By: Natalie Downey
Eli and Peyton Manning, two former NFL quarterbacks, recently launched a collection of NFTs. They are joining a growing list of other NFL athletes who have done the same. This list includes, but is not limited to, Rob Gronkowski, Tom Brady, and Patrick Mahomes.
NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are unique digital pieces of artwork that are put up for sale, giving buyers full rights and ownership of the original work. Eli Manning described owning an NFT as something similar to buying sports cards and you can buy it as a collectible or trade it later on. If you would like to learn more about NFTs, check out our recent blog post explaining them!
The Manning brothers launched this collection on April 16 at 3pm EST. “The Manning Legacy Collection” consists of 8 NFTs, with 4 of them honoring charities. The charities they are honoring are Tackle Kids Cancer and the Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital at Ascension St. Vincent. The collection also features Eli’s famous pass to David Tyree in Super Bowl XLII and Peyton’s “Omaha” play.
“We are excited to be entering the space to not only give fans exclusive artwork but also utilize proceeds to help causes close to our hearts” says Eli Manning.
The NFTs are featured on Makers Place and were made by JK5 (Joseph Ari Aloi) and former baseball player Micah Johnson. The team enjoyed working on the project together, and even posted on Twitter during the process. Below is a tweet Eli posted a few days before the drop.
In a press release, Peyton said they “wanted to curate one-of-a-kind artwork for the NFT community” and “collaborating with JK5, Micah Johnson and their teams gave [them] the opportunity to handcraft each individual piece so that they are truly unique to [them] and elevate the creative for the growing collectors base”.
With Patrick Mahomes and Rob Gronkowski making $3.4 million and $1.6 million respectively from NFTs, it is incredibly smart for Eli and Peyton to launch this collection. We are seeing a rise in the popularity of NFTs across industries, and it is easy to predict that this move will be a very profitable one for the Manning brothers.