Never forget Peyton Manning's attempt at the Marino fake spike 😂 pic.twitter.com/ie1T3w5IWd
— NFL Films (@NFLFilms) June 13, 2023
Now this is funny. Peyton Manning has a lot of love for New Orleans — it’s the city where he was born and raised, and where he grew up watching his father play quarterback. But he probably didn’t feel anything but contempt for the Saints when they handed his Indianapolis Colts a loss on Nov. 18, 2001.
Sure, things started well enough. Manning connected with tight end Marcus Pollard on an 86-yard touchdown pass (the longest play of Pollard’s career, which he would match in 2005) on the first play from scrimmage. The Colts (coached by former Saints head coach Jim Mora Sr.) traded blows with the Saints (coached by Mora’s old defensive coordinator Jim Haslett) until the first half’s final seconds.
With the clock running out before halftime and trailing by three points inside field goal range, Manning attempted a fake spike to fool the Saints defense and run one more play — scoring what looked to all the world like a touchdown run from 33 yards out (which would have tied the career-long scramble he logged a few weeks earlier). That’s when things got nutty. We’ll let Manning tell it in his own words.
“I did it one time, we were playing the Saints,” Manning recounted to Dan Marino, who popularized the play, blaming the ensuing chaos on an inadvertent whistle from one of the officials at the snap. “And the ref was so confused, instead of giving us a touchdown or saying the half was over, he said ‘do-over.’ You know like at recess, we were gonna have a do-over? They let us kick a field goal, and we got it, but it was influenced by you and your fake spike against the Jets.”
If you go back and check the play-by-play retelling of the game in the history books (or at Pro Football Reference), you’ll see the play recorded as simply, “Peyton Manning pass incomplete,” with no record of the officiating gaffe or Manning’s 33-yard sprint to the end zone. Talk about underselling it.
As for the rest of the game: Haslett’s defense stifled Manning’s offense in the second half, forcing two Colts punts and a field goal before legendary Saints safety Sammy Knight intercepted Manning after the two-minute warning, setting up the New Orleans offense to run out the clock in a 34-20 win. So, yeah, Manning isn’t looking back on this game fondly. But it makes for a great story.
