Peyton Manning and John Lynch have both been voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as members of the 2021 class. They were never teammates in the NFL but Manning and Lynch both played the final four years of their careers with the Denver Broncos.
Although they weren’t on the same team, Manning and Lynch had mutual respect for each other and formed a friendship at Pro Bowls. Lynch reached nine Pro Bowls in his career and Manning was voted to the All-Star game 14 times.
“At Pro Bowls, I think our wives would tell you that it was a little nauseating because we would sit there and talk football for hours and drink Mai Tais for hours as we shared our love of the game and really just started to see that we had a lot of commonalities as you do with so many people at the Pro Bowls,” Lynch said during a Zoom press conference on Feb. 7. “So, I got to know Peyton through that, admired and respected him obviously as a player, but really his passion for the game I think is what linked us.”
Manning noted how the Pro Bowl has changed in recent years and it’s become more and more popular for players to opt-out of the game.
“The Pro Bowl, unfortunately, is kind of losing its fastball,” Manning said. “It’s before the Super Bowl now and a lot of players aren’t playing. It once was a really good thing and a cool thing. What was cool about it was you got to know the people you were competing against, and you got to talk to them about how they worked in the offseason and the kind of film study. I really cherished those opportunities to be around the other great players … those friendships and relationships. Those don’t go away when you stop playing football.”
Manning and Lynch will be enshrined in Canton together in August.
