Eli Manning hasn’t lashed out or publicly expressed how much the Giants’ down year has bothered him, but his father believes it’s eating away at the two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback.
“Eli’s dying right now,” Archie Manning said on WFAN on Tuesday morning in an interview with Craig Carton and Boomer Esiason. “As is Tom Coughlin, as is Justin Tuck and everyone else.”
Later, in an interview with Newsday at the announcement of the Liberty Mutual College Coach of the Year finalists by the National Football Foundation in Manhattan, Archie expanded on that idea.
“Eli’s a solid guy,” Archie said. “He doesn’t go too high or too low. But he’s dying, just like everybody else with the Giants. He hates what’s going on. But he’s plugging. He’s fighting, just like the rest of them.
“I think leadership is so important in our world, in our country, in our society. Certainly it’s important in football. I’m proud of Eli as a leader. That’s the only thing I ever tell him. ‘You keep fighting and you keep leading.’ There’s not a lot you can say. We don’t have hour-long conversations about this or anything, we just talk father-to-son, not too long. He’s busy. He’s got work to do. Eli will be OK. He’ll be OK.”
Eli has had an uneven season, throwing an NFL-high 20 interceptions as the Giants were eliminated from playoffs contention for the second straight year. He’s been sacked 33 times and thrown just 16 touchdown passes — the fewest touchdowns he has thrown in a season is 21, back in 2008. Archie, however, doesn’t feel his youngest son has played much differently than in past years.
“When Eli led the Giants to championships here it was because they had a good team,” Archie told Newsday. “They ran the ball, they balanced their offense, they got after quarterbacks, they did all of the things you have to do to win a championship. For various reasons, the Giants haven’t been able to do that this year. Eli’s done his part, he hasn’t played as good, but the Giants haven’t played as good.
“I don’t individualize the quarterback position. Everybody is ranting and raving about Peyton. Peyton’s having a good year because the Broncos’ offense is having a good year. That’s the way I look at it.”
Archie has been impressed by the Giants’ ability to stay together during the tough times, to string four wins together after the 0-6 start and to remain competitive, where other teams may have begun to break apart at the seams.
“You have some great years, sometimes you have a year not as good,” Archie said on WFAN. “I told [Eli]: ‘You and Tuck and Coach Coughlin, ya’ll held your locker room together, and that’s not the case everywhere around this league when that happens.’ I played on some teams that didn’t hold together like [the Giants].
“Overall, you’re losing games, you’re having a losing year, it’s a credit starting with Coach Coughlin and their leaders. … Boomer, you know this, a lot of places the rats will jump ship.”