Phil Mickelson is taking the 'ManningCast Curse' seriously: 'That's why I'm not playing next week'

Phil Mickelson isn’t going to fall victim to the “ManningCast Curse.”

Mickelson, one day after winning the Charles Schwab Cup Championship on the PGA Tour Champions in Arizona, made an appearance with Peyton and Eli Manning on ESPN2 during the San Francisco 49ers' blowout 31-10 win over the Los Angeles Rams on Monday night.

The rumored “ManningCast Curse,” he said, is a very real thing — which is why he’s taking a break from golf just to be sure he isn’t the next victim.

“No, I believe that it is a thing, and that’s why I’m not playing next week,” Mickelson said. “I didn’t know if it would carry over to golf or not. I think it’s real.”

Better safe than sorry.

Is the Manning curse real?

So far, the curse seems to have just impacted active NFL players.

Six players have appeared on the ManningCast this season with Peyton and Eli — Travis Kelce, Russell Wilson, Rob Gronkowski, Matthew Stafford, Tom Brady and Josh Allen — and every one of them lost the following week.

Though it’s tough to logically connect the two, a perfect 6-for-6 is a hard thing to argue with.

So while Mickelson is taking next week off, he doesn’t actually have any other PGA Tour commitments left in 2021. As he just competed in Arizona on Sunday, he wasn’t going to make the jump back to the Tour for the RSM Classic this week.

So he wasn’t playing anyway.

Mickelson has now won four times in six appearances on the PGA Tour Champions to go with his 45 wins on Tour. His next appearance won’t likely be until January at the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii at the earliest — something he qualified for after winning the PGA Championship.

Lefty had plenty of other highlights during his ManningCast appearance on Monday. He had some golf tips for Eli’s “cute” swing, and even tried to pit the two against each other at one point.

He also had a great reason for why he stuck with golf instead of football.