Report: Walton/Penner Ownership Group Reaches Out to Peyton Manning About New Leadership Role with Broncos

Earlier this week, the Denver Broncos entered into an agreement with the Walton/Penner group in a sale of the team totaling $4.65 billion. Helmed by Walmart heir Rob Walton, the group is rounded out by his daughter Carrie Walton Penner and her husband Greg Penner.

The $4.65B deal is pending approval from the NFL’s finance committee and league ownership, but the Walton/Penner group is already laying its blueprint for the next era of Broncos football as ESPN recently reported.

According to Adam Schefter and Jeff Legwold, the Walton/Penner group has made overtures to former Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning about a role with the team, which could lead to the NFL's only five-time MVP having an ownership stake.

The Walton-Penner group that agreed to buy the Denver Broncos this week has contacted Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning about a role in the organization that could eventually lead to an equity stake in the franchise, sources told ESPN's Adam Schefter on Thursday.

Sources told Schefter that the group reached out to Manning about an advisory role with the team that could lead to his joining the ownership group.

Manning was contacted by multiple groups during the bidding process to acquire the Broncos, sources told ESPN.

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What exactly would that 'advisory' role look like for Manning? It's hard to say.

It could be a sort of face-of-the-team/public relations type of position. With everything 'The Sheriff' has going on professionally right now — between his Omaha Productions and the ManningCast on ESPN — how much time, or ambition for that matter, Manning would have to devote to the Broncos is questionable.

Manning's Omaha Productions just inked a deal with Caesars Entertainment, which will feature a reported audio network and digital series, according to Denver7's Troy Renck. Combine that with the demands of Manning's family life as a father and husband, and a potential role with the Broncos would really come down to one thing: commitment.

Manning has never been one to short-arm anything. He's all-or-nothing type of guy, which is why a PR type of role seems more plausible at this stage, unless the thrill of competing again is so alluring that he'd be willing to cede control of his other professional interests to embrace the role of a football executive fully.

Even John Elway, who has maintained a senior consultant role with the Broncos since the 2022 calendar year began, has put real man-hours into the team, even on a less-intensive basis than what he committed each week as the team's general manager and top football executive for a decade. Is Manning ready and willing to do the same?

Time will tell. If anything, the allure of a potential ownership stake in the Broncos might be too good for Manning to pass on right now, even if it meant stepping away from some of his other interests, in the same way that Elway did when he joined the Broncos' front office back in the spring of 2011.

Stay tuned.

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