Peyton Manning pulled out all the stops to recruit Pope Leo XIV to ManningCast for Chicago Bears game

Billy Heyen

Peyton Manning pulled out all the stops to recruit Pope Leo XIV to ManningCast for Chicago Bears game image

The ManningCast is one of the underrated gems of the NFL season.

Most Monday nights, Peyton and Eli Manning join together for an alternate broadcast of Monday Night Football on ESPN2. They break plays down, they mock one another, and they have high-profile guests.

Peyton took a shot this week, before the Chicago Bears played the Minnesota Vikings, at booking the biggest guest he could think of: the Pope.

Pope Leo XIV is from Chicago, having been born Robert Prevost, and he's a known Chicago sports fan.

MORE: 'Have a little faith': How Bills pulled off unbelievable comeback to stun Ravens

Peyton detailed on Monday night how he handwrote a note to His Holiness to try and get him on the broadcast.

"Kind of like I failed to recruit Randy Moss to Tennessee, I couldn't close the Pope," Peyton said. "But I made the effort, Eli. That's the kind of effort we make there at ESPN2. I tried my hardest. Look at these two handwritten letters I wrote. I wrote His Holiness himself, and I wrote his executive assistant. I made the effort. These are handwritten letters. And if you're watching Your Holiness, come on the show anytime. It's you, Tiger Woods, Bradley Cooper, President Bush, Larry David. Y'all are our most wanted for the ManningCast. Come anytime. We'd love to have you, Your Holiness.

MORE: Jerry Jeudy refused to lateral on final play, instead conveniently hit his betting over

The Manning brothers have had President Obama on the show before, another Chicago sports fan.

But it'd be a whole new ballgame if Pope Leo XIV joined the show.

MORE NFL NEWS:

Billy Heyen

Billy Heyen is a freelance writer with The Sporting News. He is a 2019 graduate of Syracuse University who has written about many sports and fantasy sports for The Sporting News. Sports reporting work has also appeared in a number of newspapers, including the Sandusky Register and Rochester Democrat & Chronicle