Peyton Manning says he agreed to sign a new deal with Adidas, then somehow lost the contract somewhere on the University of Tennessee campus. Now the Hall of Fame quarterback and Tennessee legend is turning the misplaced paperwork into a campus-wide scavenger hunt, with a sponsorship deal waiting for whoever tracks it down.
“I said, yes, of course, and then I lost the contract,” Manning said, according to Yahoo Sports. Sports Illustrated and Yahoo Sports published coverage of the hunt on September 22, 2026, before WVLT published its report on September 23, 2026. Manning is offering an Adidas endorsement deal to whoever finds the missing agreement, with clues, details and official entry information hosted at adidasfindthecontract.com.
Adidas and Manning have kicked off the search across the University of Tennessee campus, according to Sports Illustrated, with the hunt officially set to begin Thursday, September 24. The timing puts the search just days before Tennessee's home football matchup against Texas, per the same report.
What the Winning Student Actually Gets
“You find the contract and you get a contract,” Manning said, per the Yahoo Sports interview. He added that the sponsorship is open to anyone, regardless of athletic background: “even if you've never thrown, kicked, hit, shot, ran, jumped, swam a day in your life, you can be sponsored by Adidas.”
The student who recovers the missing contract will be eligible for season tickets to every Tennessee Volunteers home sporting event, according to the Sports Illustrated piece. The winner will also receive Adidas gear throughout the year via monthly drops, along with styling resources from Dick's Sporting Goods, plus a signing ceremony with Manning himself.
The Bigger Deal Behind the Stunt
The scavenger hunt lands as Adidas settles into its new role as Tennessee Athletics' official footwear, uniform, apparel and sideline partner, a status that Tennessee Athletics confirmed began with a 10-year agreement in 2026. Adidas has signed contracts with Tennessee athletes as part of that partnership, which is set to bring Name, Image and Likeness opportunities to student-athletes across all 20 of the university's varsity programs, according to SGB Online.
Adidas replaced Nike as Tennessee's athletic outfitter effective July 1, 2026, under that decade-long deal, and the company had already begun working with a “myriad” of UT student-athletes on NIL opportunities ahead of the launch, according to WKRN. The first custom jerseys from the new arrangement debuted on the field during Tennessee soccer's exhibition match at Clemson on August 5, the station reported.
It marks a return for Adidas to Manning's alma mater, where the brand previously served as Tennessee's official apparel provider from 1995 to 2014 before the two sides reunited this year. For Manning, the scavenger hunt gives that reunion a personal, and slightly absurd, campus-wide twist: a lost contract, a hidden clue trail, and a real sponsorship waiting for whichever Tennessee student stumbles onto it first.
