ALBANY — Eli Manning doesn’t look over his shoulder and see Tim Tebow, or have to hear the deafening sounds of Tebowmania follow him everywhere. Nobody thinks it’s a good idea to take him off the field for any Wildcat. He is the King of New York, the two-time Super Bowl champion quarterback of the New York Football Giants, the King of Kings on the Kings of New York, and no one bothers asking him anymore if he is an elite quarterback.
This was the question yesterday for Eli Manning:
“Do you think you’re an elite dad?”
He smiles and says: “I think I’m an elite dad, yes. I think so.”
Ava Manning is 16 months old now, and the joy she brings to Superdad makes it even easier for him to ground the pressures and stress of his job.
You ask him what has surprised him about fatherhood and he says:
“I don’t know if there’s anything totally surprising. I guess just how much enjoyment you can get from just a smile, or just something little that the child might do, just a small hug. Or when you walk in a room they smile at you, just how you can kind of forget everything that might have happened that day or what’s going to happen the next day and you can just concentrate on her and forget about all your worries.”
Superdad saw her as recently as Saturday.
“Ava is busy … she likes to run around always, always up to something, but has a big old smile, likes to laugh,” he said. “Has not had many bad days. She’s got a great attitude.”
Easy Ava.
“If you kind of take something away from her, she just moves on to the next thing and looks for something else instead of complaining too much,” Manning said.
“It does sound like you,” I said.
“Exactly,” he said.
He wore a smile that wouldn’t leave his face. When he returns home today after the Giants break camp, he’ll hear a sound that will be music to his ears.
“ ‘Dada’ is one of her favorites,” Manning said. “‘Ball’ was actually, I think, one of her first words. She’s big into any sort of football or basketball, baseball. She likes to pick ’em up, she’s got a pretty good arm so far, so she’s got a little coordination.”
He is trying to master the art of the diaper change. “It’s just like a lot of things — repetition, repetition, repetition, and you get better,” Superdad said. “I’m probably a little rusty right now after training camp, had a little break from it, but I’m sure as soon as I get back, I’ll be back right into the mix.”
I asked: “Do you feed Ava?”
“I will,” Superdad said. “Yeah, yeah. I can do it all (smile).”
He held Ava in his arms after Super Bowl XLVI and again on the Citi Field mound when he threw out the first pitch at a Mets game.
“The preseason games, she was up for that,” Manning said. “There was a closeup my wife (Abby) kind of showed her, she was still busy but she would kind of come back and look up at the TV and kind of point, not really understanding what all was going on, but I think she’s not too far away.”
Eli’s wife Abby is a stunning blonde. “I think she’s got some characteristics of both Abby and I,” Superdad said.
Given the NFL’s concussion problem, I asked Superdad if he would encourage a son to play football.
“I would encourage sports for Ava and for other children that we hopefully had,” Superdad said. “The characteristics and the life lessons you learn and leadership, and working as a team and dealing with defeat and success, I think, those are all good things. And if they would happen to choose to play football, it’d be wonderful, but I wouldn’t force it upon them, but obviously football’s been so special to me. I think it’s a wonderful sport and would definitely, if we have a son, would enjoy if they play football.”
Superdad was considered more of a mama’s boy growing up, but father Archie has offered some fatherhood tips.
“‘Enjoy spending time with your kids,’ ” he said. “That’s easy for me to do, and something I enjoy doing, so just trying to be a good father and a good example.”
Fatherhood has taught him how to budget his time effectively so he can be both Elite Eli and Superdad.
“Being more conscious of how you’re spending time, knowing what your schedule has to be,” he said. “Getting your work done as quickly as you can at the facility so you can get home and spend those few hours with her and kind of studying later at night just so you can get that time at home.”
That’s a good thing about football. I know what my schedule’s going to be from now until hopefully February … 5:30 (p.m.) I’ll be home and have those two hours to spend with my daughter and then back to football and get prepared.”
He was sporting a growth of facial hair so I kiddingly asked: “Are you not shaving until people stop asking you about the Jets and Tebow?”
Superdad chuckled and said: “Exactly. Exactly.” Then he joked, “it’s going to be a long year for the beard, I think. But, uh, no. It’s just a training camp deal, so we obviously break [today], so I have a feeling it’ll be coming off in the next couple of days.”
The Giants hardly mind Tebow and the Jets getting most of the media attention, as absurd as they know it is.
“It’s been pretty chill,” Manning said. “As a player, going into my ninth year, understanding when we’ve had success, when we’ve had troubles, you don’t want extra attention, you don’t want controversy. You want to go through camp trying to get better, and I think that’s what we’re doing.”
It’s Superdad who doesn’t mind the extra attention.