EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Jay Z and 50 Cent had better watch out. The rap world has a couple of wigged-out new stars -- E-Z and $17.5-Mil.
Haven't heard of them? Well, they're a little more well-known on the football field.
Quarterbacks and Super Bowl MVPs Eli and Peyton Manning burst onto the music scene this week with a three-minute rap video in which they promote "Football On Your Phone" for DirectTV.
The commercial starts out with the Mannings sitting in barber chairs, wearing wigs that mimicked hair styles of the 1960s and '70s. Eli has a frizzy, curly-haired mop and Peyton wore a straight, long-hair wig worthy of any rocker.
"Peyton and I had fun doing the skit," Eli said Wednesday before practice. "Obviously (we) got a lot of laughs together just every time we would kind of look at each other and wonder what we were doing."
The brothers filmed the humorous commercial in one day in their native New Orleans, extolling the value of watching football games on a phone, joking at one point that someone actually was using their phone as a phone.
Eli was amazed by the popularity of the music.
"I guess the song is a little catchy," Eli said. "A few guys going to the cafeteria line, and they don't even know I am behind them and they are humming the song or the words. If I hear, I say, 'I think it's got you.'
"That song gets stuck in your head all day. They are kind of just going around signing the song every once a while."
The good news for Jay Z and 50 Cent is that Eli isn't looking for another gig.
"No. I think I will stay with my day job and keep playing football for long as possible," he said. "A one and done. A one-hit wonder probably."
With the Denver Broncos scheduled to play a preseason game at San Francisco on Thursday, Peyton was not available for comment Wednesday.
Broncos executive vice president John Elway saw the video and enjoyed the Mannings' performance.
"Great video," Elway said. "But I will tell him today to stick to his day job."
Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press
