Indulge me for a second in a dream that began to build last Saturday. As I watched Arch Manning be the Tom Brady to Quinn Ewers’ Drew Bledsoe, the reality dawned on me – the Manning dominance will continue. If we’re using American robber baron dynasties as any indication, this is supposed to be the Manning generation where everything falls apart. But, if Texas’ play last Saturday and rank is any indication, the Manning dynasty has entered its next phase.
And thus spawned the end goal I have created for the Mannings: an all-Manning, 32 NFL team starting QB lineup. Archie Manning (whose name I learned is actually Elisha Archibald Manning. These are the kinds of names I miss), has started a tidal wave that not even he has the ability to end. Imagine, every NFL team, every weekend, has a Manning as its starting QB. I’m not speaking exclusively of the Mannings of old either. Like the old pantheon of gods, we have moved on and adapted as a species. The Manning genes have done the same; no longer is the pocket the actual pocket for Manning.
Oh The Moon Stamp Cast 11 (released today), I compare the Mannings and the Kennedys. The Kennedys are America’s most doomed political family, while the Mannings are the most athletically gifted American family.1 However, in a more micro sense, the most successful Kennedy and Manning were not supposed to be that.2
Very often forgotten is Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. (even more than Rosemary Kennedy, who seems to have had a resurgence is recognition of the probable detestment of those who lobotomized and locked her away). JPK was supposed to be President. From a young age, his father – the senior JPK – groomed him to be President. John Fitzgerald, the Kennedys’ maternal grandfather – commented that JPK was going to be President. That incredible destiny is hard to fulfill when you die in WW2. And so, JFK became President (even to a rough ending), RFK became Attorney General (ditto. I’ve seen an odd uptick of people blaming Sirhan Sirhan for the current political environment), and JPK was, essentially, forgotten.
The Manning story is far less dramatic. Cooper Manning was, apparently, the best Manning. While we watched the dominance of the Manning brothers, we never saw the dominance of the oldest Manning. As the story always goes, the body doesn’t allow what destiny bestows. Thus, the “best” Manning that never was stood on the sidelines as his two brothers dominated the sport he was destined for – not unlike JPK (except in the death, and the stakes of the career, and such).
Now, though, unlike the Kennedys whose biggest legacy-pusher is a man who should’ve been a 1600s explorer, the Mannings have a chance to finish the Cooper legacy. A mobile Manning is too deadly of a combination to be allowed by the footballing gods. The Hercules who must face a series of challenges to realize his demigod status (those challenges being NCAA 25, sitting for a year, and the “Texas is back” curse). And, you know, the entire getting into the NFL and becoming a starlet a part of that. And he is already on his way, thanks to Quinn’s commercial nightmares coming true.
All I’m saying is if Peyton and Eli’s sons (I believe they have one each) and Cooper’s other son also develop into elite 5-star prospects. And then those sons – including Arch – have sons, who then have sons, all of whom must be generational talents, we’re in for a Manning-league. The Manningcast will begin looking like those Indian news channels where there are 15 pundits all giving their takes (CNN/Fox News/others take note). And, it seems like the Mannings are very open to offering advice to the younger ones – I feel like the robber baron comparison falls apart here – who then actually act upon it. There were 2, and then possibly 4 in the league.
But if the vision holds there is a finish line that could hit us about 2100. As President Addison Rae completes her fifth term and her 20th hyperpop album, every team in the league starts a Manning – whether they be average, mobile, a gunslinger, or everything in between on the three-axis graph of quartbacking. It’s like one of those MLM cycles chart where by the eleventh layer you run out of people to add. Sure, there’ll be a Ryan Leaf somewhere in there, but every actor has their part to play.
Genuinly I just think it would be really funny. This is also an incredibly stupid blog I don’t know how to finish, so I’m finishing by letting you imagine it.
Follow Moon Stamp Sports on Twitter/X, Instagram and Facebook, and follow Jorden on Twitter/X. Check out other blogs by Jorden.
