When Eli Manning arrived at the Giants practice facility yesterday morning, a few of his teammates told him he looked good in a dress. That wasn’t all.
“A few bananas thrown at me,’’ Manning said, smiling.
Compliments on how he looked as a drag queen and projectile bananas were some of the reactions two days after Manning’s eventful hosting of “Saturday Night Live’’ put on display some very different sides to the two-time Super Bowl MVP quarterback.
Sure enough, in one skit he donned a bright yellow feathered dress and blonde wig. As far as the banana, as a defendant in a courtroom he was shown texting a picture of himself holding that particular fruit where it shouldn’t be (think groin area).
“All good-hearted,’’ Manning said of the reviews from his teammates. “They all say they got some good laughs out of it, so that is always good.’’
Manning’s first appearance since his hosting gig came last night at Mulino’s of Westchester to help promote the 35th annual Guiding Eyes for the Blind Golf Classic, to be held June 10 and 11 at Mount Kisco Country Club in Mount Kisco and Fairview Country Club in Greenwich, Ct. Manning is a six-time host of the tournament, which raises money to provide guide dogs to blind and visually impaired men and women around the world.
He told tournament sponsors “SNL” cast members “seemed amazed that I wasn’t nervous.’’ Manning said he told them, “I do live every Sunday.’’
The writers and directors of “SNL” certainly didn’t go easy on Manning, putting him in several skits that thrust him far out of his comfort zone. He wore a black unitard in one scene, was given phrases such as “my penis’’ and “very elderly butts’’ to speak. He went down on a knee to “Tebow,” put on a heavy Swedish accent, filled the role of a square third-wheel in fake Cheech and Chong movies, gave kids wedgies and dunked their heads in toilets in a Little Brothers volunteer spoof.
Manning admitted it was a bit surreal hosting “SNL”.
“You grow up watching it and it’s kind of one of those things, it was a personal deal,’’ Manning said. “I wasn’t doing it for any other reason except kind of as a challenge, and just an honor to walk on that stage and do that opening monologue and kind of walk through the band, you’ve seen so many people do that.
“I kind of said, ‘I’m pretty open to do whatever.’ I’m not going to be real reserved, I’ll do whatever I can do to have fun.’’
Manning said he tried to take the same approach hosting “SNL” as he did preparing for the Super Bowl.
“Playing in a Super Bowl, it’s not scary, that’s the goal, that’s where you want to be,’’ he said. “Saturday Night Live, I kind of took the same approach — I’m used to doing live entertainment, I’ve been doing it for a long time. I went into both of them with a smile and [I was] excited, was well prepared and said, ‘Hey, this is going to be a great day and let’s go enjoy it.’ ’’
In football-related matters, Manning sounded excited the Giants used their first two draft picks on offensive players — running back David Wilson and receiver Rueben Randle.
“It’s always good when you can get good offensive guys to come join the team,’’ Manning said. “Looking forward for them to get into the facility and get where I can start working with them, get them kind of caught up with the offense and see how they can help us this year.’’