Manning Will Start Season As Newlywed
Colts quarterback will marry his college girlfriend in ceremony today in Tennessee
Colts quarterback Peyton Manning will be a week late to off-season training camp. He's getting married today in Memphis, Tenn.
Manning will tie the knot with Ashley Thompson, whom he began dating when he was a freshman at the University of Tennessee.
"We're excited; it's always an exciting time," said his father, Archie Manning. The couple got engaged last summer but didn't announce it. "Peyton didn't want it to be a story during football season, so they kind of keep it quiet."
There was to be a wedding rehearsal dinner Friday followed by the wedding tonight. "It's a pretty big wedding, probably 600 people or so," said Archie Manning, a former New Orleans Saints quarterback.
He declined to say where the couple would spend their honeymoon but said they would be back in Indianapolis in a week. He described his daughter-in-law as "a great gal from a wonderful family here in Memphis."
Team owner Jim Irsay, who was headed to the wedding, joked, "I guess now Peyton will get his soup opened, at least."
A magazine story once depicted Manning as domestically challenged, saying he had to call Thompson for directions on opening a can of soup.
Archie Manning noted his son was embarrassed by the article and since has improved.
In the book, Manning, A Father His Sons, And A Football Legacy, Peyton Manning writes that he didn't exactly knock Thompson off her feet during their first meeting.
"It was in August, at one of the few fraternity parties I went to. We were introduced and only talked a little while. I didn't make a big first impression (she said later my pastel shirt was a turnoff) but I was certainly impressed."
Manning added that, "With all her qualities, I think what pleased me most about Ashley, though, was that she liked me for who I was, not what I was."