Eli Manning dresses as Chad Powers during undercover tryout at Penn State
Manning attended the Nittany Lions' walk-on workout and performed in front of coach James Franklin.
An unassuming visitor showed up to Penn State’s walk-on tryout.
He strolled into Holuba Hall wearing a long, flowing blond wig and a matching fake mustache. He wore a Penn State football T-shirt and just enough makeup to mask his identity.
Despite what the paperwork said, this wasn’t Chad Powers, class of 2022 quarterback who was homeschooled and coached by his mother. It was retired Giants quarterback and future NFL Hall of Famer Eli Manning.
Players and coaches were quick to speculate about the 41-year-old legend dressed as an 18-year-old freshman. “He’s like 32. Bro, he is not a freshman. Who is this kid?”
The viral undercover prank, which was revealed on social media this week, is part of the ESPN+ show Eli’s Places, scheduled to stream on Wednesday.
“When they reached out about doing this, obviously we wanted to be a part of it,” Penn State coach James Franklin said. “At the end of the day for me, I wanted to make sure it wasn’t going to disturb our process of what we needed to do and not become a distraction.”
It instead became a lighthearted moment that drew plenty of reaction. One of the best came from a reporter for the Sporting News, who shared the video and said, “Finally — a quarterback with more experience than Sean Clifford.”
Manning (or Powers) broad jumped 7-foot-10 and ran the 40-yard dash in 5.49 seconds, which was much slower than his 4.90 official time at the 2004 NFL combine. He repeated under his breath, “Think fast, run fast,” while racing down the field.
Then he got a chance to flex his arm talent in quarterback drills. ESPN’s footage showed Manning out-throwing the speed of any of his receivers downfield.
“Look up arm talent in the dictionary and you’ll see a picture of Chad,” Manning said. “Chad Powers, you ain’t seen nothing like him. Not just good looking, I can throw it.”
“Providing opportunities to kind of peek behind the curtain shows some personality and allows people to kind of see some of these things and have some fun,” Franklin said. “There’s value in it. I don’t think there’s any doubt about it.”
Manning’s alter ego did not earn a roster spot. Franklin says in the video that it’s because he exhausted his eligibility. But while on campus in late August, Manning helped announce another walk-on who was put on scholarship: Colgate transfer punter Barney Amor.
Penn State’s next outing is against Central Michigan at noon this Saturday from Beaver Stadium. Chad Powers will not be playing.