Giants QB Eli Manning is calling it a career. His most important moments came when it mattered most.
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[FOX SPORTS INSIDER WITH MARTIN ROGERS]
In today’s FOX Sports Insider: Eli Manning calls it a career ... Tom Brady finds himself linked to a handful of teams ... and Tiger Woods gets back in the swing of things.
Eli Manning is many things to football fans, the subject of a list not restricted to the following: Two-time Super Bowl champion. Two-time Super Bowl MVP. The face of the New York Giants for the past generation. Part of a quarterbacking family dynasty. And, if we are being truthful, a strange kind of gridiron paradox: a player who managed to be both an overachiever and an underachiever over the course of 16 seasons.
But given the timing of Manning’s imminent departure from the National Football League, as he steps away from his career at a press conference on Thursday, he is something else entirely.
He is a reminder.
He is a reminder to Patrick Mahomes and to Jimmy Garoppolo and to the key contributors on both sides of the ball next Sunday, when the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers wage battle with everything at stake. The unspoken message is this: take your shot, because your legacy depends on it.
He is a reminder to our sporting souls as to what constitutes success in athletics in this country and how it is measured. Shine when everything is up for grabs, do it with a dash of exhilarating drama, and nostalgic favor will live with you forever.
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He is a reminder about how to conduct yourself and to behave with dignity and all the things fans demand from their stars, but more than anything, he is the ultimate example that however we want to paint it and whatever excuses we want to make, winning is what matters.
Football, in its professional guise, is the most unforgiving of all disciplines, proffering precious few opportunities to grasp greatness, and in most cases, precisely zero second chances.
Manning didn’t get a lot of opportunities, yet he maximized them with totality. He has more Super Bowl rings than both Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees and an equal number to his brother, Peyton. He has tasted success on the ultimate, glorious, whole-world-is-watching level that was sadly unknown to Dan Marino and Jim Kelly, to Warren Moon, Fran Tarkenton, Dan Fouts and many other luminaries.
Forgive me for stating the blindingly obvious, but for as long as only one team can win the Vince Lombardi Trophy each year, there will never be enough available glory for all the greats to get what they deserve. Manning helped himself to a slice of that prestigious pie — then went back for a second helping four years later.
Quarterback longevity is reaching previously unthinkable spans of time, yet while Mahomes and Garoppolo likely consider themselves players for both now and the future, there are no guarantees that either will appear again in football’s grandest game.
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Manning walks away with a statistically unspectacular record of 117-117 as a starter. Apologies, New York, for placing the Jets and Giants in the same sentence, but Joe Namath didn’t have a winning mark either. Regardless, both will be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame for eternity. Namath already is. Manning will be there once his eligibility comes up, and good luck trying to argue against it.
He didn’t edge toward his Super Bowl triumphs. He came and grabbed them, then the Giants faded back into mediocrity, painfully bad at times, and their fan base could live with it, content enough with that pair of golden modern memories.
Coming close but falling short doesn’t give you a head start the next time. Rodgers’ three previous NFC Championship game hiccups didn’t help him when he tried again to get back to the Super Bowl a week ago, and his brushes with a conference title won’t make him feel any better if he ends his career with just one ring.
Getting your hands on that title is like jumping a chasm rather than crossing a desert; it has to be taken in a single bound.
We assume when we watch Mahomes fling the ball with impunity that this won’t be his last crack, and 49ers fans have similar hope that the current incarnation of their team is built to last. But who knows?
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The path to the Super Bowl is hard and unpredictable and fraught enough that if you don’t make the most of it, there may be no next time. It doesn’t matter if your team is young or your roster is banged up or if there is an icon of the sport standing across from you. The time is now ... and it is the only time that matters.
That’s what Manning did. He’d heard all the jibes about being the lesser of the NFL brothers, all the doubts about whether he was made of true championship material. And by shutting down the undefeated New England Patriots in 2008 with a hoisted piece of magic that found David Tyree’s fingertips and helmet, he slammed the door on all the critics. Don’t get me wrong; they still shouted, but he had an impenetrable answer.
Then, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis in early 2012, his pinpoint dart to Mario Manningham on the decisive drive got the Giants moving, rolling towards what would be another famed triumph and for himself, the rare air of being a double champion.
There were other throws he missed over the years, hundreds of them. Games where he didn’t look much like a Super Bowl champion, a Hall of Famer, or even much of a quarterback at all. You can probably recall a few of them right now, if you put your mind to it.
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But here’s the thing: future generations won’t. In a few decades’ time, the future’s memory won’t stretch to Week 13 of 2013 (five interceptions) or of 0-6 beginnings to seasons. It won’t bother to linger on the forlorn years where Big Blue might as well have draped itself in black.
Posterity will still remember Manning, though, because it will still remember his biggest nights, when he produced the biggest throws on the biggest stage.
Because that’s the gravity of the Super Bowl — a sporting event with a scale unsurpassed. As Eli Manning showed, if you can rise to match it, it will carry you to immortality.
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Here’s what others have said ...
Jordan Raanan, ESPN: “Manning went 69-50 as the starter in his first eight seasons. It went downhill from there. The Giants went 48-67 with Manning as the starter over his final eight seasons. But that won't put a stain on one of the most unique careers in history. An iron man, Manning never missed a game because of injury and started 210 consecutive games from 2004 to 2017. He was a four-time Pro Bowl selection but never an All-Pro. He was never seriously in the running for an MVP. Yet he retires as the most accomplished quarterback in franchise history and with two incredible playoff runs during 16 memorable seasons.”
Darryl Slater, NJ Advance Media: “It wasn’t a surprise that Manning called it quits this offseason. He had no interest in being a backup quarterback, and no team was going to give him a chance to start. Retirement seemed inevitable after the Giants benched him for rookie Daniel Jones last season. So Manning winds up a career-long Giant. He won’t do what Unitas did, and finish his career in an unfamiliar location, under less-than-spectacular circumstances.”
Deion Sanders, NFL.com: “Honestly, I'm not so sure what being a Hall of Famer means anymore. Football immortality used to be reserved for players who redefined their position, made a big impact on the game or dominated their position for a period of time. The way the Hall is trending now, Eli will get in most likely because he won two Super Bowls. It won't be because he embodied any of those three points while in the league. It is what it is, man.”
[IN OTHER WORDS]
- Sports Illustrated’s Matt Martell has [a suggestion to fix voting for the baseball Hall of Fame]( but probably not in a way you’re expecting.
- Katie Baker at The Ringer examines [how Mark Cuban went from crashing the NBA’s party to hosting it](.
- [Jaylen Brown is no longer “fed up” with his role on the Celtics](. Yaron Weitzman profiles the 23-year-old swingman for Bleacher Report.
[THE BRADY HUNCH]
[THE BRADY HUNCH]
As the days tick by, expect to see Brady linked to more and more teams. The popular show and podcast “Felger & Mazz” on 98.5 FM in Boston [recently reported]( that the Raiders, Chargers, Colts and Redskins have all called to inquire about Touchdown Tom. The Chargers, Colts and Skins all seem to make sense for a lot of reasons, but the Raiders seem to already have a solid option in Derek Carr and no shortage of Raider Nation fans across the country eager to fill the new Las Vegas stadium next year and beyond. Although that now makes two Raiders connections, following Brady attending UFC 246 last week, where he was spotted chatting with Raiders owner Mark Davis.
[THE INTERNET IS UNDEFEATED]
[THE INTERNET IS UNDEFEATED](
Derek Jeter might be in the Hall of Fame now, but he’s never lost a single step with the press that has always so adored him. When asked how his illustrious career of winning as a player compares to his woes as part of the Marlins ownership group, he didn’t miss a beat when answering in the above video. “No, it’s been a lot of fun down there losing and not having anyone coming,” he said, to peals of laughter from the assembled media. It seems no matter how famous and successful you are, it still sucks to be tied to a very bad baseball team. He’s just like people who aren’t Yankees fans!
[VIEWER'S GUIDE]
Los Angeles Lakers at Brooklyn Nets (TNT, 8 p.m. ET)
The Lake Show invades the Barclays Center on Thursday night. LeBron and Co. look to rebound from a loss, while the Nets are riding a four-game losing streak and are eighth in the Eastern Conference with an 18-24 record.
No. 11 Michigan State at Indiana (FS1, 8:30 p.m. ET)
The Spartans are atop the Big Ten, with records of 6-1 in conference and 14-4 overall. Indiana has a matching 14-4 overall record, but within the conference are 4-3 and in sixth place.
[BET OF THE DAY]
[BET OF THE DAY]
Odds provided by [FOX Bet](
Tiger Woods to win the Farmers Insurance Open: +1200
The PGA Tour is back and the Tiger Watch is about to begin again in earnest. The odds may seem long, but since these early tournaments are anyone’s guess, Tiger at +1200 to win outright actually puts him as the third favorite to take the trophy, behind Rory McIlroy at +600 and Jon Rahm at +750. If you’re looking for something a bit less outlandish, Woods has +120 odds to finish in the Top 10.
[WHAT THEY SAID]
“If what you did yesterday seems big, you haven't done anything today.”
— Lou Holtz
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