The Giants open at Dallas

The Giants open at Dallas Sunday. It’ll be the start of Eli Manning’s 10th season in the NFL, which of course seems impossible.

 Wasn’t it four or five years ago, not nearly a decade, that Manning was standing there on the draft stage in New York, looking like he wanted to be anywhere but there, holding a dark blue No. 1 Chargers jersey, flanked by commissioner Paul Tagliabue and his disapproving parents, Olivia and Archie Manning?

“I didn’t know if San Diego was going to pick me or not until about 10 minutes before the actual draft started,’’ Manning said on the eve of the season, at the Giants’ training facility in the shadow of MetLife Stadium.

 “I’m fortunate that the trade happened. I’m fortunate that it happened quickly also. I think it was about 30 or 45 minutes. Then I was traded to the Giants.’’

The rest is Super Bowl history, of course. Which brings up this point: Eli Manning doesn’t have the kind of annual pressure on him that most quarterbacks—maybe triply for a Tony Romo, his foe Sunday night in Arlington, Texas—have at this time of year. In the last seven seasons, six quarterbacks have won Super Bowls. Manning is the only man in that time to have won two. So it’s a little foolish to say, Eli Manning has to win this year or else. Or else what? Or else you’ll scream for another quarterback to play for the Giants?

Since the debacle of his rookie year, Manning has started every game New York has played—128 in the regular season, 11 in the postseason. In those eight seasons, Manning has never had a losing season. His numbers, compared to the luminous ones compiled by Drew Brees or Matthew Stafford, are meh. (If you call averaging 3,811 yards per season pedestrian.) He has played some stinkers. 

The Pittsburgh and Atlanta losses (23 of 49 combined) last year come to mind. But how many quarterbacks can go into San Francisco and whip the Niners 26-3, which Manning and the Giants did last year? How many can be behind the New England Patriots three straight games at the two-minute warning of the fourth quarter, and lead his team to the winning touchdown drive in the final moments? He did that too. Which is why there are no ultimatums in Eli Manning’s next couple of seasons—at least.


Source: si

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