This year, 19 inductees were on the speech list for Saturday and Sunday. The high number was a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced the 2020 ceremony to be postponed until Saturday. Due to the sheer number of speakers, a six-minute time limit was implemented for those delivering remarks. That’s a far cry from the 39-minute, 18-second speech tight end Tony Gonzalez delivered in 2019! This bothered legendary quarterback Peyton Manning, who blasted the time limit as he stepped up to the podium.
“The 2021 induction class wants to thank those previous inductees who gave long-winded acceptance speeches,” said Manning. “Forcing us to have a whopping six minutes to recap our football careers. I want to give a special thanks to my old rival Ray Lewis for being here tonight. Ray just finished giving his speech that he started in 2018.”
Peyton Manning poked some fun at Tom Brady during his enshrinement into the Pro Football Hall of Fame 😂
(📽️: @NFL) pic.twitter.com/FWPKY1aFYA
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) August 9, 2021
Peyton Manning devoted a few seconds of his Pro Football Hall of Fame induction speech to Tom Brady. pic.twitter.com/TckqETAcph
— Sporting News (@sportingnews) August 9, 2021