Football Players Who Have Brothers That Play in the NFL
Sibling rivalry! Peyton Manning and Eli Manning and Travis Kelce and Jason Kelce are among some of football’s most acclaimed pairs of brothers to play in the National Football League (NFL).
Peyton was initially drafted by the Indianapolis Colts in 1998, nearly six years before little brother Eli was picked up by the San Diego Chargers ahead of his New York Giants trade. Peyton, for his part, was eventually traded to the Denver Broncos in 2012, shortly before helping them clinch a Super Bowl victory. He retired in 2016.
After watching his big brother step back from the NFL, Eli continued to play with the Giants until his January 2020 retirement.
“I think I’m more newly retired than he, so I hope I can throw [a pass] better than him, but who knows?” the University of Mississippi alum exclusively told Us Weekly in January 2022, joking about his athletic skills in comparison to Peyton. “I don’t think anyone wants to see that right now. It’s just been fun [working together on a Super Bowl commercial]. It’s just been a lot of fun and, have a reason [to get] together.”
Eli continued: “He lives in Denver [and] I live in New Jersey. We don’t always get to see each other. So this is a time where we do get to see each other and hang out. … It’s a mix of kind of talking football and kind of getting off the subject and just talking about life.”
While the Mannings — who currently cohost a football recap podcast, “Manningcast,” and provide game commentary on ESPN2’s Monday Night Games — enjoy hanging out post-retirement, they are not immune to sibling squabbles.
“Being the little brother, I think everything I do annoys him, that’s just kind of the way it is,” Eli told Us in January 2022. “And I got used to it, just being in that situation any time I’m in the room, and he’s in there, like whatever I’m doing’s gonna annoy him: If I’m not watching the game, if I’m watching too closely, if I’m sitting too close to the TV, if I’m drinking my Pepsi too loud, if I’m eating my Lays and rustling the paper; everything annoys the big brother.”
The Kelce brothers have also made their names known on their respective NFL teams. Jason, for his part, was drafted first in 2011 to the Philadelphia Eagles. Travis joined the league two years later when the Kansas City Chiefs drafted him.
“I ended up body-slamming him and we ended up breaking some stuff in the kitchen,” the former Catching Kelce star recalled of his last fight with Jason, when they were in high school, during a September 2018 appearance on the Dan Patrick Show. “You want to talk about turning into a man? I turned into a man that day. That definitely gained [me] some confidence because I never really had taken it to that extent of fighting back [because he] was always bigger, stronger than me.”
Travis and Jason have since buried the hatchet, even launching their joint “New Heights” podcast to chat about various sports news of the week.
Scroll below to meet the professional football players and their brothers who have played in the NFL:
