Eli Manning has a new game. In partnership with Corona, the two-time Super Bowl champion announced Lime Wedge Football on Wednesday. The idea is simple— just like with table top football, the objective is to flick a lime between two goalposts to score points. Per a press release, Corona and Manning aim to "enhance the tailgate experience" with the new game, and it is available to purchase on the Corona website.
Manning spoke to Sports Illustrated about how he came up with the game, his experience working with Corona, hosting the "ManningCast" with his brother Peyton, his favorite NFL announcer, Glen Powell as Chad Powers, and more.
Sports Illustrated: How are you feeling with the fourth season of the "ManningCast" set to kick off with the 2024 NFL season?
Eli Manning: Feeling great. Excited for the fourth year. We got Bill Belichick coming on this year, which is going to be cool. It’s been awesome to pick his brain a little bit and hear how he thinks. Looking forward to that more and more as we go on, just getting to talk to him and figuring out the things he wants to get across, points on the defensive side especially. We have such a great appreciation for his mind and football, how he thinks about the game. It’ll be great to hear how he would gameplan for certain people and how he sees the defensive side. We’ll have some great guests and hopefully some great games.
SI: Were you surprised that you had the chance to land Belichick’s talents for the season?
EM: I think he wanted to stay involved in the game and do some version of this. We said, with us, you don’t have to travel. It’s just Monday nights. You can do it from your basement or your house. Come on for a quarter, we’ll hit you with some good spots, deep dive into some football stuff and react to the game. If you’re going to be watching the game anyway from your couch, just watch it with us for a little bit.
SI: Another former rival and New England Patriot, Tom Brady, will be joining the broadcast ranks this year with Fox Sports. How do you think he'll do in the booth?
EM: I think he’ll do great. He’s so smart, he knows the game so well. He’s got a great personality. I think he’ll do a great job of doing a deep dive into what’s going on, bringing the fans into the mindset of the quarterbacks or the players, what guys are doing well and what guys aren’t doing well. He’s got a great understanding of the game and he’ll come across well with fans.
SI: Who's your favorite NFL broadcaster?
EM: I’ll go with Collinsworth. Cris Collinsworth. You can tell that he studies. He really watches everything, studies the game well. And then, of course, Jim Nantz. I think anytime you hear Jim Nantz talk, you’re like, ‘This sounds good.’ I don’t even care what he’s saying. That silky smooth voice always does the job.
SI: You're now a veteran broadcaster. Where's your confidence level at entering your fourth year of television?
EM: There’s confidence in just knowing what we need to do and what the preparation is like. Understanding what the fans like and what they don’t like and trying to bring more of what they like. Figuring out different ways we can do a deep dive into certain aspects of the game to really teach fans what’s going on. Whether it’s doing demonstrations, getting up there. I think they like when we act out or show someone exactly what we’re talking about. Really, just doing a good job of, like, when Peyton uses a football term, having him to slow down and asking him exactly what he means. And vice versa to me. Sometimes we use too much football jargon that no one knows.
SI: Where do you feel you two have improved the most with "ManningCast" broadcasts over the years?
EM: Just understanding how to get back to the game, sometimes. Because there’s a lot going on. You might have a guest and he’s telling a story and you have questions you want to ask him that might set up a funny story, but all of the sudden the team just hit a big play and they’re at the 15-yard line. Don’t ask any questions at that point. A lot of times that’s when we’ll start saying to the guest, ‘Hey, Snoop, what do you like right here? Do you think they’ll run it in or throw it in?’ It gets him focused on the game, it gets us focused on the game, and we can catch some of the pivotal moments. They’re in the red zone, they’re about to score, big third downs. If they hit a big play, let’s stop telling the story and do a deep dive explaining what happened there. Doing a better job of understanding that it’s third and long right now, don’t ask a question to get into a story because they’re about to punt and get into a TV timeout. Understand the whole flow, really.
SI: How does it feel to have Glen Powell portraying a version of you in the Chad Powers series?
EM: Obviously, he’s going to have to do a lot of ab work before he has to play me. That will be the most prep, going into the ab work to be able to play Chad Powers. He’s been great. I talked to Glen two years ago for the first time about this project. For now it’s being filmed. I saw him and was like, ‘My god, I didn’t know Glen Powell could look so bad.’ But he pulled it off. Excited to see him in action and see this whole thing come together.
SI: How did Lime Wedge Football come to be?
EM: We were shooting a commercial last year and we had some down time. There were Corona limes all around and I put a couple together, started flicking them and realized it was just like paper football. It’s a little different because, with the lime, you flick, like, laces out. But if you hit it too many times it gets soft on the inside. I experimented with different techniques and finally mastered it and now, here you go! We got a game, we got a game set. It’s been fun. The best part is that you can use the game set with the runner and the foam lime wedge, but you don’t have to go all-out. You can just find stuff around your tailgate, around your house. Use anything for the goal posts. I like the Coronas but you can find a lot of things.
We played a lot of paper football growing up around the house and in school. That was a lot of the inspiration around Lime Wedge Football.
SI: How's it been working with Corona?
EM: It’s been great working with Corona. We’ve done some fun commercials over the years. Snoop Dogg, Carmelo Anthony, Andy Samberg. They’re a great brand and a great company. Plus I drink Corona. I like it. So it works out and everybody is excited to have a little corona in their life.
SI: Who were you most starstruck by?
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Eli Manning Q&A: Lime Wedge Football, Upcoming 'ManningCast' Season, Glen Powell as Chad Powers, & More .
