Peyton Manning, Netflix struggling to find subjects for Season 2 of 'Quarterback'
Season 2 of Netflix's hit sports docuseries, "Quarterback," remains without three leading men, according to Peyton Manning.
The show's first season, produced by Manning's Omaha Productions in conjunction with Netflix and the NFL, reportedly drew 3.3 million viewers, according to Nielsen. It featured the Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes, the Minnesota Vikings’ Kirk Cousins and the Atlanta Falcons’ Marcus Mariota.
Now, even after the show was released with relatively high reviews, Manning can't find any quarterbacks to commit to be being filmed for a season that will begin in less than a week.
"To use a cheesy analogy, we’re definitely in the two-minute drill here,” Manning told The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday. “I’d love for someone to call us back and say, ‘I want to do it.’ I had three starting quarterbacks tell me no yesterday, so I’m swallowing my pride.”
Throughout the 2023 offseason, seemingly every starting quarterback was asked if they'd accepted the show's camera crews into their homes for the 2023 season. As of Aug. 18, at least 10 of them publicly said they declined the opportunity.
Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, for instance, told his wife, Kelly, that he didn't want to put his teammates through the process. Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts told reporters in July that he turned down Seasons 1 and 2 of the show and "didn't feel it was appropriate for the year."
Manning noted that he understands why quarterbacks turn him down — namely, that the cameras would be a distraction — but added that he told some, "I guarantee you’ll win the Super Bowl like Mahomes if you do it."
"If a quarterback that I respected told me, ‘Hey, trust me, we’re going to do right by you, you are not going to regret it, we’re going to cut out anything you don’t want in there, you won’t even know we’re there,’ then I probably would have said, ‘Yeah, I might as well do it,’” Manning said.
This isn't the first time Manning has struggled to find willing participants for this show. When he pitched the idea two years ago, Manning said he "couldn't get anybody to say yes." Eventually, they secured Mahomes and then landed Cousins and Mariota, three very different quarterbacks who offered diverse stories.
For now, Manning will have to wait for quarterbacks to come to him as the start of the 2023 NFL season draws closer.
