Dear Eli Manning,
I’m an 18 year old kid and honestly, I didn’t like sports as a small child. By the time I started watching sports and getting emotionally invested in the teams you were out there every game and as the rest of the team retired or left, as Victor Cruz went away, as Hakeem Nicks, Mario Manningham, Osi Umenyiora, and Justin Tuck went away, the one player left on the team from when I started watching was you. Now that’s over. No one from that 2011 team that I can recognize by name is still on the roster. It’s the end of an era.
The first Super Bowl I watched was LII when the Giants played the Patriots for the first time. I watched because I was a loyal New Yorker and I had been to some Giants games in the past but when David Tyree caught that ball I had no idea about the significance of that play on my life. Over the next few years I started to watch weekly and really root for the Giants. My favorite sports moment of all time was watching Super Bowl XLVI with my best friend, a Patriots fan, and watching you go down the field in another drive at the end of the fourth quarter to put the Giants ahead for good. Everyone remembers the David Tyree catch but my personal favorite has always been University of Michigan alum Mario Manningham’s beautiful toe-tapping sideline catch that would not have ever happened without the perfectly placed pass from you. You gave me my favorite sports moment, thank you.
I’m an 18 year old kid and honestly, I didn’t like sports as a small child. By the time I started watching sports and getting emotionally invested in the teams you were out there every game and as the rest of the team retired or left, as Victor Cruz went away, as Hakeem Nicks, Mario Manningham, Osi Umenyiora, and Justin Tuck went away, the one player left on the team from when I started watching was you. Now that’s over. No one from that 2011 team that I can recognize by name is still on the roster. It’s the end of an era.
The first Super Bowl I watched was LII when the Giants played the Patriots for the first time. I watched because I was a loyal New Yorker and I had been to some Giants games in the past but when David Tyree caught that ball I had no idea about the significance of that play on my life. Over the next few years I started to watch weekly and really root for the Giants. My favorite sports moment of all time was watching Super Bowl XLVI with my best friend, a Patriots fan, and watching you go down the field in another drive at the end of the fourth quarter to put the Giants ahead for good. Everyone remembers the David Tyree catch but my personal favorite has always been University of Michigan alum Mario Manningham’s beautiful toe-tapping sideline catch that would not have ever happened without the perfectly placed pass from you. You gave me my favorite sports moment, thank you.
Mario Manningham's toe-tapping catch on the sideline in the 4th quarter of Super Bowl XLVI
That’s really what this comes down to: thank you for all you have done for my city and this team. I hate the New York Yankees so the only New York championships I’ve ever cared about are the ones hoisted by you with red, white, and blue confetti raining down. Whenever it seems like the Giants will never be good again I turn to the highlights from those great seasons and watch. Needless to say, these past few years have seen me going to those highlights more than a few times.
Eli Manning on December 15th 2019, his last game in the NFL
You’ve stayed playing for New York City for a long time, 16 whole years. You should know by now that New Yorkers are fickle creatures. Some may not think you’re all that great. They’re wrong. People across the sports world are debating about whether or not you’ll make the hall of fame. It’s ridiculous. Recency bias is defined by the oxford dictionary as “a common distorting effect within systems of performance appraisal. It refers to the appraiser assessing employee performance, not on work undertaken across the full performance management cycle, but only on recent events or activities that can be readily recalled.” They remember the years with Pat Shurmer and the greasy haired monster Ben McAdoo (who never should have started Geno Smith over you). They remember that your record in the past three years is 9-26. That’s honestly not great. What they forget is that without those past three years your record in the regular season is 108-91 and you are 8-4 in the playoffs. They forget that you’re 7th all time in passing yards, 7th all time in passing touchdowns, and 7th all time in passes completed. You are great, don’t let Stephen A. Smith tell you otherwise. You’re going to wear that golden jacket and it will belong on your shoulders.
Eli Manning after winning Super Bowl XLII and taking down the 18-0 Patriots
So what happens next? Do you join your brother in a calm and relaxing retirement? Do you become a quarterback coach for the Giants and continue grooming Daniel Jones for success? Do you even join a broadcasting team like Tony Romo? I have no idea and honestly, I couldn’t care less. You deserve a break. You’ve been in the NFL for 256 regular season games and started in 234 of them. You’ve broken Giants record after Giants record, done insane amounts of charity work, won two super bowls and were the MVP in both. Thank you for these past 16 years.
Once a Giant, always a Giant.
Signed,
- Some New Yorker
Photo Credits:
The Star-Ledger
Bleacher Report
Giants Wire
Once a Giant, always a Giant.
Signed,
- Some New Yorker
Photo Credits:
The Star-Ledger
Bleacher Report
Giants Wire
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