Transcript
Todd McShay (0:00)
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Steve (0:08)
Been wearing a lot.
Todd McShay (0:09)
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Mensch (0:44)
Men, you know me, you've known me a long time. I can't stand leaving New England in the summer. We grind through these winters, right? It's like the payoff you get three, four months. Beautiful weather every day. 75 and sunny, it feels like. And I especially can't stand leaving New England to go to Thibodeau, Louisiana, where it's 93 degrees, 100% humidity, storms every day. But this year I broke the rule and I decided to go down for the Manning Passing Academy. And I was pleasantly surprised. It was a great experience. I'm excited to share it all today. And you know What? We get 297 days to the draft. So it feels like a perfect time to talk all about this. Men. You good?
Steve (1:30)
I'm good, man.
Mensch (1:31)
I know you are. You always are. Hey, play me some of that sweet summer beat that. We need Tucker now. I've been working with Archie Manning for a long time. Like, I don't know, 10, 12 years. Every year he'll text me his list and we'll go back and forth. I've helped him and he shared that with the whole camp. And I was, I was honored for him to bring it up. We've got like a lot of.
Steve (2:08)
That's pretty cool, huh?
Mensch (2:10)
Really cool. Like, we're sitting there in the coaches meeting and he's announcing all the people that are there going through, all the high school coaches, the college coaches, NFL coaches and scouts that are all there in attendance helping out as you have 1500 quarterbacks from grade seven through high school. Right? Wow. And so. So that's really the foundation of the Manning Passing Academy. It started 29 years ago and it was, from what I was told, it was Peyton, Eli Cooper. Cooper, the wide receiver. The other two, obviously quarterbacks. And I Think whether it was year one or year two, it expanded or it was Philip Rivers and it grew from that. Basically the old man, Archie was like, hey, like my boy, my boys are hanging around too much. We know the feeling, like, I gotta get him, get him ready for college, but like, we gotta. So let's bring in a couple coaches and look, let's work some drills. And they've turned from that into almost 1500 quarterbacks from all around the country. First come, first serve. This is not a you're invited, you made the cut. It's first come, first serve. Here's registration date, whoever signs up. Now, obviously there are probably a handful of guys that are friends of the family that, that are allowed to come too. So it was really cool. So the foundation is at Manning Passing Academy, which is four days, starts on Thursday, goes through Sunday. You, you drive onto this, the campus of Nicholls state in Thibodeau, Louisiana. And there's, there's quarterbacks everywhere, 12 years old to 18 years old, with their backpacks on, with their green Manning Passing Academy T shirts, flicking their ball up in the air, walking around, you know, with their stupid haircuts that all the kids, including my, my son and A.J. my stepson, they all have it and they're walking around their, their, you know, their slides and their socks and, and they're sneaking over to Chick Fil A on campus when they can. But, but it went from four family members to 1500, you know, 12 to 18 year olds. And so what happened was Arch would check, Archie would check with me and, and other people obviously in the NFL, like, who are the quarterbacks that people want to see? Who are the best quarterbacks in the country? Who are the guys that I, that I should reach out to to bring them down? And so it kind of grew and it kept growing and to the point where almost every quarterback that we're going to see drafted this year and probably next year was in Thibodeau, Louisiana this past weekend for four days. Starts on Thursday and Sunday. And they were there as camp counselors. So I'm just, I'm laying all this out. So, so our audience has an understanding and thank you everyone for joining, like, subscribe, all that stuff, you know, do what you got to do. Follow Mention is usually my promo guy, but I'm not here for it today. Not. I'm here for Mensch. I'm not here for all. I'm not here for schedulings and the thank yous and the, Please join our, like, we'll get to all of that I'm just appreciative that everyone is actually taking the time to watch this and hopefully I can share what honestly I was expecting it to be kind of a cool trip and to get some stuff out of. Turned out to be one of those like I'm sitting there on Friday night at this quarterback competition with all those top quarterbacks, like 40 plus quarterbacks who are stars in college football this year, who are going to be the vast majority going to be NFL draft picks. And it's like the purest form of football, man. I literally at one point, depends on the part of the country you're in. Goosebumps. If you're from the, the north and apparently if you're from the south, chill bumps is what they call them. I'm literally sitting there as the sun's going down. It's starting to get dark. The lights in the stadium, stadium are on. I've got 1500 campers who went through 2A days, okay. On the right, sitting in the stands. I've got probably 3,4000 parents. But, but honestly, like people from the community that know about this and have been around this for the last 29 years. The Manning Passing Academy that make it a point. Hey, Friday Night Lights. So we, everyone shows up. Okay, so one side's all mostly adults and little kids and the other side's the campers who are all going to go on. Not all, a lot, a lot of them go on to be the next stars, right? And they're looking down on this field and I'm literally, I'm getting goosebumps now thinking about it. And I'm standing on the 50 yard line with Archie Cooper, Peyton and Eli and a handful of coaches and the best quarterbacks in the country. And they're warming up and I'm sitting there. I'm literally like. It was like a field of dreams moment, you know what I mean? Like that pure, like just playing catch, warming up. Just. There's no, there's no scouts in attendance necessarily. I mean there's a handful of them, but it's not about like putting, it's not about winning a game. It's not about making my coaches or fan base happy. It's like I'm just here to get better and compete and just play some ball. And it was awesome. And so, so that's kind of the backdrop of the camp. And so I get down there in the first session on the, in the afternoon, the campers are all checking in, getting their like, you know, towel and they're, they're bedding and getting that all set up and over on the field. Eli and Peyton have made it a tradition before the, the first coaches meeting was at 5 o' clock central time and so at 3 o' clock central time. And I was late because the damn flight. And I won't say the airline because I love the airline. I think it's the best airline out there, but I was late. So I'm racing in there and catch, catch the back half of it. And it's Eli and Peyton just playing catch, talking with, with all the top quarterbacks. Nussmeier, Lenora Sellers, Cade Clubnik, Arch Manning, who's been there since he was 4 years old. You go down the list. John Matier now at Oklahoma, all the guys that we've talked about on the quarterback evaluations. Sam Levitt, Arizona State, Sawyer Robertson, Baylor. We'll get to him in a minute. Luke Altmire from Illinois, Damon Williams is going to be a starter at Washington. So they're all down there and they're throwing and so there was like two facets of this and I promise we'll get to the quarterbacks in a minute, but I just want to give everyone the feel for it. The first facet is you're there and you're getting to watch in person and talk to and actually stand on the field and listen to Nussmeyer busting balls of Sellers and Sellers busting Club Nick's balls, you know what I mean? And like, and like missing a throw and getting either down on themselves or like whatever and like actually getting to know these guys, not in an interview like I did for, you know, a decade and a half with ESPN on a Friday before a game when they're buttoned up and they kind of know what to say, but you get a little bit scratch behind the surface a little bit. Actually seeing them in their environment with their people doing the thing they love and just kind of who they are. And that part was awesome, right? Also getting to see them throw in different drills and, and competitions and all that. But then there's a second part and it's the foundation of the camp because it's, it's a, it's a camp. The Manning Passing Academy is a camp for those 1500, 1500 aspiring college quarterbacks watching Club Nick with Eli Manning working on a three five step drop sequence, sliding with their feet and their base underneath them, keeping their shoulders square, eyes up right like, and drilling that. So what they've learned, paying it forward to these young men and, and like just seeing them interact and Then seeing Eli and Peyton go from drill to drill and bouncing around, just sweating, pouring, but laying it all out there. Giving these kids an opportunity not to take a picture, not to sign an autograph, to actually impart their wisdom of 30 or so years in the NFL and all the other years in their life onto these like maybe a 12 year old or 16 year old, you know, like, but, but as I'm doing it, traveling around with Jon Gruden and Charles Davis and Todd Blackledge and a couple GMs. They're there because they want to be there. They're there, they serve a purpose, they're there to gather information. But you know, at least one of them I talked to was like, I kind of don't want it. You know, I'm not trying to publicize this thing, you know, I'm not trying to publicize my presence at the Manning Passing Academy. It's not about that. So. But there were two NFL GMs there and plenty of scouts and some of the scouts were, were drilling, not a lot of them, but a handful of scouts and they were part, they were coaching and all that. So, so you're having these conversations with guys who are preparing for the season, guys that are, have played the position, coached the position, all of that and watching guys who are playing the position, currently teaching, guys who are trying to learn to play to college and again, like, I don't know, I, I, I went down hoping to get to see these guys throw in, in a, in a non game setting and to get that evaluation and I got like 10 times more than what I expected to get.