NFL
Aaron Rodgers Hints at Future ‘Monday Night Football’ Cameo Despite Manning Cast Curse: ‘Is It Still Going?’
Tim Crean started writing about sports in 2016 and joined Sportscasting in 2021. He excels with his versatile coverage of the NFL and soccer landscape, as well as his expertise breaking down sports media, which stems from his many years downloading podcasts before they were even cool and countless hours spent listening to Mike & The Mad Dog and The Dan Patrick Show, among other programs. As a longtime self-professed sports junkie who even played DII lacrosse at LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York, Tim loves reading about all the latest sports news every day and considers it a dream to write about sports professionally. He's a lifelong Buffalo Bills fan from Western New York who mistakenly thought, back in the early '90s, that his team would be in the Super Bowl every year. He started following European soccer — with a Manchester City focus — in the early 2000s after spending far too much time playing FIFA. When he's not enjoying a round of golf or coaching youth soccer and flag football, Tim likes reading the work of Bill Simmons, Tony Kornheiser, Chuck Klosterman, and Tom Wolfe.
Get to know Tim Crean betterPublished08 Dec 2021
Aaron Rodgers may have broken more news this week on the Pat McAfee Show. The Green Bay Packers quarterback let slip that he’s in talks with ESPN to join Peyton Manning and Eli Manning on the next Monday night Manning Cast. Although, he did sound slightly worried about the dreaded Manning Cast curse that could follow.
Aaron Rodgers hints that he could be a guest on the next Manning Cast
Aaron Rodger’s weekly visit to the Pat McAfee Show seems to break news all the time. Whether it is real news about his thoughts on vaccination, fake news about his “COVID toe” injury, or who knows what news about his run-ins with UFOs, the weekly Tuesday spot is must-see sports media.
The Green Bay QB broke news once again Tuesday, Dec. 7, when he revealed that he is in talks to be a guest on the next Manning Cast (ESPN’s alternate Monday Night Football broadcast hosted by Peyton Manning and Eli Manning).
Some of the best guests during the inaugural season of the broadcast have included current NFL QBs like Tom Brady and Josh Allen, as well as Rodgers’ good buddy Pat McAfee.
With this in mind, fans have been clamoring for Rodgers to visit with the Manning brothers in primetime.
Rodgers told McAfee and co-host A.J. Hawk on Tuesday, “There’s conversation about going on there in January,” suggesting that he could be a guest on the Manning’s last regular-season broadcast.
That happens in Week 17 when the Cleveland Browns visit the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The appearance isn’t set in stone yet, and it will be interesting to see what develops. Hawk asked Rodgers if he would be worried about the Manning Cast curse going on the show.
“Is that still going?” Rodgers asked, sounding a bit worried. “Has there been other people who have been on it who haven’t done well?”
The Manning Cast curse is real
The Manning Cast curse refers to the anecdotal — yet, so far, 100% accurate — phenomenon of active NFL players losing their next game after appearing on the guest on the Manning Cast.
It happened to Week 1 guests, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, who lost their Week 2 contests against the Tennessee Titans and Baltimore Ravens, respectively.
In Week 2, TE Rob Gronkowski of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was the guest, and the Bucs promptly lost to the Los Angeles Rams.
Week 3 featured a little karmic revenge as LA Rams QB Matthew Stafford joined Peyton and Eli Manning, and the Rams fell to the Arizona Cardinals in Week 4. However, the Manning Cast curse hit Tampa Bay once again, leading to a Week 8 loss against the New Orleans Saints after QB Tom Brady’s appearance in Week 7.
The harshest example of the Manning Curse came in Week 9 after Buffalo Bills signal-caller Josh Allen went on the program. The Bills lost to the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars afterward, 9-6.
After that Manning Cast curse debacle, the brothers Manning stopped having active NFL players on the show.
This may mean that the curse is still with Allen. Since his Manning Cast cameo, the Bills are 2-3 and went from winning their division to barely clinging to the final AFC playoff spot.
If Rodgers goes on the Manning Cast, the Detroit Lions may be in luck
Despite the worried tone in his voice, it does sound like there’s a real possibility that Aaron Rodgers could be a guest when Eli and Peyton Manning next return to the ESPN Monday night airwaves in January.
In addition to possibly being good news for Josh Allen and Bills fans — if the Packers QB either breaks or takes on the Manning Cast curse — it might mean another W for the last-place-in-the-NFL Detroit Lions.
Green Bay travels to Detroit for the first-ever Week 18. Curse or no curse, there’s always a chance that the Packers would lose this game anyway, especially if there are no playoff-seeding implications for Rodgers’ team in the last week of the season.
Keeping the Manning Cast curse alive would be perfectly on-brand for the controversial quarterback.
With a Week 18 loss, Rodgers could, all at once: keep a mystical curse alive, suffer no real personal consequences for his actions, and screw over a division rival by possibly costing them the No. 1 overall pick.
If that doesn’t sound like the perfect Aaron Rodgers trifecta to you, I don’t know what does.
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