When Did People Start Using "The Sheriff" As Peyton Manning's Nickname?

All day I’ve been seeing this bullshit on Twitter. “Congrats to The Sheriff on a great career,” and what not. When did this become a thing? Who calls Peyton The Sheriff? Nobody. Nobody in the entire universe calls Peyton Manning, “The Sheriff.” He’s Peyton. You know how I know no one calls him that? Because people still put it in quotes.

I just did the same thing because it felt weird calling him, “The Sheriff,” because it’s not his nickname. So you add quotes around it, as if you’re being sarcastic or something. I mean no one calls Calvin Johnson “Megatron,” he’s just Megatron. No one calls Marshawn Lynch “Beast Mode,” he’s Beast Mode. Because those are actually their nicknames that people call them, it doesn’t feel awkward to say it.

Fact of the matter is that if you don’t have a nickname by the time you enter the draft, then you can’t create one, and you surely can’t create one during the final playoff run of your 18 year career. It’s gotta come organically. Nicknames have to come from your college buddies, or high school locker room in order to actually mean anything. Just like Peyton’s entire life, this whole thing stinks like a commercial marketing ploy. No one calls him The Sheriff and The Sheriff doesn’t even make sense as his nickname. It’s stupid and I’m sick of seeing it this fake, corny nonsense from brands today. Peyton is Peyton, not “The Sheriff.

Update: I guess it was started by Gatorade to sell bottles a few years ago? Perfect.

I guess I take it all back, it is his nickname. Gatorade used all real nicknames for that marketing stunt, I mean who doesn’t call Eli “The Big Easy” or Cam “The Blender”?