Hall of Fame NFL quarterback and University of Tennessee graduate Peyton Manning is returning to the classroom—this time, at the head of the class.
Manning, who graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a speech communications degree in 1997, will be a professor of practice for “select classes” at Tennessee’s College of Communication and Information, the school announced on Monday.
Manning, 47, called his undergrad experience at Tennessee “foundational,” adding that he learned “critical skills and messaging techniques” he leans on almost daily. “I look forward to working with the college’s talented faculty and directly with students in an effort to ensure they are well prepared for their future careers.”
As professor, Manning will partner with other faculty members on lessons including public speaking, sports reporting, video production and performance, and leadership and communication—ideal, given his football legacy and postretirement media career. Still, it’s quite a different track from his role as starting quarterback for the Tennessee Volunteers; he led the football team to an SEC championship his senior year and still holds the school’s record for most passing yards and touchdowns.
“There is no other ambassador for our college and university like Peyton Manning, and we are proud to welcome him to the college’s faculty,” college dean, Joseph Mazer, wrote in the press release. “Peyton is a true Volunteer, and I look forward to our students gaining invaluable knowledge from him as we continue to prepare the next generation of communication and information leaders.”
Can’t stop, won’t stop
Manning is widely considered one of the greatest football players of all time. The No. 1 NFL draft pick in 1998, he went on to be named Most Valuable Player five times and notch two Super Bowl rings, one for the Indianapolis Colts (where he spent 14 seasons) and one for the Denver Broncos (where he spent four). During his time in the NFL, according to Spotrac, Manning earned just shy of $250 million. Five years after he retired in 2016, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame.
He has hardly spent retirement with his feet up. In 2020, he launched Omaha Productions, a company geared toward sports-related content that “uplifts and unifies people.” Some of its banner shows include Monday Night Football With Peyton and Eli (which nabbed an Emmy win, inspired an SNL skit, and even featured President Barack Obama in 2022), and Places, a docuseries franchise that features a different athlete each season. The third season, Peyton’s Places, starring Peyton himself, recently wrapped up. Manning also executive produces Netflix’s new series Quarterback.
“This is a second chapter for me,” Manning told Axios last year. “I never had a plan for what I wanted to do after I finished playing, because I never had time to think about it. I was just thinking about football.”
While the latest chapter of his second act is taking a more educational direction, the professorial gig is not Manning’s first return to UT. The year after he graduated, he established the Peyton Manning Scholarship, which has since been awarded to over 50 recipients. In 2018, he donated $1 million to establish an experiential learning endowment. And during the pandemic, Manning made a surprise Zoom drop-in on a UT class of seniors. He also regularly hires students for internships at Omaha Productions, UT wrote in Monday’s announcement.
“What is unique about Peyton is that instead of doing what everyone has done and what you are supposed to do as a great quarterback when you retire, he has been an individual and has done what is fun for him and makes him happy,” Neil Zender, showrunner of Peyton’s Places, told the New York Post in 2021.
UT is fresh off a very successful 2022 football season, including a win against Alabama. With Manning lingering around Knoxville, they can probably expect renewed morale on the field—and an avalanche in the admissions office.
