Despite a lackluster final season, the great quarterback Peyton Manning earned a second Super Bowl ring. It was a well-deserved reward on top of a magnificent career for a great sportsman, leader, role model, and emblem of football.

Manning’s all-American appeal, however, encouraged Madison Avenue to cast him in commercials for numerous advertisers, including DirecTV, Papa John’s Pizza, Nationwide, Oreos, Sprint, Nerf, MasterCard, and Gatorade — to name a few.

Manning, and other football players like Aaron Rodgers, work best in small bits.

It thus appears Manning may be considering acting as his next career. ABC announced he will appear in a January episode of “Modern Family” — playing a coach. This wouldn’t be his first TV appearance, having appeared before, hosting “Saturday Night Live” in 2007, and taking several other smaller roles.

As much as America loves Peyton, though, it might be best if he didn’t quit his day job, whatever that might be these days.

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There is no question Manning has an affable charm, can deliver a one-liner with panache, and has a famous face. But it takes much more. As director Brett Ratner told TMZ in an ambush interview, he would never cast Manning in a movie because “he’s not an actor.”

Manning, and other football players like Aaron Rodgers, work best in small bits.

That’s because trained actors can operate across a broad range of emotion and style. The best actors have nuance, they bring something magical to their craft, and they take the material and elevate it to a whole other level. Actors, like all artists, seek truth in what they do.

One might characterize Manning as more of a performer. First, he requires a script that is actually funny within the context of the world it presents. One reason the Nationwide commercials work, where he is in a diner after his retirement and everyone speaks in the melody of the Nationwide jingle, is because of the very fact that he is retired and all he does now is commercials. How very “meta.”

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Second, he has to have a good director.

The value of a director, especially one who knows comedy, cannot be underestimated. An actor can have the funniest line ever written — but if it is delivered poorly, without the proper word emphasis, or lacking in timing, or if the actor doesn’t understand why the line is funny, or the context of the line, it could come off as wooden, and fall flat.

Thus, when Manning delivers a line, he’s ideally been coached as to exactly how that line is delivered. Clearly, he has that coaching and may even have his own sense of comedic timing to deliver these single lines well.

Third, a performer has to be able to string many lines together, as well as reactions, to truly become useful in a part. Commercials in general are cut so that actors generally only deliver a sentence or two at a time. Guys like Manning, much as we love him, are not going to be able to deliver a Shakespearean monologue.

Manning will do just fine in commercials, and as the occasional walk-on. Hey, he may surprise us all with a great performance in “Modern Family.” He shouldn’t feel bad, though. Forbes magazine reports Manning makes $15 million a year in endorsements. If acting is truly his passion, he can afford to set up his own studio.