the Longhorns.

“One of the kids was asking me earlier who I was going to go for,” said Peyton at the Manning Passing Academy in June. “And I said, ‘Well, who do you think?’ And he said that he would go for his school over his relative. And I went, ‘Well, you and I are different. You and I are wired differently.’ Nothing’s more important than your family.

“But obviously, it’s going to be a huge SEC game. My dad dealt with it when I was in college — when Tennessee played Ole Miss. Look, I love my university, my alma mater, and I pull for them unconditionally. But nothing’s more important to me than my family. And when you have a nephew playing — I pull very hard for him every single Saturday. So that’s pretty much a no-brainer that you’re pulling for your nephew to play well. But, like I said, everybody knows pretty strongly where my loyalties lie on all other Saturdays — with the University of Tennessee.”