Peyton and Eli Manning in black jumpsuits? Manning brothers go behind the scenes of 'ManningCast: Heist'

Record scratch: I bet you're probably wondering how the Manning brothers found themselves in all-black jumpsuits and trying to find a way to infiltrate NFL headquarters. Let's start from the beginning, shall we? On Tuesday, the schedule for the sixth season of the "Monday Night Football" broadcast, "ManningCast," was released. However, the schedule presented Peyton Manning with a conflict and a challenge he could call only on his brother and co-host, Eli Manning, for assistance. "Week 6 -- they've got us down for a game, but as you know, I've got book club that night," Peyton told Eli over the phone. Eli gave Peyton a simple fix for the issue -- call NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and ask him to change the schedule. To Peyton, it wasn't that simple. "I don't think commish [Goodell] checks his voicemail much," Peyton told Eli. That left him with one wild idea: plan a heist into the league office and hack into the computer system to change the Season 6 "ManningCast" schedule for good. From that point, the Mannings tapped an all-star group to make up the heist that consists of Houston Texans coach DeMeco Ryans, Los Angeles Chargers offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel, Anne Hathaway, Serena Williams and more. The Manning brothers took ESPN behind the scenes and into their minds as they schemed for "ManningCast: Heist." When it comes to revealing the "ManningCast" schedule, you all always keep it interesting. Where did the idea of executing a heist to announce your sixth season come from? What sparked that inspiration? Peyton: When we weren't playing football growing up, we were watching movies. In years past for our schedule release videos, we went pretty big with "ManningCast Auditions" and "ManningCast: The Musical," but this time we decided to go even bigger and shoot a mini-movie. It's essentially our homage to the heist and action movies we grew up watching. Eli: Plus, people have always said I should be an action star, so it was a natural transition for me. Peyton: No one has ever said that. You bring the best of both worlds in the "ManningCast Heist" -- a mix of A-list actors paired with legendary athletes. How did you get this cast to come together on set? Do you think you succeeded at establishing a solid team culture? Eli: You need a good team around you to have success on the field, and we found the same applies for doing some high stakes breaking and entering. In the video, you see that we got turned down by some of the celebrities we recruited, but we still ended up with a top-tier heist crew. Marshawn Lynch was fresh off playing a sinister character in Season 3 of "Euphoria." How did his prior experience help him excel in this role? Peyton: Marshawn can do it all. It's like when he played. He wasn't just a power back, he also had speed and vision. He's doing the same thing as an actor. He's got great range. Fans get to see a different side of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in the "ManningCast Heist." How was it working with Goodell on set? What would people be most surprised to know about the commish? Peyton: Commissioner Goodell is up for anything. He's been in our last three schedule release videos, and we keep giving him a bigger role each time because he does such a great job. We send the script and he just says: "Let's do it" and then comes to the set and nails it. The NFL has been a great partner in making these videos. Three sets of brothers appear in the short film: you, the Harbaughs and the Kelces. In your completely unbiased opinion, who are the superior set of brothers? Who would win in an athletic competition? Which duo can pull off quarter-zips the best? Eli: Well, it's obvious that we can pull off quarter-zips best. And then I think you can just go backwards from there to answer the rest of your questions. Peyton: Right. Quarter-zips provide such flexibility. You can be ready for any type of athletic competition at any moment -- from playing golf to going to the gym. So I think that gives us the advantage in a brothers vs. brothers athletic competition. Eli: So, in our completely unbiased opinion, we're the best. Peyton: Agreed. There was a scene that featured DeMeco Ryans, Sean McVay and Mike McDaniel as the NFL coaching young blood. Why was it important for these coaches to have a role in the Heist? Peyton: We want to celebrate the NFL in these videos, and the coaches are obviously a huge part of the league. We cast coaches every year and we're always impressed at how good they are at acting. Their job in the Heist was to not let us escape from the building. We gave them lines, but most of them just improvised their own lines about how slow we are that we'd be easy to catch. Anne Hathaway brought the energy in the film ... I mean, totally off the chain. How fun was it to work with her? Did she give you any acting pointers? Eli: I still can't believe Anne agreed to be in this thing. This is someone who has an Academy Award, is one of the greatest actors in the world, and yet she came in and gave us a ton of time and made the video way better than we ever thought it could be. Hopefully she thinks our little video is as good as "The Odyssey." Maybe you've heard but Super Bowl LXI is going to be on ESPN. Can fans expect anything special (non-Heist related) from you two in the lead-up? Peyton: Just excitement. We've played in Super Bowls, but I don't think either of us expected to ever broadcast a Super Bowl. And to change things up, we'll be doing the Super Bowl "Manningcast" on location in Los Angeles. Eli: Peyt, can you help me move my couch from my basement to Los Angeles? Peyton: No. Follow-up, who would you like to see perform in the Super Bowl halftime show? Eli: Peyt's a big country guy, so he'd probably pick a country singer. But I'm just worried that if a country singer does the halftime show, Peyt will get up on the stage like he always does and try to sing along. No one wants to see that. Is "How to Do a Heist" a future read for the book club? Eli: Anything is better than listening to Peyton read from his old playbooks. Peyton: There's a reason I don't invite Eli to my book club. If you had to assign a fantasy football name to your brother for this season, what would it be? Peyton: While I'd normally pick a name that makes fun of Eli, I think a good name for our 2026 teams would be The Heist Crew. If you were actually trying to pull off a heist, who of the cast would be the first person you'd call? Eli: Gronk. He's up for whatever. Peyton: That's my pick, too. If you watch the Heist, his performance was very believable. You get the sense he's done this before. Now that "Manningcast: Heist" is in the books, do you have anything in store for your 2027 schedule release? Peyton: We try to outdo ourselves with each video. We're already several months into production on our 2027 schedule release video. Eli: It should be our biggest and dumbest yet. Peyton: That's the goal. There's a scene where you two jump out of a skyscraper. When you got into football broadcasting, did you expect your own stunts would be part of it? Peyton: Definitely no. But if Joe [Buck] and Troy [Aikman] ever want advice on how to do a stunt, they know who to call.