Source: Denver Post

Sure, it's mildly stunning to watch the star hosts of the high-profile football camp bring 'em in, deliver instruction, exhort encouragement, get sweaty with the drills and put in 18-hour days.

Parents of all status, race, religion and income would be staggered to watch 1,200 teenagers, from eighth-graders to high school seniors, obediently gather in the middle of the field to intently listen, with nary a word of back talk, at the wisdom espoused by whoever the man in the middle may be. College football fanatics across the country would be amazed by the group of instructors, including the quarterback likes of Andrew Luck and Landry Jones last year, and Matt Barkley, Tyler Wilson and A.J. McCarron this year.

The most impressive aspect of the Manning Passing Academy, though, might be that Archie, Peyton, Eli and Cooper — not in that order, mind you — share a dorm room for three nights on the Nicholls State University campus.

OK, so it's a dorm suite. But Peyton and Eli, the babies of the Manning family, are in one room and Archie and Cooper, the dad and big brother, are in the other. They have an open-door policy for teenage participants and coaches to come in and talk football in their suite.

"We're right in the middle of it with all the campers," said Peyton Manning, the Broncos' first-year quarterback. "We've been doing this for 17 years now. It's something that always brings me back to Louisiana, which is always special to give back to the Louisiana area. And I love talking football with these college kids and high school kids, but I always love having a chance to hang out with Eli and Cooper and my dad. We're all very close."

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