Peyton Manning Drops Perfectly Timed Spygate Reference During Olympics Opening Ceremony

The Opening Ceremony for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris is in the books and they were way better than certain people (who that is exactly is of little importance) thought they'd be.

There were performances, some parkour-doing mask-wearing character, French metal band Gojira, and more boats than Fourth of July weekend on the lake.

For the most part, the ceremony broadcast was led by the always-great Mike Tirico, but he was joined in the booth by the somewhat unexpected pairing of Kelly Clarkson and Peyton Manning.

But it worked really well, and one of the highlights of Manning's Olympic debut was a perfectly timed reference to a certain cheating scandal that occurred during his NFL days.

The Canadian athletes made their big entrance on one of the boats drifting down the Seine, and Tirico brought up the drone scandal that led to the Canadian women's soccer team head coach being told to take off back to the Great White North.

"Canada has already made news. Their women’s soccer coach was sent home after controversy about a drone and checking in on practices for a team and that, dating back to other competitions before this Olympics," Tirico explained. "So, we haven’t even officially opened the Olympics and we’ve got controversy and news."

A drone for spying, you say?

Well, that will certainly remind a certain former quarterback of a similar situation.

"A little Spygate in soccer here in the Olympics," Manning said.

That, of course, is a reference to the New England Patriots who got caught videotaping the New York Jets signals back in 2007, pretty much at the peak of the Manning/Colts-Brady/Patriots rivalry in the AFC.

Hilarious way to get a great little reference into the broadcast. 

Hopefully, Manning enjoyed himself because it seemed like the Tirico-Clarkson-Manning pairing worked pretty well, so I wouldn't be shocked to see them again at future Olympics.