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Tom Brady will be in attendance to see his biggest football rival be enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this weekend.
Rich Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times reports Brady plans to fly to Canton, Ohio during the Tampa Bay Buccaneers off-day to witness friend and fellow quarterback Peyton Manning's enshrinement ceremony on Sunday (August 8).
Additionally, Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians -- who was Manning's quarterbacks coach during his first three NFL seasons with the Indianapolis Colts -- told Stroud he and assistants Clyde Christensen and Tom Moore -- both of whom worked as offensive coaches during Manning's tenure with the Colts -- will also be in attendance.
Earlier this year, Manning joked that his mother, Olivia Manning, was responsible for Brady missing out on several extra Super Bowl championships.
“If it wasn’t for my mother, Olivia Manning, he’d have 11 of ’em,” Manning said of Brady's seven Super Bowl championships via ProFootballTalk while discussing Brady's next appearance on The Match, a golf event that saw the two compete against each other last year.
Manning defeated Brady's former team, the New England Patriots, during the AFC Championship en route to Super Bowl victories with the Colts (Super Bowl XLI) and Denver Broncos (Super Bowl 50).
His younger brother, Eli Manning, famously holds a 2-0 record against Brady in the Super Bowl, leading the New York Giants to victories in Super Bowls XLII and XLVI.
Peyton's Broncos also defeated the Patriots en route to a blowout loss to the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLVIII, but it seems he's assuming New England wouldn't have fared much better, otherwise he would have joked that his mother would've prevented Brady from 12 rings instead of 11.
Brady and Manning have long been regarded as the two best quarterbacks of their era and credited by many as the two best of all-time.
Together, the two quarterbacks account for nine Super Bowl championships, seven Super Bowl MVPs and eight regular season MVPs since 2000.
That success created one of the NFL's best on-field rivalries, but the two have shared a friendship off the field, which has seemingly grown in recent years.
In February, Brady recorded 201 yards and three touchdowns on 21 of 29 passing in Super Bowl LV, winning a record fifth Super Bowl MVP Award, which surpassed his own previous record set in Super Bowl LI (2017).
Brady now owns a 7-3 record all-time in the NFL's biggest game and surpassed his own previous record for most Super Bowl wins by a quarterback (6) set in February 2019. The 43-year-old also broke his own record as the oldest quarterback to both start and win a Super Bowl also set in 2019.
The win was Tampa Bay's second Super Bowl victory in franchise history. The Buccaneers are also the only team in NFL history to both host and win a Super Bowl in their home stadium.