This skit is an SNL classic, so it isn't hard to give me a reason to revisit it and ultimately post it. But these quotes from Peyton Manning about the skit are priceless.
Manning was the keynote speaker at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's inaugural All Arkansas Prep Awards in Little Rock over the past weekend, and the emcee asked him a number of soft-ball questions, such as the hardest hits of his career and how he's forcing his younger teammates to watch classic comedies.
He also asked Peyton about his experience on SNL, which brought up this gem. Via The Sports Seer --
"The one that people always talk about is the United Way skit, where I’m throwing the football at the kids. A lot of people have asked “Peyton, please tell me you weren’t really hurting those kids.” And I promise you folks, that was a Nerf football … and all these kids, they were all child actors which is a kind of disturbing field in its own way. And all the parents were there the entire time when we were doing that skit and the director said ‘You gotta hit them in the face, you gotta do it.’ And I had to have a little talk with myself before I could do it.
"But I felt a little more comfortable when I heard one of the parents yelling at the director ‘I want him to hit my kid in the face!’"The only thing more disturbing than Manning's persona in that skit? The parents of child actors. Terrifying.
Peyton Manning on Ray Lewis' Crushing Blows & Bret Bielema [The Sports Seer]