Peyton Manning's Biggest Concern About NIL Is the Impact on Young NFL Players

Peyton wants to make sure college players stay hungry coming into the NFL in the NIL era.

AFC coach Manning during Pro Bowl Games practice at Camping World Stadium. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Peyton and Eli Manning made an appearance on New Heights, Jason and Travis Kelce's podcast, while the group was in New Orleans for Super Bowl LIX. Travis will hit the field as his Kansas City Chiefs take on Jason's former team, the Philadelphia Eagles.

The two pairs of brothers covered a bevy of topics—everything from the recent Pro Bowl where Peyton coached against Eli, the Manning's relationships with Super Bowl quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts and more. Jason also asked the Manning brothers to share their thoughts on how name, image and likeness (NIL) has changed the landscape of college sports.

Peyton turned the question back to Travis because he was more curious whether he's seen any impact in the Chiefs locker room as we see more and more college athletes who lived the NIL era enter their professional careers.

"Travis, are you seeing any change in the demeanor of college players coming to the NFL?" Manning asked. "To me, that's the biggest thing that I was worried about. Are guys coming in as hungry to try to make the team, to try to win a championship hopefully and then you know, make some money as well."

Travis said he hasn't seen that impact the Chiefs' locker room, but the team's strong culture likely plays a big part in that. He praised Kansas City's first-round pick from the 2024 NFL draft, Xavier Worthy, who he says has been "nothing but the hardest worker on the team."

"To me, that's the thing that I want to keep," Manning responded. "Keep guys coming in hungry and trying to accomplish new goals and obviously help teams win. As long as we got that going, I'm O.K."

You can watch the Manning and Kelce brother's full conversation on the newest episode of New Heights here:

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