That cool, spontaneous Peyton Manning keep-away game? It was planned

Peyton Manning is one of the best quarterbacks ever to play in the NFL. But he's also just a regular dude -- and in that spirit, some of his receivers decided to have a bit of spontaneous fun with the guy at one of the biggest moments of his career.

Or so we were led to believe.

Manning broke Brett Favre's all-time record for touchdown passes Sunday night, hooking up with Demaryius Thomas from eight yards out. When Manning went to retrieve the ball from Thomas, the receiver tossed the keepsake to fellow receiver Emmanuel Sanders.

From there, a game of keep-away broke out, with receivers Wes Welker and Julius Thomas also getting involved and their hapless, record-setting quarterback chasing his prize from guy to guy.

What fun! What hilarity! What hijinks!

What a crock!

Here's what Demaryius Thomas told reporters after the game:

Manning never fully admitted to staging the shenanigans, instead continuing to ham it up when discussing it after the game.

"I can't believe they actually did it," he said. "We sort of joked about it during the week. I'm a little bit hurt by the fact that they could do that – that they're kind of picking on me. I've lost my vertical leap. It's not there anymore. My side-to-side agility is not quite as quick."

Manning has been very successful in maintaining a down-to-earth, regular-guy image despite being one of the NFL's all-time greats. It's hard to even look at the guy without thinking, "Aw, shucks!"

That's why the keep-away game seemed so cool at first.

Now it just seems lame.