To be fair to NBC, there is absolutely no way they would have agreed to air a Steelers/Colts game as their Sunday Night Football showdown during Week 3 of the 2011-12 NFL season if they would have known that Peyton Manning would be sidelined. So before the broadcast even started, we already knew that in NBC's eyes, Manning would be on the field in spirit, even if he was actually sitting allllllll the way up in the booth watching the game along with the rest of us. And NBC's Al Michaels,Cris Collinsworth, and Michele Tafoya acted as such by mentioning Eli's older brother not once, not twice, but 26 times during the course of the game. We know because Deadspin compiled a video of all 26 of the mentions.
Damn, homie. We're almost scared of what might have happened if you did play. [via Deadspin]
