Peyton Manning on Why He Was OK Pelting Kids with Footballs in SNL's "United Way"
SNL alum Seth Meyers described the sketch starring the beloved NFL quarterback as a "winner" (and no, he didn't *actually* knock children over!).
In the weeks leading up to February 16's three-hour 50th anniversary celebration on NBC, the team behind Saturday Night Live has selected one sketch from every single season — 50 seasons in 50 days — to reflect the show's rich legacy across five decades. Presenting the sketch chosen to represent Season 32: "United Way" starring Host Peyton Manning.
When a beloved public figure hosts Saturday Night Live, it’s always hilariously shocking to see them take on a totally different persona for a laugh. And that’s exactly what happened when five-time NFL MVP Peyton Manning suddenly had a potty mouth and chucked footballs at kids in SNL’s memorable “United Way” sketch from 2007.
When Manning hosted the March 24, 2007 episode of SNL, he starred in a digital short based on the NFL’s PSA commercials for United Way, an ongoing charitable partnership that started back in 1973.
In the Season 32 sketch, the NFL pro stars in one of these ads for the nonprofit, teaching kids how to play football.
“Being a kid can be harder than it looks, sometimes it helps to have an adult around. That’s why Peyton Manning takes time out to volunteer with local youth groups,” a narrator says at the beginning, adding that the famous quarterback uses football to teach valuable life lessons.
But Manning's methods in the fake PSA are unconventional, to say the least.
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Peyton Manning played a cussing mentor for kids in SNL’s “United Way” parody
First up — communication. After Manning boosts the kids’ morale in a quick huddle and gets them into formation, he calls a play and then quickly biffs a boy in the back with a football.
“Get your head out of your a--! You suck!” Manning shouts before sentencing the kid to spend 20 minutes in a nearby Porta-Potty as punishment.
Kids continue to get hit with the football as Manning delivers some tough love coaching. At one point, he says, “Okay, I’m sorry? Do you want to lose? I throw, you catch. It’s not that hard, okay?"
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Manning’s time with the youth group doesn’t stop at a football game — he also reads them a tabloid, and teaches them how to break into a car. He even held a belt for a little boy to bite into as he supported him through getting a tattoo of Manning’s face. The NFL legend even chats with them over a couple beers.
So what’s the message? As the narrator sums up pretty nicely: “Spend time with your kids so Peyton Manning doesn't.”
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No, Peyton Manning did not throw a real football in SNL’s “United Way” sketch
Manning revealed in an interview with the Los Angeles Times that the football seen in the “United Way” digital short was actually just a painted Nerf ball.
“The footballs weighed nothing and that made them very hard to throw,” Manning told the newspaper in October 2024. “I hit a kid in the back on the way to the port-a-let. It was one of my greater throws of all time, because I don’t know how I got the football there.”
Manning added that he was also given some useful direction while filming. “They told me to treat those kids like rookie receivers with bad attitudes,” he recalled. “I thought, OK, I can channel that.”
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While Manning admitted that he worried the sketch might be "too much," the parents' excitement about their kids having a role in the parody made him feel better.
“Some of the kids, their parents were there watching. And I heard one of the parents tell the director, ‘I want him to hit MY kid in the face.’ That kind of freed me up,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “I was like, ‘OK, if you want your kid to get a little more air time and take one in the head from me, I’ll do it. I’ll knock your kid out.’”
Peyton Manning prepared for SNL “like a quarterback”
In an August 2024 episode of The Lonely Island & Seth Meyers podcast, the Late Night with Seth Meyers host described the “United Way” digital short as a “winner.” Though Seth Meyers admitted that he embarrassed himself when he asked the former Denver Bronco if he could throw a ball at a specific target — the kids.
“Peyton definitely approached the whole week like a quarterback,” Meyers said on the podcast. “He seems so loose and easy on stage and so charismatic, but an incredible amount of work went into it, which is not a surprise.”
Meyers also revealed that the idea behind the “United Way” sketch “basically came from [Manning]” though he had not pitched the specific details.
“My memory is that he said he thought it’d be funny if we did something where he was mean to kids because that was so contrary to who he was,” Meyers recalled.
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Indeed, Manning, a father of two children himself, is known for his real-life charitable endeavors. For example, he founded the Peyback Foundation to help support at-risk children and has donated millions of dollars to St. Vincent Children's Hospital in Indiana, which is now known as the Peyton Manning Children's Hospital.
Lonely Island member and former SNL writer Akiva Schaffer added on the podcast that while some ideas are more difficult to bring to life, “United Way” was an outlier. “This one I remember feeling a little bit effortless,” Schaffer said. “And that’s really rare.”
