Peyton Manning is able to sift through a multitude of career options amid his retirement from football — TV analyst, advertising pitchman, business entrepreneur, speaker, camp operator, coach, team owner, general manager. They're all on the table.
Manning's choices could include a John Elway-type role as head of football operations for the NFL team of the state in which he played college football. And that sounds good to Tennessee Titans fans, who have seen the team quickly fall from a playoff regular to a bottom feeder.
It may indeed happen … but only if Manning is able to come in with a hand-picked ownership group.
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During his Hall of Fame career, Manning was the proverbial student of the game and coach on the field who thrived by outworking everyone. He also has been deliberate with his career decision-making — when he signed with Denver in 2012, for example, or when he decided to retire after winning a second Super Bowl.
After a leisurely period filled with golf, family time and some work at his passing academy, Manning will have to scratch his ultra-competitive itch. He'll sit down with advisors, including his father Archie and his agent Tom Condon, and consult with NFL people like Elway and Browns owner Jimmy Haslam (a University of Tennessee comrade) to determine what's next.
"I think the one thing I want to do is kind of take my time," Manning said last week at his honorary media conference in Indianapolis. "I think the biggest mistake would be to rush into something."
Included in Manning’s student-of-the-game reputation was the player personnel side of football, coaching and game-planning. That said, he would be a tremendous offensive coordinator and/or a fine head coach.
I just don't see him going in that direction.
I believe Manning, with a desire to run a team’s football operations, will follow the general manager path. Given Elway’s success in Denver, several owners will be interested in giving Manning franchise control.
But why would Manning want to work for existing ownership when he has the financial wherewithal and contacts to put together his own group? That’s why I see him coming in as a part-owner with a clean slate.
Despite current Titans ownership’s repeated claim that the team is not for sale, Manning being part of a group that buys the team is a possibility. Money talks, and for a team under pressure from the league to get its structure in line with a policy that requires a majority owner — controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk owns 33 percent of the team, while her sister Susie and the family of her late brother Kenneth Adams each control 33 percent, as well — a huge offer would be hard to turn down.
Think about the places Manning might want to work, live and raise his children. His hometown of New Orleans, where he has a lot of ties including his parents, is a possible target. Someday, the Benson family will sell the Saints. Manning cut his NFL teeth in Indianapolis and remains a local legend, but Colts owner Jim Irsay probably is hanging on as long as he has Andrew Luck. Denver, of course, has Elway in firm control.
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Nashville, home of the Titans, is three hours west of Manning’s college home in Knoxville, and he knows loads of Vols in the area. His wife Ashley is from Memphis, and she's a minority owner of the Memphis Grizzlies. So the couple has business interests in the state. Manning's agent and confidant Condon also lives in Nashville, where he oversees the CAA football division.
A thriving market let by the health care and music industries, Nashville is projected to add a million new residents in the next 20 years. Home to Vanderbilt University and close to the University of Tennessee, college sports are huge there. The NHL's Nashville Predators, the other major professional team in town, have grown in popularity.
But the area is football-crazy first and foremost. And when the Titans have a playoff-caliber team, they're the clear No. 1 in the market. I saw it first hand during our Super Bowl/playoff era in 1999-2003.
Manning has spent enough time in Nashville to understand what the city is all about. He knows it's a perfect landing spot.
And given Manning’s contacts in the corporate world, putting an ownership group together should not be difficult. His Tennessee ties include big-money people like the Haslam family. FedEx founder/chairman Fred Smith, part of the Redskins ownership group who’d likely sell for an opportunity to join Manning in buying the Titans, is just down the road in Memphis.
Some question whether Manning’s perfectionist mindset would drive him crazy in managing personnel who may not live up to his expectations. I believe he'll learn to temper his demands on certain employees, but not coaches and quarterbacks. If Manning is running the Titans and Marcus Mariota is his quarterback, though, there should be no issues given Mariota's well-known work ethic.
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Manning is smart, and he’ll surround himself with a capable senior staff to help him in his development as a GM. Most important, he knows quarterbacks, and he’d have a true franchise guy in Mariota.
I don’t think Manning needs to go the pro football management prep route like Elway, who was shown the ropes as owner/GM of Colorado's Arena Football League team. Manning should get a good handle on things relatively fast.
Time will tell how realistic the Manning-Titans scenario really is, but it makes sense on a whole lot of levels.
Jeff Diamond is the former president of the Titans and the former vice president/general manager of the Vikings. He was selected NFL Executive of the Year in 1998. Diamond is currently a business and sports consultant who also does broadcast and online media work. He is the former chairman and CEO of The Ingram Group. Follow Jeff on Twitter: @jeffdiamondNFL.
