Peyton Manning welcomed Tom Brady into the retired quarterbacks club with a handwritten note and a bottle of wine.
Now that Brady has broken out of that club, he wants his stuff back.
Brady, 44, announced two weeks ago he was returning to the NFL and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The quarterback’s retirement lasted all of 40 days.
That was enough time for Manning, and likely others, to bestow gifts upon Brady. Friends, fans and NFL personnel lavished kind words upon the star usually reserved for retirement announcements and end-of-career stories. Now Manning wants it all back, he joked at The Mint Collective on Saturday.
“I want the letter back,” Manning said. “You got to read all these nice things. I want it back. I want the bottle of wine back, too.”
Manning’s personality in the public eye has blossomed after his retirement in March of 2016. And Brady has become more fun later in his career, as well. This banter isn’t over.
And Manning, 46, has a valid point — what happens to gifts when the pivotal event is called off? It’s like a broken engagement, a wedding broken up at the alter (do those even happen outside of TV shows during sweeps week?), or a second lavish wedding. There is etiquette in place for those, though a personalized touch always complicates things. You can’t return those. The sellers make that very, very clear.
So then, what happens to the letter? Does Manning just wait to give it to him again when the retirement is real? It might be wise to hold off a year or two to ensure it’s a done deal. Cross off any mention of numbers or records and update it for good measure.
As for the bottle of wine, that’s probably already long gone. Nothing to see there.
