Former Vol Peyton Manning Wants to Run for Governor of Tennessee
Former Tennessee football quarterback Peyton Manning said he wants to run for governor of Tennessee. The Vols legend hinted he might run in 2018.
It looks like politics is in Peyton Manning’s post-football playing future.
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Less than two months after winning his second Super Bowl and less than a month after announcing his retirement, Peyton Manning said he would like to run for governor of Tennessee, and he is already considering a run in 2018. Citing his ability to rake in tons of money from endorsements, the surefire Hall of Fame quarterback said he can apply that business experience to running the state.
“Given the nature of politics at this point, I feel I’m as qualified as anybody to run a state,” he said. “You guys have seen me in all these funny commercials over the years. As much as I’ve entertained people by doing that, imagine how entertaining I’d be applying my commercial skills to political campaign ads!”
Manning bolstered his business savviness by pointing to his shrewd decision to pick Denver as the place to continue his football career four years ago and then invest in 21 Papa Johns stores throughout the area…the same year Colorado was set to legalize marijuana, which would inevitably increase the pizza cravings.
“While other players in the NFL were consistently getting arrested and suspended and losing money because they couldn’t quit marijuana, I was actually gaining money off of it,” he said. “Who else do you know that could think that far ahead? If I could do that, imagine what I could do for Tennesseans.”
Manning said he could use his cerebral skills from directing offenses for more than 20 years and apply it to directing the state.
However, despite his charisma and his humor, it is no secret that Manning is a bit of a square and needs to connect to the younger, more hip audience. He is just as aware of that, which is why he has hinted at picking Taylor Swift to run his campaign.
“Taylor lived in Nashville for years and understands the needs facing Tennesseans,” he said. “She’s also just freaking cool as heck.”
Manning also noted they have something in common: both have shunned the state of Tennessee in some way in the past, him by choosing to join the Broncos over the Tennessee Titans in 2012 and Swift by moving to New York and abandoning country music.
However, another option for his campaign manager would be Clay Travis, who managed to turn the recent scandal against him into a PR nightmare for the people who wrote it.
But Travis’s brash personality could potentially upstage Manning, which might be a reason the two wouldn’t work well together.
Although Manning has not hinted at which member of a party he would run as, his donations to Republican candidates in the past suggest he would run as a Republican. But given the fact that the party system could break apart completely on both sides after the 2016 United States Presidential Election, he mentioned he might become a member of a new party.
“With Kevin Johnson in Sacramento, Arnold Schwarzenegger in California as a whole, Jesse Venture in Minnesota, and Donald Trump now running for president, I think it’s time we celebrities who enter politics form our own party,” Manning said.
Preliminary polls showed that Manning would carry all 95 counties in the state if he ran tomorrow and win with 90 percent of the popular vote.
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We would like to take this opportunity to let you know that what you just read was, in fact, an April Fool’s joke. Peyton Manning has not mentioned running for any political office. Everybody pleas have a Happy April Fool’s Day.