In 1997 I traveled to Memphis to meet up with my buddy Ron Edwards and some of his friends to catch Fleetwood Mac performing at the Pyramid. Part of their Dance Tour, Fleetwood Mac did a great 2 1/2 hour show (click here and scroll down for a review) to include Christine McVie’s encore performance of Songbird.
After the show, we hit Beale Street and partied. With a tip of the hat to “Dixie Chicken,” I vaguely remember dancing with a Stevie Nicks wanna be clad in fish net shawl and black boots, but recall little else about the rest of the evening. (I don’t remember any church bells or picket fences at the edge of town though.)
Saturday morning after we did the duck thing at the Peabody Hotel, Ron and I drove out of Memphis and across Arkansas to head back to Little Rock. As we made our way along the interstate I saw all these orange flag flying vehicles heading west with us. Ron informed me that they were Tennessee Volunteer fans heading to Little Rock for that evening’s football game between Arkansas and Tennessee. Not well versed in college football, I asked Ron if Tennessee was the school where Archie Manning’s boy was playing. Ron sneered and said, “That’d be Peyton, but he’ll get his tonight when the Hogs get done with him.”
We attended the game later that evening at War Memorial Coliseum and along with 53,000 other fans watched as Peyton and Tennessee won the game handily. Peyton just carved the Hogs up. Ron, though disappointed that his boys did not get to Peyton, had to concede, “He’s going to be a hell of a pro.”
That was my first introduction to Mr. Manning and also the first time that I found myself on the losing end of rooting for a team that he would ultimately defeat. Career-wise Peyton is 7-2 against the Ravens and 3-1 against the Redskins. Here’s hoping that the Ravens can prevail today against him and the Broncos. Peyton has won my respect not so much for his football prowess but for his doing this video on SNL (click here.)