NEW YORK -- Eli Manning sensed his brother's shadow even as a comedic actor.
"Saturday Night Live" producers invited the New York Giants quarterback to host the show after he won his first Super Bowl in 2008. One of the many reasons he declined was that Peyton Manning had hosted the show a year earlier after his own championship.
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"Peyton had done so well the previous year, I thought it might be a little fresh in everyone's minds," Eli said Wednesday. "I did not want to have to go up against a tough competition and the great job that he performed."
Manning recalled he sent word back that perhaps he'd host if he won another title. Sure enough, he said yes after his second ring and will star in the late-night sketches this Saturday.
"I had not proven myself as much as I wanted to," he said of that initial offer four years ago.
Manning and SNL chief Lorne Michaels took part in a conference call Wednesday, hours before the quarterback would start acting out 40 to 45 skits to whittle down to 12 or 13 to be potentially performed in front of a live television audience.
Eli sat in the audience, laughing along, when Peyton hosted in 2007, an episode that included a memorable sketch lampooning the NFL's United Way commercials. Eli sought his brother's advice before accepting his own invitation.
"The one thing you are used to doing is live -- that's something you do every week during the football season," Peyton told him.
"We know how Eli reacts both under pressure and also with changing things quickly," Michaels said. "I don't think we're making any other kinds of concession because it's an athlete over an actor, comedian or singer -- or politician, for that matter."
Eli said his favorite all-time SNL skit is probably the one in which Chris Farley and Patrick Swayze gyrated as Chippendales dancers. Manning's teammates keep asking about what rehearsals are like, and they're planning their watching parties.
Rihanna is Saturday's musical guest, and Michaels said he'd like to include her in a skit. Asked which Manning brother is funnier, the SNL creator replied, "We won't really know that til Saturday."
Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press
