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Eli Manning got a chance to see Glen Powell‘s football skills well before the Top Gun: Maverick star wanted to adapt his ESPN skit into the new Hulu comedy series, Chad Powers. Needless to say, the NFL star was not extremely impressed with what he saw.
Powell and Manning paid a visit to The View where Powell revealed Manning criticized his throwing skills after seeing that iconic beach scene in Top Gun: Maverick.
“Eli and Peyton [Manning] sort of broke down my entire throwing arm, especially after they saw me in Top Gun: Maverick,” Powell said during Friday’s (Oct. 3) broadcast. “There’s like a dog fight football in Top Gun: Maverick and the first thing Eli said was, ‘You can play chad but we got to work on your throw. Like Top Gun: Maverick, it didn’t look so good.”
The anecdote made the co-hosts laugh as Powell revealed he told Eli, “You’ve never thrown a ball covered in coconut oil. Top Gun: Maverick is all about the flexing.”
The View host Sara Haines pointed out that the audience was not paying attention to the football game taking place in that iconic scene.
“It’s not really about the football. As a fan, I can say that’s not why we’re watching,” she said.
Powell and the Manning brothers teamed up on the new comedy series, which follows a disgraced college football star who tries to resurrect his dreams by disguising himself as Chad Powers — a talented oddball who walks onto the struggling South Georgia Catfish. The Manning brothers both serve as executive producers on the series and apparently helped Powell with his throwing skills so he could play the hotshot quarterback.
Haines then asked Eli if he and his brother felt they “could work with” Powell’s existing football skills when they began working on Chad Powers.
“I saw there was potential in the throwing,” Eli responded. “Once he explained the coconut oil, I said okay now that makes more sense.”
Eli said he reviewed some early footage of Powell’s throwing. “There’s definitely some athletic ability here, just got to fine tune some things,” he said.
Haines then joked that the former Giants QB joked could have been Powell’s “body double” in Chad Powers for the football scenes, to which Eli joked that he also could have done the same for Top Gun: Maverick since they have “very similar bodies.
“You could have put me in the top gun scene I would have fit right in,” he joked.
Chad Powers is streaming now on Hulu, with new episodes airing every Tuesday.