By Steve Bennett
Many have called the 2011-12 NFL football season the year of the quarterback. Armed with only that information and a stat sheet, any casual fan could have predicted that Tom Brady’s team is representing the AFC in the Super Bowl. Let’s face it, Peyton Manning wouldn’t be on said stat sheet and Brady’s 5,235 passing yards and 39 touchdown passes would glow and vibrate like the lights on a Vegas hotel.
The NFC would prove to be more difficult. Almost all of the football world, and certainly any with a cheesehead, might guess that Aaron Rodgers capped off what many thought was the best season by a quarterback, EVER, and brought the Packers back to the Super Bowl for a chance at a repeat. Some might assume that Drew Brees and his 5,476 passing yards were more than enough to bring the Saints to Indianapolis. Others might just assume that Matthew Stafford, the young pup from Detroit, helped hell freeze over and pigs fly and all of the other cliches associated with the Lions’ chances at playing on the last day of the season.
All of those fans would be wrong. If they would have looked just a little harder at the stat sheet they would have seen a player named Manning with dazzling passing yards (4,933) and a stable full of fast and young receivers had enough to lead his team to the promised land. Just like in 2007, Eli Manning will battle his brother’s arch nemesis, Brady, in the Super Bowl. This time, they will battle in the house that his brother Peyton built, this time with a chance to win a second Super Bowl ring and clear an almost landmine-free path to the NFL Hall of Fame.
Since 1970, only one eligible quarterback has won the Super Bowl twice and not been elected into Pro Football’s most hallowed hall. That player is Ken Stabler – the same Ken Stabler that many consider to be the biggest snub by the gatekeepers at Canton, the same Ken Stabler that in 15 seasons, for three different teams, passed for 27,938 yards.
But this story isn’t about Stabler, it’s about Eli Manning, an eight year pro with 27,579 career passing yards, only days away from possibly earning his second ring. That second ring would put him with Brady and Ben Roethlisberger as the only active quarterbacks to have led their teams to more than one championship.
Brady is a lock for the hall even if Gisele woke up tomorrow and ordered Tom to retire at once to spend more time pampering his supermodel wife. (And what guy wouldn’t jump at that chance?) Roethlisberger is the ultimate pro, the player we would all want to be in a foxhole with, a player with very little to add to his resume to hear Hall of Fame honors. Eli is four quarters away from stepping out of the shadows and riding shotgun in what is becoming a crowded car of active quarterbacks taking the back roads to Canton, Ohio.
I should digress. I can’t help but think about that group of fans, with only a stat sheet and word that the 2011-12 NFL season was the year of the quarterback, still might not be convinced that Eli Manning is one of the two starting quarterbacks in Super Bowl XXVI. They might want to know how a 9-7 team navigated through a loaded NFC with teams like the 15-1 Packers, the 13-3 49ers, and the 13-3 Saints to make the big game.
Really, all they need to be convinced is to look back to 2007-08 when Manning and a hungry defensive line squeaked into the playoffs then beat the Buccaneers on the road, beat the top seeded Cowboys in Dallas, and then went on to a frozen Lambeau Field and ended Brett Favre’s career as the starting quarterback of the Green Bay Packers. Then the Giants took a clever game plan, slapped some velcro on David Tyree’s helmet, and scored late on a Manning-to-Plaxico Burress touchdown to defeat Tom Brady and the previously undefeated New England Patriots to win Super Bowl XLII.
The story of the 2011-12 Giants is very similar. A hobbled Giants team got healthy late, then got hot when a 99-yard Manning to Victor Cruz touchdown pass gave the Giants a must needed victory over the back-page-hogging, Rex Ryan-screaming, crosstown rival Jets.
From there, the Giants beat the Cowboys twice, won the NFC East, destroyed Matt Ryan and the hapless Falcons, before traveling to a frozen Lambeau Field. Again, the Giants shocked the football world, this time by eliminating Aaron Rodgers and the nearly invincible Packers. The following week, Manning went on the road for another NFC Championship and put away Alex Smith and the overachieving 49ers. Manning had again earned the chance to face his older brother Peyton’s arch nemesis in Super Bowl XLVI.
Pro Player Insider was able to catch up with Eli Manning in Indianapolis where he is preparing to play his second Super Bowl. We asked Eli how his receiving corps is different this year compared to the receivers he had in 2007. Manning stressed similarities in the depth of each group. He said that in 2007 they had a talented group with Burress, Amani Toomer, and the emerging Steve Smith. He said that with this year’s group of Cruz, Mario Manningham, and Hakeem Nicks, he looks for match-ups and can count on all three of them to make the big play.
Manning went on to say, “If guys are double teamed or coverage dictates where I need to go with the ball, I have faith in each one of those guys to get open and make some big plays for us.”
Pro Player Insider also asked Eli about the opportunity to play the Super Bowl in the city that his older brother has played his entire NFL career. He downplayed the incredible coincidence and instead responded by saying, “I’m just excited about being here. My mindset is I’m here just to play a game. This is just the Super Bowl venue. I’m not looking at the coincidence that this is where Peyton has played his whole career. It’s just the fact that I’m trying to go out there and play my best football and win a championship for the New York Giants.”
Since this isn’t Manning’s first Super Bowl, we asked what advice he has given his teammates who have never been to the Super Bowl about the experience. Manning stressed how difficult making the Super Bowl is and regardless of if it’s the beginning or the end of a career, players should enjoy the experience and the downtime with teammates.
He then got a little more serious saying, “When it’s time to prepare, time to practice, time to get your focus ready to play this game, we need 100 percent commitment and dedication to going out there and playing our best football.”
Unlike 2007-08, many people believe that if the Giants do play their best football, Manning will be the player that gets to hold the Lombardi Trophy high above his head, with his brother Peyton looking on. And if the Giants win, he will watch with the rest of us as his younger brother Eli steps out of his shadow and back on top of the football world.
