Former President George W. Bush has always had a knack for delivering well-timed humor, and his appearance on ESPN2’s ManningCast during Monday Night Football was no exception. Bush joined Peyton Manning and Eli Manning during the Cowboys vs. Raiders Week 11 matchup, offering jokes, his quick wit, and a rare personal admission that sent the brothers into laughter.
Once on the broadcast, Bush wasted no time throwing playful jabs at Peyton and Eli. But the conversation quickly shifted from football to family legacies.
Peyton steered the conversation toward the parallels between their careers and Bush’s. The Manning brothers followed Archie Manning into the “family business” as NFL quarterbacks, while Bush became president years after his father, George H.W. Bush, held the same office. Peyton posed the question directly, asking whether Bush always expected to enter public service.
“Mr. President, Eli and I followed our father into the family business, becoming quarterbacks,” Manning noted. “You followed your father into the family business, too, becoming the most powerful person in the world. I'm not going to say which is more impressive, but Mr. President, when you were growing up, did you think you would go into public service?”
George W. Bush is on the ESPN2 ManningCast for the Cowboys-Raiders game. #NFL #MNF pic.twitter.com/8kn1Taz2FD
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 18, 2025
Bush delivered the punchline immediately: “No. I'd have behaved a h*ll of a lot better in college. No, I really didn't.”
The former president then expanded on how his father influenced him without pressuring him into a specific path.
“I admired my dad a lot… he never said, this is what you have to do with your life, he just said, here's this kind of way I'd like you to live, honesty and decency and compassion, but you be what you want to be,” Bush noted. “And it took me a while to figure out what I wanted to be, by the way.”
Bush remained on the broadcast into the early second quarter, mixing humor with thoughtful reflections, something he has long been known for. However, Bush’s appearance wasn’t random; during his longstanding political career, he also served as Governor of Texas, and he’s also been a visible, lifelong supporter of the Dallas Cowboys.
Earlier this month, George and former First Lady Laura Bush attended a Cowboys game just one day before the passing of his former Vice President, Dick Cheney, at age 84. So when the Cowboys took on the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday Night Football, the Manning brothers brought Bush on to share stories, humor, and some football, too.
