Luke Combs Breaks Down Iconic Photo With Peyton Manning From 2023 CMA Awards: “No Telling What State Either Of Us Are In”

The full story behind the iconic photo.

Back in 2023, NFL legend Peyton Manning co-hosted the CMA Awards with Luke Bryan, and that night, Luke Combs took home Single of the Year with his cover of “Fast Car” and helped Tracy Chapman make history with the song, leading her to win Song of the Year, making her the first Black songwriter to win the CMA Song of the Year trophy.

He also received the CMA International Artist Achievement Award that year, but it was a viral photo of Luke with Manning well after the show was over that got a lot of attention.

In a photo dump on Instagram, it was a selfie with Peyton Manning that took the internet by storm, as Luke looked less-than-thrilled in the picture, while Peyton couldn’t be more excited. It’s a funny contrast, and if you scroll to #9 in the post, you can see it there:

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Last night, Luke appeared on ESPN’s alternative ManningCast broadcast with Peyton and Eli Manning, which started in 2021 on ESPN2, and has been a big hit among football fans. Luke is a huge Panthers fan, and seeing as the Carolina Panthers and San Francisco 49ers were facing off on Monday Night Football, he was the perfect guest for the show (I don’t want to talk about the end result of the game).

They of course chatted football, and even showed a photo I’ve never seen before of Luke from his college days playing rugby, where he joked about his football dreams and how in high school, he had planned to be the “Kyle Juszczyk of Western North Carolina.”

I mean, it has a nice ring to it…

They joked that, while he didn’t become an NFL star, it’s all worked out for him in the long run, and Eli had producers pull up that iconic CMA Awards photo of Luke and Peyton, saying he knows how “awful” it is to hang out with his brother, adding that the picture “says it all:”

“Look how excited he is, how miserable you look to be hanging out with him. Like, who is this guy? He’s trying to sing with me, probably.”

Luke joked that it was “absolutely dreadful,” and he also pointed out that he definitely took the picture on his phone, and he pointed out that he has no idea “what state” either of them were in when it was taken in the wee hours of the morning (it looks like they were at Losers), so that certainly would explain the very funny expressions on both of their faces:

“Absolutely dreadful, there… I definitely took that picture, by the way. That’s definitely from my phone, for sure. So I was definitely texting that to someone. In what state either of us are in that picture, there’s no telling. That was probably 1 or 2 AM spot there.”

There you have it… the full story behind that great selfie.

Luke also talked plenty of football with the Manning brothers, but let’s just say, I think both Luke and I are very disappointed about the outcome and it’s a little too soon to get into that…

@nguyensenah_01Luke_Combs_joins_Peyton___Eli_during_Panthers_vs__49ers__MNF_ManningCast__Part_6♬ original sound – LiuKang

The post Luke Combs Breaks Down Iconic Photo With Peyton Manning From 2023 CMA Awards: “No Telling What State Either Of Us Are In” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.