The most advertised and self-promoting NFL player maybe in history is suddenly camera shy. QB Peyton Manning spoke to the Brockton Junior Boxers Pop Warner program in Massachusetts this past week and — as the Boston Herald reported — Manning told organizers if they publicized the event, he would skip it and then kicked out the media and banned photographers.
Mike Freeman of CBS Sports reports that Manning wants no part of talking about, speaking of, or being mentioned in the same sentence with lockout and that he’s willing to take only so much of a stance and jeopardize his standing as America’s football good guy and bankable commercial star. Manning has long tightly controlled his public image and there will be those who claim his strategic silence isn’t unusual. Yet his silence on the lockout despite being one of the named litigants is starting to seem odd and it’s starting to look like Manning either no longer cares or disagrees with the path the former union is taking.