Who would have thought that Peyton Manning would be the one taking heat at the CMA Awards…
The former quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts and the Denver Broncos hosted the 57th annual awards this year alongside Luke Bryan. And while most of the jokes were pretty corny, apparently there was one that landed on its target.
During the opening monologue, Peyton and Luke joked about the difference between Taylor Swift and the New York Jets:
“Taylor can sell out a stadium.”
Peyton quipped that he had Luke deliver the punchline so he wouldn’t get in trouble…but apparently that wasn’t enough.
The New York Jets responded on Twitter (or X, or whatever it’s called) with a picture of a sold-out MetLife Stadium:
“What are we talking about Peyton?”
Of course the Jets kind of have a point. They rank 3rd in the NFL this year in average attendance with over 80,000 fans per game. But when you look at percentages based on capacity of the stadium, they fall to 27th – while still maintaining an impressive average of 97.7% of seats that are full each game.
When Taylor played MetLife Stadium earlier this year, she drew 82,000 on the first of her three night run, but only recorded a total of 217,625 over the course of the three shows – for an average of 72,541, or about 8,000 less than the Jets draw to an average home game.
But still, it was a funny joke – especially given the state of the Jets right now with their star quarterback Aaron Rodgers sidelined (but maybe not for much longer?) due to an Achilles injury.
