Peyton Manning is forsaking his Tennessee legacy to root for Arch and the Horns over the Vols

"Nothing's more important important than your family."

That's all it took for the Texas Longhorns to realize they would have legendary Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning on their side as they took on his former team, the Volunteers, this season.

Manning was asked what the inter-SEC rivalry was like in the family, with him playing for Tennessee, his dad and brother Eli playing for Ole Miss, and now Arch playing for the Horns. He shared that while he always roots for his Vols, family supersedes all of that.

"I love my University and my alma mater; I root for them unconditionally, but nothing's more important to me than my family," Manning said. "When you have a nephew playing, I pull very hard for him every Saturday."

Manning was a consensus All-American while at Tennessee and was named as the 1998 SEC Male Athlete of the Year. The Volunteers have since retired his jersey No. 16, and he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2017.

However, just like many of the rest of us, football can only amount to so much importance when compared to your own family.

"That's pretty much a no-brainer that you're pulling for your nephew to play well," Manning concluded. "But like I said, everybody knows pretty strongly where my loyalties lie on all other Saturdays."

Texas vs. Tennessee isn't the only time the Manning family could be divided

This weekend, Arch Manning and the Horns are set to travel to Knoxville to take on the Vols in Texas's first SEC game of the season. Then, just a few weeks later, they will play the Ole Miss Rebels, the former team of Manning's other uncle, Eli, and his grandfather, Archie.

The SEC blood runs deep through this family, but the former schools and teams don't matter quite as much to them as they do to each other. At least, for this week.

We haven't seen Eli or Archie comment on what it will be like to see their nephew and grandson suit up against their Rebels, but one could pretty easily assume they'll have similar views to those of Peyton.

Of course, the eldest of Archie's sons, Cooper, is Arch's dad, and pulls for him from the stands every Saturday as the current Longhorn QB suits up in burnt orange every weekend.

Cooper was also supposed to attend and play football at Ole Miss, where he received an athletic scholarship to play wide receiver and follow in his father's footsteps as a Rebel. However, he was diagnosed with spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spine that leads to pinched nerves, and he was never able to take the field for one of this family's beloved teams.

Arch is the first of this third generation of Manning football stars to take the field at the collegiate level, and while his grandfather and uncle may root for a different team than him most Saturdays, they are always pulling for him to do well.

That much will even be true as he takes on Peyton's beloved Volunteers this Saturday.

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