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With basketball just finishing up, baseball months away from mainstream relevance and the Olympics not quite under way, calm has stricken the sporting world.
Simply put – we are ready for football.
This week, a couple Super Bowl winners will be here to scratch that itch.
The 17th Annual Manning Passing Academy will begin tomorrow on Nicholls State’s campus.
The public’s payoff will come Saturday at 6 p.m. with the Air-It-Out passing competition.
This event pits some of America’s top passers against one another in an exciting quarterback challenge that will also see passes thrown by Denver Broncos star Peyton Manning and little brother and fellow Super Bowl champion, New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning.
Admission for the event is $8 in advance and $10 at the door.
Tickets are being sold online at www.nichollstickets.com.
The elder Manning brother said he always looks forward to his return trip to Thibodaux.
“The city of Thibodaux has just been tremendous to us in helping make this event a success,” Peyton Manning said at last year’s event. “We love coming here and enjoy the support we have from Nicholls State to keep things moving in the right direction.”
The Manning Passing Academy has become a nation-wide hit among aspiring quarterbacks, halfbacks, receivers and tight ends.
The camp has called Nicholls State home since 2005. Its roots were at Tulane and then Southeastern Louisiana University.
The Colonels’ field turf is adequately dubbed “Manning Field,” after the quarterback family donated a $500,000 playing surface to the school’s athletic department in 2006 as a way to “give back to the university and athletics department.”
While the Manning family gives resources to Nicholls, they give knowledge to campers.
Each year, more than 1,000 campers enroll in the four-day camp.
In addition to Peyton, Eli and father Archie, the campers also pool knowledge from several elite college quarterbacks.
Top-tier draft picks like Andrew Luck, Christian Ponder and Kellan Moore have all worked for the camp.
Other notables who have taken part in the camp are former LSU quarterback Jordan Jefferson, former Arizona quarterback Nick Foles, Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton and Arkansas standout Tyler Wilson.
The camp does not release its list of counselors in advance, but 2012 Heisman Trophy front-runner Oklahoma quarterback Landry Jones camped last year.
One would suspect he and several other top-tier collegiate players will also be in attendance for the Air-It-Out competition.
ESPN analysts like former Florida quarterback Jesse Palmer and former Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden also usually make annual appearances.
The ability to keep the camp a teaching experience is crucial to the Manning family, who stress the camp’s foundation is bettering the future of football.
“Some people get the wrong idea that this camp is about blue-chip, five-star athletes,” Archie Manning said at last year’s event. “But that’s not what we’re about. We really just want to take those high school quarterbacks and receivers and help them to get better and talk to them about the passion of playing football so that they can enjoy the high school experience.”
The camp begins tomorrow and several practice fields will be glittered across Nicholls’ campus throughout the event, which ends Sunday.
By day, the campers sweat amidst the Louisiana summer heat.
By night, campers will rest in Nicholls’ dorms. The pros are known to get out and rub elbows with a few old friends in Thibodaux’s various restaurants – a win/win situation for everyone involved.
“I just can’t tell you how much we appreciate and are grateful to Nicholls State and the Thibodaux area,” Archie Manning said. “There’s such wonderful hospitality with what they do for us.”
“It’s been awesome. I love this city,” former camp counselor and former Texas Tech quarterback Taylor Potts agreed. “We were out and about last night, and it was a lot of fun. Everyone here is super nice people. They’re just down to earth regular people … I love it here.”
The NFL preseason is still weeks away.
The Manning Camp appears to be the next best thing while waiting for live gridiron action.
Former Stanford quarterback and No. 1 pick in the 2012 NFL Draft Andrew Luck airs out a pass during last year’s Manning Passing Academy, as brothers Peyton and Eli Manning carefully look on. The highly anticipated passing camp will return to Thibodaux this week.
