<\/p>\n
Ellen Manning isn’t in the spotlight anywhere as much as her husband Cooper or his more famous\u00a0brothers Peyton and Eli, but her son and Texas quarterback Arch Manning has credited his mother for his speed. Now, mother and son will star in a new commercial for Humann.<\/p>\n
John Adams\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images<\/p>\n
AUSTIN\u00a0\u2014 In terms of celebrity and exposure, Ellen Manning may be the least of the Manning family.<\/p>\n
Which is just the way the feisty, strong-willed 57-year-old mother of Arch Manning<\/a> wanted it.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n But don\u2019t think just because she prefers to lead her life in the shadows of the most celebrated family in all of college and pro football<\/a> that she\u2019s just simply the mother of talent.<\/p>\n That\u2019s because the extroverted wife of Cooper Manning and mother of three is loaded with talent.<\/p>\n She\u2019ll showcase some of her skills by revealing her acting chops with her famous son Arch in a national commercial touting health and supplement company Humann\u2019s partnership with the University of Texas.<\/p>\n The 32-second spot will air this weekend in conjunction with the Longhorns\u2019 rivalry game with Oklahoma<\/a> on Saturday afternoon at the Cotton Bowl and run through the end of the year.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cIt was the first chance I\u2019ve ever had to do something like that with my mom, and it was a lot of fun,\u201d Arch said. \u201cShe was awesome. Definitely a natural in front of the camera! Hopefully we\u2019ll get to do something like it again.\u201d<\/p>\n Because it supports a good cause and promotes a health care product with cardiovascular benefits that both she and Arch use, she\u2019s all-in on this venture.<\/p>\n \u201cArch usually does everything with Coop,\u201d Ellen said in a rare interview recently. \u201cThey do the Warby Parker and some other stuff. He loves it, and he\u2019s funny and all that. Coop\u2019s a whore for the camera. So I kind of take the backseat.\u201d<\/p>\n Well, she can kiss that goodbye because she will be front and center with her oldest son in a spot about serving SuperBeets Heart Chews at a tailgating party filmed at Royal-Memorial Stadium on a ridiculously hot August day. There\u2019s even a funny jersey swap involving Christopher Davis,\u00a0Humann\u2019s chief cardiologist who founded Reveal Vitality in Sarasota, Fla.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n AnnMarie Kocher, president and co-founder of Humann along with her husband Joel, relished the opportunity to partner with the Mannings to send a message to women who too often neglect their self-care. As a mother with seven grandkids, she wanted Ellen to help tell their story.<\/p>\n \u201cWomen are always the buyers for their families,\u201d Kocher said. \u201cThey take care of their families. They multi-task. Yet they typically don\u2019t take care of themselves. I was very guilty of that myself before we started this company. It actually has tremendous adverse affects on women and silently and earlier than men, so people don\u2019t even realize there\u2019s women out there at much greater risk than men.\u201d<\/p>\n Kocher was drawn to the Mannings after she heard an interview Arch gave when he credited his mother with bestowing him with his speed. \u201cIt just touched my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n Ellen Manning, a former volleyball standout and lawyer, shares her own story and a message about women’s health in a new commercial for Humann with her son Arch, better known as Texas’\u00a0QB.<\/p>\n Courtesy Humann<\/p>\n Ellen Manning isn\u2019t used to the limelight, but she\u2019s no stranger to sports. That was just one of her many talents.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n She was a terrific volleyball player, playing middle blocker and winning a state championship for the Academy of Sacred Heart and getting inducted into that school\u2019s hall of fame in 2015.<\/p>\n She was offered college scholarships to continue playing but chose not to play. Well, her father arranged a tryout for her at Virginia, and she made the team but quit two days later. \u201cI discovered that the fraternity scene was a little bit more fun than getting up at six in the morning for a three-mile run. So I hung up my knee pads.\u201d<\/p>\n She worked as a civil defense attorney for a New Orleans law firm for six years.<\/p>\n And she was actually a thespian in high school.<\/p>\n She sang in \u201cGodspell.\u201d She acted in plays like \u201cPicnic\u201d and the musical \u201cThe Fantasticks.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Like more than half of the 550 Longhorn athletes, Arch has used the product SuperBeets since arriving in Austin. He regularly uses it in powder form 15 minutes before a game or practice. Ellen has incorporated it into her daily regimen as well about a year ago to enhance her energy level.<\/p>\n Football coach Steve Sarkisian has said he uses the product. So does Jerritt Elliott and his volleyball players.<\/p>\n \u201cAll of them,\u201d Elliott said.<\/p>\n Joel Kocher is a former athlete who played junior college basketball at Daytona Beach College, and\u00a0AnnMarie was once the No. 2-ranked tennis player in Florida as a high school senior. All three of their sons are athletes. One, Michael, was a golfer at Texas before transferring to Purdue.<\/p>\n Joel Kocher filmed a sequence for Humann with two-time Women\u2019s College World Series Most Outstanding Pitcher Teagan Kavan<\/a> in which he batted against her. Or attempted to.<\/p>\n \u201cI kept hearing about the velocity of softball pitchers,\u201d Joel said. \u201cI wanted to experience it myself. I wanted her to bring the heat. Oh my God.\u201d<\/p>\n She threw him three pitches, best he could remember. He wasn\u2019t sure he even saw them.<\/p>\n Kocher\u2019s also gone to Texas women\u2019s basketball practices and took shots with then-Longhorn guard Rori Harmon<\/a>. He\u2019s yet to stand in the pocket and experience being sacked by Colin Simmons<\/a> because, well, he is interested in maintaining his health.<\/p>\n Humann sells its products to support healthy blood pressure, improve circulation and lower cholesterol to more than 2,000 colleges and pro teams across all sports.<\/p>\n As part of a multi-year partnership with Texas<\/a> paying the school \u201chigh seven figures,\u201d the company\u2019s logo has been added to all Longhorn playing surfaces from Royal-Memorial Stadium to Disch-Falk Field. Humann proudly claims it\u2019s one of the only known health service industry companies to team up with a college athletic department.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was like the game-changer,\u201d Joel said. \u201cBut it could have been State Farm or a bank. It\u2019s my understanding that most schools are literally putting a different name on every playing surface. Two have insurance logos. Georgia promotes Delta Airlines. Vanderbilt has an insurance company. Arkansas has two names on its field\u00a0\u2014 WalMart and Tyson Foods.\u201d<\/p>\n Texas also sports Truist\u2019s logo as its official bank sponsor.<\/p>\n Ellen Manning at first shrugged off the project when she was first approached.<\/p>\n \u201cI was like, I don\u2019t need the attention. I\u2019m good,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m the mom behind the scenes, and I sort of forgot about it.\u201d<\/p>\n When Humann approached her again, she relented.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m to the point where if I go to lunch with my girlfriends, the two topics we discuss ad nauseam are menopause and supplements,\u201d Ellen said. \u201cHonestly, I just feel like it gives me a lot of energy, and I just feel better.\u201d<\/p>\n Arch\u2019s mug can be frequently seen in national ads and has long been known for his dry, deadpan sense of humor and funny wit when he chooses to share it.<\/p>\n He was asked Monday about his promos for Warby Parker eyeglasses, and he took it in stride.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a great question. I think my Warby Parker glasses really help my vision,\u201d he said in his official spokesman-like tone.<\/p>\n So how did Arch rate his mom\u2019s acting?<\/p>\n \u201cActually, Arch was very surprised at how well I did,\u201d Ellen said, chuckling. \u201cAnd I was a little bit offended.\u201d<\/p>\n Arch has befriended local acting legend Matthew McConaughey<\/a>. Ellen said he has \u201csneaked over\u201d to Mr. All Right\u2019s house for an occasional dinner to escape the fishbowl existence he\u2019s survived. He\u2019s tossed the football around with McConaughey\u2019s kids.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s just a little bit of normalcy for him,\u201d Ellen said.<\/p>\n For a long time, the Mannings appreciated that the world of Peyton and Eli Manning hadn\u2019t engulfed them as well.<\/p>\n \u201cWe would always look at each other and say thank goodness we\u2019re on the fringe of all that,\u201d she said. \u201cWe get to go the Super Bowls and cheer and fly on the private planes, but that\u2019s not us. We\u2019d come back to New Orleans and we are normal, and then all of a sudden, this one kid kicks us into the center of the spotlight, and it\u2019s been an adjustment. I think our skin gets thicker by the week. I\u2019m very proud of how Arch has handled this.\u201d<\/p>\n Arch has tried to detach himself from the constant exposure. He\u2019s logged off social media platforms. He\u2019s tried not to read much about himself.<\/p>\n That said, he is thrust continually into the limelight whether he\u2019s labeled the biggest flop in college football<\/a> by The Athletic or he\u2019s ridiculed for laughing about a fake AI video and had to apologize<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ellen called the uproar over Arch\u2019s reaction to the fake video that showed\u00a0Sarkisian slapping Holly Rowe \u201chorrible,\u201d but didn\u2019t want to elaborate.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody has a platform, and not everybody\u2019s nice,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd none of it matters honestly. That one (calling him a flop) hurt, but I think the backlash (supporting Arch) was nice.\u201d<\/p>\n Ellen acknowledge\u2019s she\u2019s much more emotive than her husband when it comes to watching Arch perform.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m definitely the more vocal and emotional watcher,\u201d she said. \u201cCoop tends to get real quiet and nervous. Head-in-his-hands type of thing. And I go \u2018You can\u2019t do that. The camera\u2019s on you. You have to smile.\u2019 \u2018<\/p>\n Ellen repeated an oft-mentioned incident when Arch once said he wanted to be a really good football player but didn\u2019t want to be famous. His brother, Heid, a former high school tight end who is a junior business major at Texas, said, \u201cWell, then keep your helmet on the whole time. Then nobody will know who you are.\u201d<\/p>\n Pending reviews of her acting, she doesn\u2019t think she and Cooper plan to move to Hollywood any time soon to pursue an acting career full-time.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve had many opportunities to move to Hollywood with Coop,\u201d she said, \u201cand we\u2019ve turned them all down.\u201d<\/p>\n The commercial spot may have whet her appetite a bit, but there are no current plans for a second.<\/p>\n \u201cNo. I\u2019m going to have to fight Coop over the microphone,\u201d Ellen said. \u201cBut it\u2019s fun for me to do something with Arch. If nothing else, then kind of for posterity\u2019s sake. We\u2019ll look back at this and have a chuckle that we did this when he was in college.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ellen Manning isn’t in the spotlight anywhere as much as her husband Cooper or his more famous\u00a0brothers Peyton…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-457969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n