Peyton Manning, Broncos Ran Winning Plays on Cougar Field

Peyton Manning's walk-through practice at Cougar Field apparently served him well.

Before the Denver Broncos quarterback beat his brother, Eli Manning, and the New York Giants 41-23 Sunday in East Rutherford, Peyton Manning and his teammates ran their plays on Chatham Cougars turf.

The Broncos conducted a walk-through practice Saturday afternoon at Cougar Field on Shunpike Road in Chatham, where Chatham High School's football team plays.

School district business administrator Peter Daquila on Monday confirmed the team practiced there. He said the Broncos contacted the district about the possibility of using the field in the spring, and then checked in again with district about a week before the game. The team requested utmost secrecy, he said.

Arranging secret practice fields for away games is one way teams can deal with concerns about other teams spying on them.

Some onlookers caught wind of what was happening in Chatham, and snapped and shared photos on Twitter, including one of three Academy buses lined up at the field and one of players on the field captioned "What up Peyton manning."

Daquila said the NFL team agreed to pay standard use fee overtime charges for having a district employee on site during the practice.

"We saw the players get off the buses and then we were asked to leave," said Steph Viscovich, one of the people who glimpsed the team's arrival at Cougar Field.