Super Bowl XLII Live Online

Eli Manning is too inconsistent. Eli is too erratic. Eli is not emotional enough. He always has the same smirk on his face, and he just does not care. Eli has the wrong mechanics. He does not set his feet right. Young Manning is too up and down to ever succeed, he has bad film habits, he is not a hard enough worker.

Sound familiar? This is just a select few of the daily opinions I’ve found about the Giants’ quarterback from the last two seasons. Now how about this one: Eli Manning leads the New York Giants to Super Bowl XLII.

'Manning has been ripped apart by the NY fans and the media. Does that remind you of somebody?'


What gives? Suddenly I’m reading just how exceptional this kid is. How he has turned the corner. How he managed to finally grasp the essence of the NFL game, and how the game has slowed down for him.

In essence most of this is true. He is a 4th year quarterback in the NFL, so he is still improving. At the same time don’t you ever say Eli has just arrived, because he’s always been there. I wrote a piece on Eli in 2006 entitled New York Giants' Eli Manning: Great hope or scapegoat?

Eli’s Giants just accomplished the dubious feat of losing 21-24 after being up 21-0. Eli threw two costly interceptions that helped the Titans in their comeback. That article was a result of how everyone in the media suddenly thought Eli was a bust. At the time he was a second year QB playing in his first season as a full-time starter. The conclusion of that piece was: Eli is a cool kid, who will not be rattled by all the hoopla surrounding him, and he will be just fine.

This is not meant to be a piece blabbing on about how “I told you so” but you do have to admit that there were signs that Eli was going to be a good player. Those were the signs showing that he had “arrived.” His recent post season perfection is more of a sign that he has settled in.

To me, Eli Manning “arrived” in Week 2 of the 2006 season, when he led a magic comeback in Philadelphia, against the Eagles. He embraced the no huddle offense to get the Giants an improbable win after being down by 17 points. Eli was flawless in those drives. He made a believer out of me, as his poise was on display for the first time. I did not think much of last year’s late season collapse. He is still a young QB. He will have ups and downs, and everybody knows that teams get more focused in the late season. Eli learned that the hard way.

What about this season’s late collapse? Was he really that bad? The way I see it, he had a terrible game in Minnesota, but all QBs have such stinkers, even his big brother and the immortal Tom Brady managed to have some dreadful outings. Other than that game, he was mediocre in two losses and pretty good in all the other games.

What about his interceptions and the low number of TDs. Let me give you a career statistic no-one seems to be familiar with: career completion percentage 51.9, 212 TDs to 210 INTs (rounds out to about 19 TDs and INTs per season). Care to guess who managed these “awful” stats? Hall of Famer Terry Bradshaw. Does anyone care today that he threw almost as many interceptions as he did TDs? Heck no! The guy has four championship rings, and he is in the Hall of Fame. I guess that makes the question at the beginning of this paragraph a moot point.

Manning has been ripped apart by the NY fans and the media. Does that remind you of somebody? I remember just how talentless, hopeless, utterly dreadful Phil Simms was according to NY fans and the media. Then he won a Super Bowl and suddenly everybody had to shut their trap.

Manning has now gotten to the big game. Yet he still needs to win this one to silence his critics forever. Of course, it’s not like Manning cares anything about his critics, he simply wants to win a title, period.