Peyton Manning says he’s not offended by Tom Brady’s critical email

Peyton Manning said Wednesday he wasn't offended by unflattering comments Tom Brady made about him in a private email made public recently as part of the NFL Players Association's lawsuit against the NFL to appeal the Patriot quarterback's four-game suspension.

In the November 2014 email, sent the night before New England's 43-21 win over the Denver Broncos, Brady responded to a friend who'd brought up a Grantland story comparing the two quarterbacks, "I've got another 7 or 8 years. He has 2. That's the final chapter. Game on."

Manning said that Brady sent him an apology text regarding the email, something the Broncos quarterback said was "unnecessary."

"The fact that his emails got revealed, that didn't make a lot of sense to me," Manning told the Denver Post. "No harm, no foul. I didn't think a lot of it. Somebody said I was roasted. I've been roasted before. That is NOT a roast. I haven't been on a Comedy Central roast, but there have been a couple of those private dinners and banquets where I didn't know it would turn into a roast of me, but it did.

"I can promise you, that email was amateur night compared to some of the things people really said about me."

Manning also downplayed Brady's comments about how many years he has left.

"Everybody's been speculating on that for a long time," he said. " So, I guess maybe he's joining the list of everybody trying to predict."

Manning has a quick wit, but slow feet. He recently shared an amusing anecdote from his high school days about his lack of speed in the 40-yard dash.

"When I was a senior being recruited by Tulane at the Tulane Football Camp, we ran 40's and they said that I ran a 4.88 (seconds) that day," Manning said jokingly, via the New Orleans Times-Picayune. "I'm pretty sure that was (then Tulane coach) Buddy Teevens just doing some good recruiting. I probably ran about a 5.1.

"I remember Eli was a seventh-grader at the camp, the youngest kid at the camp. He's the only guy who ran his 40 wearing his helmet. I don't know why he had his helmet on. I remember he ran a 6.2, (that) was the time that I heard — a humbling moment for Eli."