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

Declare:

Former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning left a gala in a tuxedo to sit down on the ground with a crying 9-year-old boy named Dylan.

Score:

A rumor that customers circulated on-line in Could 2025 advised the story of five-time NFL Most Worthwhile Participant Peyton Manning leaving a black-tie charity gala to sit down on the ground with and luxury a crying 9-year-old boy named Dylan.

For instance, on Could 1, a consumer managing the Magic Clement Fb web page posted (archived) the story, receiving over 343,000 reactions, 16,000 feedback and 29,000 shares. The publish confirmed an image of Manning, who retired from the NFL in 2016, sitting on the ground with a crying boy. The story started, “Peyton Manning Left a Gala in a Tuxedo — Simply to Sit on the Ground With a Crying Child within the Hallway.”

(Magic Clement/Fb)

Customers on Facebook, Instagram and X shared the identical story. One LinkedIn consumer’s post (archived) acquired over 3,000 reactions.

Within the story, the organizers of a black-tie charity occasion invite Manning to talk as a visitor of honor at a ritzy gala attended by rich individuals. Manning steps out of the ballroom and right into a hallway to consolation a crying 9-year-old boy named Dylan, who organizers tasked with introducing Manning. Manning tells him, “It isn’t about excellent phrases. It is about coronary heart. And I heard you’ve got received a giant one.” He then offers Dylan his tie, saying, “Put on this for luck. It has been on some good levels.”

On the finish of the story, Manning says of Dylan, “I assumed I used to be the visitor of honor. However I believe we simply discovered the actual star of the night time.” Dylan then says, “Peyton sat on the ground with me — when nobody else would.”

Whereas it is attainable Manning — or anybody, for that matter — has, previously, comforted an emotional youngster, this particular story displayed a number of evident indicators of inauthenticity.

Particularly, a evaluation of latest posts from the Magic Clement Fb web page discovered at the least dozens, if not a whole bunch, of made-up tales about Manning’s heroism and kindness, to not point out an obvious abundance of free time. A majority of the posts — together with the in-question story — displayed pretend images somebody generated with a number of artificial-intelligence (AI) instruments. Additional, searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo discovered no stories from information media shops protecting the purported act of kindness.

In different phrases, the rumor about Manning comforting a baby named Dylan at a gala was false.

Snopes reached out to a spokesperson for Manning’s official web site, peytonmanning.com, in addition to WME brokers listed on IMDb Pro as his representatives, however we had not acquired replies by the point of publication. A supervisor for the Magic Clement web page additionally didn’t but reply to questions on whether or not they use generative AI instruments to jot down their tales, along with creating pretend images with the instruments.

Analyzing the false Manning rumor

Snopes established a number of information factors to conclude with a false fact-check score. Two of these factors involved the Magic Clement Fb web page’s seemingly countless wall of made-up tales about Manning, in addition to the AI-generated pictures accompanying the posts.

For instance, previous Magic Clement posts featured made-up tales 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. Different fictional tales 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 plenty of others.

These tales all very a lot resembled glurge, which Dictionary.com defines as “tales, typically despatched by e-mail, which are purported to be true and uplifting, however which are sometimes fabricated and mawkish.”

The AI picture detector Sightengine discovered that the picture of Manning and Dylan was possible the product of AI software program, though it displayed no apparent signs of generative AI such because the missing letters and illegible words present in different footage hosted by Magic Clement. Nonetheless, the unnaturally clean look of the picture offered one large clue — a clue noticeable to these skilled to identify AI however maybe to not others.

The low-angle perspective of the supposed photographer additionally prompted the query of why somebody would {photograph} a baby crying on the ground, versus serving to them or just giving the individual some area. A reverse-image search positioned no credible outcomes for a photographer or image-licensing firm internet hosting the picture.

For additional studying, previous reality checks examined claims that Manning calmed a crying baby on a protracted flight, in addition to a story saying he gifted a minivan to a mom.

Sources:

Evon, Dan. “Snopes Ideas: A Information To Performing Reverse Picture 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’ Imply?” Snopes, 21 Aug. 2021, https://www.snopes.com//articles/363643/what-does-glurge-mean/.

Legwold, Jeff. “Manning Fights Again Tears: ‘I Revere Soccer.'” ESPN.com, 7 Mar. 2016, https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/14921369/emotional-peyton-manning-officially-announces-retirement-18-seasons.

“NFL Most Worthwhile Participant: Full Checklist of Winners by Yr.” FOX Sports activities, 6 Feb. 2025, https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/nfl-most-valuable-player-complete-list-winners-year.