Why the NFL misses Peyton Manning

Only five players in the NFL are more popular than Peyton Manning. This despite the fact that Manning has not played in the NFL since 2016.

According to sports columnist Dan Wetzel, the league’s TV ratings have dropped in part because no current players can match Manning’s cultural presence. In addition to a career destined for the Hall of Fame and two Super Bowl victories, Manning hosted Saturday Night Live and appeared on The Simpsons, American Idol, The Tonight Show, Live! with Kelly, and Fox News Sunday, among others.

Wetzel notes: “Just consider the breadth of those audiences.”

Manning is in the news again today for supporting a lung transplant patient and delivering new equipment to a middle school football team. His popularity continues unabated, in large part due to his generosity.

Likeability may be the most critical factor in success today. The research on this subject is compelling.

A Columbia University study discovered that popularity is the most important key to workplace advancement. Doctors have been found to give more time to patients they like than those they don’t. One study showed that children with likable parents received better health care.

“Great crowds followed him”

Early in his ministry, Jesus Christ was perhaps the most popular person in all of Israel: “Great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan” (Matthew 4:25).

His popularity was tied to his ability to heal the sick (Matthew 5:23-24), teach with divine authority (Matthew 7:28-29), and feed massive crowds (Matthew 14:13-21).

Most significantly, he forgave every sinner who sought his pardon and grace (cf. Matthew 9:10-13). Charles Spurgeon noted: “That hand which multiplied the loaves, which saved sinking Peter, which upholds afflicted saints, which crowns believers, that same hand will touch every seeking sinner, and in a moment make him clean.”

The Savior does indeed save us in…