This summer, Indianapolis Colts fans will descend on Canton, OH (to the point that CDC guidelines allow) to pay tribute to the greatest they’ve ever seen under center, Peyton Manning.
As anticipated, Manning skated through to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on his very first ballot prior to this February’s Chiefs-Buccaneers Super Bowl, giving Colts fans at least a shred of joy as Tom Brady captured his still-unbelievable seventh ring.
Along with the honor comes a whirlwind few months for Manning, whose attempted transition to the broadcast booth will have to wait while he gets plucked, pampered and — of course — immortalized in bronze.
We got a sneak preview of what his bust in Canton’s Shrine of the Eternals will look like this year (and in perpetuity), and we liked what we saw.
The Football Hall snapped some photos of Manning sitting down with his sculptor in recent weeks and released them to the world on Saturday.
While we couldn’t get a flush look at how the bust is coming along, we definitely received a few nice hints.
Peyton Manning recently had a sitting with sculptor Blair Buswell to get his Bronzed Bust ready for August.#PFHOF21 | @Colts | @Broncos pic.twitter.com/yJc5beQFM8
— Pro Football Hall of Fame (@ProFootballHOF) April 24, 2021
Indianapolis Colts icon Peyton Manning will look good in Canton.
From top pick to sculpture. Quite a journey, huh?
The Colts will enter next week’s NFL Draft with a much different shopping list than the one they had when Manning landed atop it, but hopefully they’re able to unearth another long-term gem in the 20s.
Carson Wentz is next in line (after Andrew Luck and a few, ahem, stopgaps) to take hold of this franchise, and though he doesn’t exactly carry with him a Hall of Fame pedigree, he does have top-of-the-draft potential.
If you’d rather relax and live in the past, though, just keep refreshing the Manning bust imagery while reading his original pre-draft scouting report from back in 1998.
An excerpt of the scouting report on Peyton Manning used by evaluators for the 1998 #NFLDraft.@Colts | #PFHOF21 pic.twitter.com/EyPiLZaKTf
— Pro Football Hall of Fame (@ProFootballHOF) April 23, 2021
Stay tuned to the Hall of Fame’s feed for more induction ceremony updates as restrictions are relaxed (hopefully!) in the coming months.
Perhaps Colts fans can make the pilgrimage back-to-back years if everybody wisens up and adds Reggie Wayne to the docket in 2022, too.
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