Professional athletes can go home again. Sometimes the reunion is a resounding success. Sometimes it’s a bust.
LeBron James is the most recent and celebrated of these examples, having returned to Cleveland instead of remaining in Miami, the place he fled to for more talent and a better chance to win championships. We’ll see how that turns out.
Former Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte did it successfully, having gone 149-78 from 1995-2003 in New York before leaving for Houston, where he was 37-36 before returning to New York to close out his career in pinstripes, going 70-49 and winning another World Series.
Brandon Jacobs did it for the Giants last year with mixed results, returning to his original team after a forgettable 2012 in San Francisco, where he played in two games and had five carries for 7 yards before he was eventually released. He was re-signed by the Giants, with whom he had rushed for 4,849 yards and 56 TDs from 2005-2011, and gained 238 yards and had four TDs in seven games in 2013 before being forced him into retirement by a balky knee.
Receiver Mario Manningham was on that 2012 49ers team with Jacobs, having fled the Giants for free-agent riches after the Giants won Super Bowl XLVI. He also had a forgettable experience in the City by the Bay, failing to make an impact in two injury-plagued years there.
So Manningham is now back with the Giants, trying to regain the glory — highlighted by his acrobatic, 38-yard catch that was the catalyst to the Super Bowl-winning drive against the Patriots. But the jury is very much out on whether he’ll be the same player in his return to the Giants as he was when he left — despite the fact he’s still only 28.
Manningham, whom the Giants signed to one-year deal in March, faces an arduous road to climb to simply make the team. When he left the Giants, he was the third receiver behind Hakeem Nicks and Victor Cruz. At the moment, he’s the fifth receiver.
Since leaving the Giants, Manningham has had more knee surgeries (two) than touchdowns (one), and his surgically repaired left knee is still not 100 percent, which is making his run for a roster spot even more challenging.
“I’m out here trying to get back to where I was,’’ Manningham said Monday. “Every day I feel better.’’
Manningham, the Giants third-round draft pick in 2008, is well aware what he did in his first four years with the team — 160 catches, 2,315 yards and 18 TDs in the regular season and one of the greatest catches in team history in Super Bowl XLVI — means little now.
“What happened is in the past,’’ he said. “This is still a new team, new faces, new staff, new offense. I’m going out there like I want to make this team; I’m not going out there like I already made the team or I got drafted here. I have something to prove also.’’
That 38-yard, over-the-shoulder catch while tiptoeing the left sideline late in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XLVI should be as celebrated in team history as the David Tyree helmet catch in Super Bowl XLII.
“I hope he can make a play like the last time he was here,” Tom Coughlin said recently.
“It seems so long ago, but it was only — what — two, three years ago?’’ Manningham said. “We need some more plays [like that] in the Super Bowl. So we’re just trying to get there.’’
Manningham, of course, is hoping the Giants are trying to get there with him on the roster.
“Mario enjoyed being a New York Giant and sometimes you leave and kind of … understand you had a good thing going here,” Eli Manning said. “He left on good terms with the organization and … we’re glad to have him back and I think he’s glad to be back.’’
“He’s back home where he belongs, here with the Giants,’’ Antrel Rolle said. “This is where he started his career and hopefully it’s where he’ll end it.’’
Asked if he has any regrets about leaving the Giants or wonders what it would be like had he never left, Manningham paused for a moment.
“No,’’ he said. “You can’t. That’s wasted energy, man.’’