Jon Gruden tells Peyton Manning Sheriff story at Tennessee

The best part of the trip happened in a lounge, not on the field. Gruden got a tour of the Tennessee football facility, ended up in the room honoring Manning and told the story behind the nickname.

Jon Gruden

@BarstoolGruden

I got to see The Peyton Manning Room in the Tennessee Football Facility! Did you know how he got his nickname 'The Sheriff'?

In Gruden's telling, it started as a pregame bit on Monday Night Football. He had a sheriff's hat and a line to go with it: the sheriff always gets his man. Late in a Colts-Dolphins game, Manning hit a receiver on a quick screen that went for a touchdown, and Gruden called back to the bit on the spot. The name never went away. The punchline is pure Gruden: somebody else started selling Sheriff t-shirts, and he never saw a dime. That game was the 2009 Colts-Dolphins Monday nighter, in Gruden's first season in the ESPN booth, and the rest of the crew picked up the nickname right after he said it.

So the nickname that followed Manning to Denver, onto the Manningcast and into every 'Omaha' impression got its start with Gruden. And he told the story in a room full of framed photos of Manning from his Tennessee days. Gruden's own Vols roots go back to the 1985-86 season, when he was a graduate assistant in Knoxville. He met his wife Cindy, a UT cheerleader, there too. That's why he keeps calling himself a 40-year Vol.

Saturday night's game gave him plenty to cheer about. Tennessee led 13-6 in the third quarter and then ran away from Kentucky, finishing at 34-6. Gruden spent part of it at the field wall in Vols gear, looking up at a full Neyland.

Jon Gruden

@BarstoolGruden

There isn’t a better scene in college football. Neyland Stadium.

He told reporters afterward that the place was rocking so hard he still had a headache. He had also helped make the noise. Gruden sang Rocky Top from the sideline, and by his own account he knows every word except the crowd's 'Woo!' He also points out that nobody was doing that part back when he was on staff.

Jon Gruden

@BarstoolGruden

I absolutely LOVE Rocky Top! Still working on the ‘Woo!’ part, though…

Then there was the moment a 40-year fan had been waiting for. Before kickoff, Gruden came out of the tunnel and finally met Smokey, the Vols' bluetick coonhound, for the first time.

Jon Gruden

@BarstoolGruden

I've been a Tennessee Vol for 40 years and had never gotten to meet the man himself until this weekend. I love you, Smokey!

Gruden's College Road Trip already worked as a format, with a coach going full Gruden at a different campus each week. Tennessee is different because he really is a Vol, and it shows. He gave away the origin of one of the NFL's best-known nicknames, sang the fight song and got a dog to make him emotional, all on a night his team won by 28. The full episode is out now. The only question left is whether he can learn the 'Woo!' before he comes back.