Peyton Manning found out 'tush push' isn't legal in his son's 7th grade youth league

Cherry Creek Bruins coach Peyton Manning and his son, Marshall, at Denver Broncos training camp in 2022. (Photo by Andy Cross/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
Cherry Creek Bruins coach Peyton Manning and his son, Marshall, at Denver Broncos training camp in 2022. (Photo by Andy Cross/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)

The NFL is a copycat league, and sometimes an NFL legend copies a famous play for his son's seventh-grade youth league.

Peyton Manning is a good storyteller, which is a reason the "ManningCast" is so popular for "Monday Night Football" games. Peyton and Eli Manning had San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey on the "ManningCast" when the Philadelphia Eagles ran their famous "tush push" quarterback sneak, or "Brotherly Shove" as its known in Philly, in which Eagles players line up behind quarterback Jalen Hurts and help push him forward at the snap.

Manning brought up that he taught the "tush push" to his son's seventh-grade youth team, which he coaches. Seriously. ESPN had video of it.

It gets better. When the Cherry Creek Bruins quarterback Marshall Manning ran the play, officials told coach Peyton Manning that the play wasn't legal at that level. Imagine the poor referee going up to the NFL's only five-time MVP and explaining the Arapahoe Youth League rules to him.

"Eli, we were told after that play, the ref is like, 'Hey, you can't do that,'" Peyton Manning said on the broadcast. "I'm like, 'The Eagles do it in the NFL.' He's like, 'This is not the NFL.' I'm like, 'Oh, I thought seventh-grade AYL Colorado Youth Football was the NFL.' I was confused.

"But that was the last time we did it. They banned it in our league. But the NFL, you guys can still do it."

The NFL will discuss whether to ban the play, made famous by the Eagles, in the offseason. It's already against the rules in the Arapahoe Youth League. Peyton Manning had to find out the hard way.