Peyton Manning
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50 free Peyton Manning trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Peyton Manning turned a 3-13 expansion-grade Colts team into an annual contender, threw 49 touchdowns in 2004 and 55 in 2013, missed a whole season to neck surgery, and still walked off with a second Super Bowl ring for a second franchise. Along the way he picked up five MVP awards, a nickname from Jon Gruden and a production company named after his audible call. These 50 questions cover the whole arc: the 1998 draft debate with Ryan Leaf, his rookie-record interceptions, the Tampa Bay comeback, Super Bowl XLI against the Bears, the lockout rehab with a baseball team's trainers, the 2012 move to Denver, the seven-touchdown opener against the Ravens, the benching in 2015 and the two-point conversion that was his last NFL pass. There are off-field questions too: Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons, College Bowl, Ferdinand and the Manningcast. Easy questions stick to the headline facts; the expert tier asks about Frank Tripucka's number, Jim McMahon's record and the 13-second Hall of Fame vote. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss. Play it solo or print it for an NFL trivia night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Despite a league-worst 28 interceptions, Peyton Manning set which NFL rookie record in 1998?
Passing yards
Passing yards. His 3,739 could not rescue a team whose defence gave up almost 28 points a game, and the Colts finished 3–13.
Q 02What nickname did Manning earn during his professional career?
The Sheriff
The Sheriff. A TV analyst coined it in 2009, saying Manning 'lays down the law' in opponents' stadiums with the audibles he calls at the line of scrimmage.
Q 03Peyton Manning angered many fans in 1994 by choosing Tennessee over which university, where his father had starred?
Ole Miss
Ole Miss. Both of his parents had studied there, and angry letters and phone calls poured into the family home once he announced his choice.
Q 04As of 2025, which quarterback's four NFL MVP awards trail only Manning's five?
Rodgers
Rodgers. Aaron Rodgers won his third and fourth in 2020 and 2021; Manning's fifth came in 2013, two seasons after surgery had cost him an entire year.
Q 05Which team did the Colts beat in Super Bowl XLI?
Chicago Bears
Chicago Bears. Devin Hester ran the opening kickoff back 92 yards for a touchdown, but Manning brought the Colts back in the rain to win 29–17 and was named the game's MVP.
Q 06Who did the Broncos beat 24-10 in Super Bowl 50, Manning's final game?
Carolina Panthers
Carolina Panthers. Denver's defence won it: a fumble recovered in the end zone gave the Broncos their first touchdown, while Manning, sacked five times himself, threw for only 141 yards.
Q 07Which team beat Peyton Manning's Broncos 43–8 in a Super Bowl that began with a snap flying past him for a safety?
Seattle Seahawks
Seattle Seahawks. The safety came just 12 seconds in, and a Denver offence that had scored a record 606 points that season did not get on the board until the third quarter.
Q 08Manning wore No. 18 in honor of which brother, who quit football due to spinal stenosis?
Cooper
Cooper. An all-state receiver who had caught Peyton's touchdown passes in high school, he had to give up the game at 18 after numbness in his hands led to the diagnosis.
Q 09What is the name of the road leading to Tennessee's Neyland Stadium that honours Peyton Manning?
Peyton Manning Pass
Peyton Manning Pass. The pun salutes a quarterback who left as the school's career passing leader; in 2012 the road was painted to look like the stadium's field, and he came back to cut the ribbon.
Q 10Which Washington State quarterback was Manning's rival for the top pick in 1998?
Ryan Leaf
Ryan Leaf. Many NFL executives preferred his stronger arm, but San Diego's No. 2 pick became the league's most notorious draft bust and was out of football by 2002.
Q 11Which Colts general manager had the final say on drafting Manning in 1998?
Bill Polian
Bill Polian. He recalled Manning's parting promise at their meeting: draft me and we will win a championship, choose someone else and I will come back and beat you.
Q 12Who was Manning's head coach during his rookie season?
Jim Mora
Jim Mora. His Colts went 3–13 with their rookie quarterback, then 13–3 a year later to win the franchise's first division title since 1987.
Q 13Who beat Manning for the 1997 Heisman Trophy?
Charles Woodson
Charles Woodson. The Michigan cornerback also caught passes and returned punts for a team that finished the regular season unbeaten, and voters put him well clear of Manning.
Q 21In 2012 Manning bought 21 Colorado franchises of which pizza chain?
Papa John's
Papa John's. He bought the stores two weeks before Colorado voted to legalise recreational marijuana, and sold them in 2018 just before the chain and the NFL ended their sponsorship deal.
Q 22Peyton Manning voiced a character named Guapo in which 2017 animated film?
Ferdinand
Ferdinand. His bull Guapo swaggers with confidence but is a bundle of nerves who faints from stage fright in the ring, the opposite of the famously composed quarterback voicing him.
Q 23Whose career record did Manning pass with his 509th touchdown pass in 2014?
Brett Favre
Brett Favre. After the record throw, Manning's receivers played keep-away with the ball before letting him have it, a stunt one of them said Manning had planned himself.
Q 14During the 2011 NFL lockout, Manning rehabbed in private with the trainers of which baseball team?
Colorado Rockies
Colorado Rockies. The lockout put the Colts' own trainers off limits, so Todd Helton, the Tennessee quarterback he had replaced as a freshman, invited him to work out at Coors Field.
Q 15Whose single-season record of 48 touchdown passes did Manning break in 2004?
Dan Marino
Dan Marino. His 48 had stood since 1984; Manning's 49th, to Brandon Stokley in the final minute, set up the tying two-point conversion, and the Colts won in overtime.
Q 16Whose single-season record of 50 touchdown passes did Manning break in 2013?
Tom Brady
Tom Brady. He had taken the record from Manning's own 49 in 2007, so the 51st, thrown in the second-last week of the season, won it back.
Q 17Manning's 2013 single-season passing yards record beat whose mark by one yard?
Drew Brees
Drew Brees. Manning passed his 5,476 in the first half of the season finale, throwing four touchdowns for a 31–0 lead, and then sat out the rest with the record his.
Q 18Manning threw seven touchdowns in the 2013 opener against which defending champion?
Baltimore Ravens
Baltimore Ravens. They had knocked Denver out of the playoffs in double overtime eight months earlier; this time Manning's seven scoring throws produced a 49–27 win.
Q 19Which Monday Night Football analyst is credited with coining Manning's nickname in 2009?
Jon Gruden
Jon Gruden. Calling a Colts game in Miami, he was describing how Manning took charge of hostile stadiums by changing plays with audibles at the line of scrimmage.
Q 20Manning's production studio is named after which trademark audible call?
Omaha
Omaha. He barked the word before so many snaps in big televised games that it became famous in its own right; the company now makes the 'ManningCast' he hosts with his brother.
Q 24Who was Manning's head coach in his final season, 2015?
Gary Kubiak
Gary Kubiak. He benched Manning in the very game in which the quarterback broke the career passing-yards record, then gave him the job back in time for the playoffs.
Q 25Which backup became Denver's starting quarterback when Manning was sidelined in 2015?
Brock Osweiler
Brock Osweiler. He kept Denver on course for the AFC's top seed, then left for a $72 million contract with Houston a month after the Super Bowl win.
Q 26Surgery on which part of his body ended Manning's 208-start streak in 2011?
Neck
Neck. A spinal fusion, his third operation there in 19 months, cost him the whole season, yet two years later he was setting single-season passing records.
Q 27Which Colts receiver caught more touchdown passes from Peyton Manning than anyone else?
Marvin Harrison
Marvin Harrison. The Colts drafted him with a pick they got for trading away quarterback Jeff George; two years later Manning arrived and quickly made him his main target.
Q 28Which award did Peyton Manning win in 2012, his first season with Denver?
Comeback Player of the Year
Comeback Player of the Year. A year after surgery cost him a season and the Colts let him go, he threw 37 touchdown passes and took Denver to a 13–3 record.
Q 29At 39, Peyton Manning was 13 years older than which opposing quarterback in Super Bowl 50?
Cam Newton
Cam Newton. The league's MVP that season, he was twice stripped of the ball by Von Miller, and both fumbles led to Denver touchdowns; Miller was named the game's MVP.
Q 30A bronze statue of Manning stands outside which venue?
Lucas Oil Stadium
Lucas Oil Stadium. The Colts unveiled it in 2017, five years after releasing him, and at his own request the bronze figure wears a helmet so that his face is covered.