Fact Check: Story about Peyton Manning leaving ritzy gala in tuxedo to comfort crying boy named Dylan is fiction

Yahoo

07-05-2025

Claim:
Former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning left a gala in a tuxedo to sit on the floor with a crying 9-year-old boy named Dylan.
Rating:
Rating: False
A rumor that users circulated online in May 2025 told the story of five-time NFL Most Valuable Player Peyton Manning leaving a black-tie charity gala to sit on the floor with and comfort a crying 9-year-old boy named Dylan.
For example, on May 1, a user managing the Magic Clement Facebook page posted (archived) the story, receiving over 343,000 reactions, 16,000 comments and 29,000 shares. The post showed a picture of Manning, who retired from the NFL in 2016, sitting on the floor with a crying boy. The story began, "Peyton Manning Left a Gala in a Tuxedo — Just to Sit on the Floor With a Crying Kid in the Hallway."
(Magic Clement/Facebook)
Users on Facebook, Instagram and X shared the same story. One LinkedIn user's post (archived) received over 3,000 reactions.
In the story, the organizers of a black-tie charity event invite Manning to speak as a guest of honor at a ritzy gala attended by wealthy people. Manning steps out of the ballroom and into a hallway to comfort a crying 9-year-old boy named Dylan, who organizers tasked with introducing Manning. Manning tells him, "It's not about perfect words. It's about heart. And I heard you've got a big one." He then gives Dylan his tie, saying, "Wear this for luck. It's been on some good stages."
At the end of the story, Manning says of Dylan, "I thought I was the guest of honor. But I think we just found the real star of the night." Dylan then says, "Peyton sat on the floor with me — when no one else would."
While it's possible Manning — or anyone, for that matter — has, in the past, comforted an emotional child, this specific story displayed several glaring signs of inauthenticity.
Namely, a review of recent posts from the Magic Clement Facebook page found at least dozens, if not hundreds, of made-up stories about Manning's heroism and kindness, not to mention an apparent abundance of free time. A majority of the posts — including the in-question story — displayed fake photos someone generated with one or more artificial-intelligence (AI) tools. Further, searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo found no reports from news media outlets covering the purported act of kindness.
In other words, the rumor about Manning comforting a child named Dylan at a gala was false.
Snopes reached out to a spokesperson for Manning's official website, peytonmanning.com, as well as WME agents listed on IMDb Pro as his representatives, but we had not received replies by the time of publication. A manager for the Magic Clement page also did not yet respond to questions about whether they use generative AI tools to write their stories, in addition to creating fake photos with the tools.
Examining the false Manning rumor
Snopes established multiple data points to conclude with a false fact-check rating. Two of those points concerned the Magic Clement Facebook page's seemingly endless wall of made-up stories about Manning, as well as the AI-generated images accompanying the posts.
For example, past Magic Clement posts featured made-up stories of Manning leaving a gala to encourage a 22-year-old man to never give up, saving a lost dog in the rain, helping an elderly woman with groceries in the rain and walking in the rain to deliver a medal to a grieving veteran. Other fictional stories alleged Manning comforted a crying teenager at a bus stop, a crying janitor at an airport, a bullied boy at his house, a crying boy at a cemetery, a woman crying outside a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and many others.
These stories all very much resembled glurge, which Dictionary.com defines as "stories, often sent by email, that are supposed to be true and uplifting, but which are often fabricated and sentimental."
The AI image detector Sightengine found that the photo of Manning and Dylan was likely the product of AI software, even though it displayed no obvious signs of generative AI such as the missing letters and illegible words found in other pictures hosted by Magic Clement. However, the unnaturally smooth appearance of the image provided one big clue — a clue noticeable to those trained to spot AI but perhaps not to others.
The low-angle perspective of the supposed photographer also prompted the question of why someone would photograph a child crying on the floor, as opposed to helping them or simply giving the person some space. A reverse-image search located no credible results for a photographer or image-licensing company hosting the photo.
For further reading, past fact checks examined claims that Manning calmed a crying baby on a long flight, as well as a tale saying he gifted a minivan to a mother.
Sources:
Evon, Dan. "Snopes Tips: A Guide To Performing Reverse Image Searches." Snopes, 22 Mar. 2022, https://www.snopes.com//articles/400681/how-to-perform-reverse-image-searches/.
"Glurge." Dictionary.com, https://www.dictionary.com/browse/glurge.
Huberman, Bond, and David Emery. "Snopestionary: What Does 'Glurge' Mean?" Snopes, 21 Aug. 2021, https://www.snopes.com//articles/363643/what-does-glurge-mean/.
Legwold, Jeff. "Manning Fights Back Tears: 'I Revere Football.'" ESPN.com, 7 Mar. 2016, https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/14921369/emotional-peyton-manning-officially-announces-retirement-18-seasons.
"NFL Most Valuable Player: Complete List of Winners by Year." FOX Sports, 6 Feb. 2025, https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/nfl-most-valuable-player-complete-list-winners-year.