Denver Broncos

Peyton Manning addresses rumors that he's considering a political career

Published Mar. 23, 2017 9:24 a.m. ET

Cameron DaSilva

Peyton Manning has been out of the NFL for a full year now, enjoying his time away from the game by spending it with his family, watching his brother Eli and making hilarious commercials.

Though he’s made appearances in the world of football here and there, he’s stayed relatively out of the spotlight. His name was brought back into it recently when there were rumblings that he would run for U.S. Senate.

At the Adobe Summit in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Manning addressed those rumors with a firm answer.

“I don’t know where that came from,” Manning said. “Last week I was going to run a team, this week I going to apparently run for Senate, and next week I’ll be an astronaut. … I have no interest in the political world, but would like to continue serving communities.”

Manning has the intelligence, integrity and likability to succeed in just about any field he ventures into, which is why there’s so much speculation about what he’ll do next. Will he make the move to the front office like John Elway? Or will he keep to himself for the most part, similarly to the way Brett Favre has?

No one truly knows what Manning will do next, and even he’s not sure. He’s just taking it one step at a time right now.

“I’m excited about the next chapter of my career. We have young kids and they’re in kindergarten. … Now I get to drop my kids off at school and I have even joined a health club. … I have a bucket list, but I enjoy having more freedom, especially in the fall.

“The best advice I got was to not sign up for something full-time right away that you can’t commit to. I’m taking my time and seeing what my options might be.”

Manning did touch on missing the NFL, and the parts about it that he reminisces about.

“I miss the camaraderie of teammates. … You do everything together. You practice together, you eat together, you sit in these team meetings together. And I miss the plane rides after a win.”