I was flipping through channels Sunday, trying to cope with my football withdrawal, when I discovered the NFL Network was thankfully running a marathon of Super Bowl highlights. As I sat entranced by some of the championship games from my childhood, the one that stood out was Super Bowl XXXII between John Elway's Broncos and Brett Favre's Packers.
Favre significantly outplayed Elway, except for one famous eight yard scramble with a helicopter finish. Still, Elway won his first of two Super Bowls, while Favre never got back to the big game and retired with just one Super Bowl victory.
Choosing who had a better career between Favre and Elway is a tough debate, determined largely by each quarterback's 52 teammates in that single game. This, naturally, made me think of Eli Manning.
Manning's legacy was a hot-button issue in the weeks leading up to and following the Super Bowl, particularly because Giants fans already spent an entire season arguing that he is an "elite" quarterback, as if the term was anything more than just an arbitrary, immeasurable status.
No players in any sport are evaluated based on championships as much as NFL quarterbacks. But is it fair to judge a quarterback's entire career on that one criteria?
Regardless of who wins, I often cringe at the Super Bowl post-game coverage and the annual heaping of praise that takes place in the following 24-48 hours.
Last year some pundits (and some Packers fans) tried to make the argument that Aaron Rodgers had already surpassed Favre after just three seasons as a starter, despite Favre's three MVPs and multiple league records. Well, Rodgers did look good this Super Bowl Sunday, but unfortunately for him it was as a commentator after melting away with a one-and-done playoff run for the second time in three years.
Nothing against Rodgers, who backed up his Super Bowl run with a spectacular MVP season, but it's premature to declare any player an all-time great when he's barely into the prime of his career. While many were right about how good Rodgers is, the reality is that he's still chasing Favre's accomplishments. It may take a few more disappointing playoff exits for people to realize that, but some of those are bound to come.
The question was raised immediately whether or not Manning, with his two Super Bowl rings, is now a Hall of Famer. Within 48 hours of the Super Bowl, everybody seemed to have an opinion. After digesting it for a week and watching summaries of 10 other Super Bowls, my honest answer is... we don't know yet. He's only 31, and many quarterbacks (like Elway) shape their legacies much later in their careers. There's a reason players aren't eligible for the Hall of Fame until five years after they retire.
By virtue of his two titles, Manning has now officially outclassed many players with long, successful careers but no titles. But had a few balls bounced differently in just a handful of games throughout history, his career may have been no better than guys like Donovan McNabb, Steve McNair and Drew Bledsoe. I watched all three of them play and lose Super Bowls during my highlight marathon, and analysts would have gushed that each of them was on a Hall of Fame trajectory if they'd been clutching a Lombardi trophy in a cloud of confetti. Yet like Favre and Elway, their teammates had as great an impact on their losses as they did.
So Manning is now paradoxically Mr. Clutch on the road in the playoffs despite a career record of 27-36 in the second half of the season. That includes pedestrian marks of 3-5 this year and 4-4 the year of his previous Super Bowl victory.
On one hand, he just nearly threw for a 5,000 yard season. On the other hand, he's never been in the top three in the league in completions, completion percentage, yards, touchdowns or passer rating. He's made the Pro Bowl two times, the same amount as non-Hall of Famer and Super Bowl champ Brad Johnson. And had one fumble or Hail Mary bounced in a different direction, all of the debates would have instead been about whether or not Tom Brady is the best quarterback of all-time. So Manning has two rings, but it's laughable to think that Eli has had a better career than, say, his older brother Peyton.
It's possible that over the next six years he'll set some records, or lead the league in a few categories -- the type of lines the all-time greats have on their resumes to go along with their titles. It's also possible that he won't.
I know that some day in 15 years I'll be on my couch watching replays of Eli Manning in the Super Bowl. What I don't know is how the next handful of seasons will determine his place in history. But unlike many people I heard from in the direct aftermath of the Super Bowl, I'm comfortable waiting a few years to make up my mind.
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Believe me if Eli wins two more and Peyton (with his losing post season record) doesn't play again Eli rockets passsed his brother in terms of who is better thought of by the media and fans.
In sports, winning trumps great numbers nearly every time.
That being said, the G’s have a balanced offense. Eli doesn’t have to be Brees or Rodgers because of the running game. But then again a look back on the past season he is capable of being a finesse QB as good as any. He is as good as any QB in the league. Still can’t say enough about the pass to Manningham either. Any…Any! Feel me?
This last one was due to Manning's poise and accuracy as much as anything else.
He is definitely in an elite class of QBs.
But, Eli did pull off the drive that put them ahead for good, including the football version of Endy Chavez's The Catch, so he has to get some credit for the first SB.
You want to talk about a great Fantasy Football pick, that's exactly where he belongs!
""you can say what you want about stats, or make fun of his humble personal demeanor""
Eli Manning was asked if he were as good as Tom Brady and he Humbly said
"Yes, I am" I was happy for Eli when he freakishly helped win the Super Bowl, the last time, which I will always see as a charity case win. The Giants are nothing but spoilers, like a virus that infects really great football teams, like Green Bay and the Patriots, nothing great about a spoiler team. Eli is like the train in Little Toot. hahahaha
I will not be surprised if the Giants again end up with a 9 win regular season and go to the Super Bowl again and win. This type of team hurts the NFL over all, it undervalues the true great players and teams.
Even when he was asked the question on the Michael Kay show (8/16)...by the way, it was a very unfair question that put him in a catch 22 situation. If he had replied saying 'no I'm not in the same class as Brady', folks would have crucified him saying, 'how do you expect to win a superbowl with a quarterback who's not confident'. Conversely, he said he is in the same class as Brady and everybody made fun of him for saying that. By the way, while he did say he was in the same class as Brady, he also said it was as much due to the Giants O-line and their overall offense - Eli wasn't hogging all the credit.
The bottomline for Giants fans' is - are the Giants winning? I'd rather have Eli and win 2 superbowls in 8yrs than have a QB that the whole world thinks is Elite but the team can't win. Full disclosure....I am a loyal Giants fan who wouldn't trade Eli for any QB in the world.
He has also won more playoff games than any QB in Giants history with 8.
Unless he gets seriously injured (like his brother), after about 3 more full seasons he will hold every Giants passing record.
Charley Conerly couldn't do it.
Y.A. Tittle couldn't do it.
Fran Tarkenton couldn't do it.
Phil Simms couldn't do it.
Kerry Collins couldn't do it.
Eli Manning did it!
Actually Charley Conerly came the closest. He lead the 1958 Championship game late in the fourth quarter and the 1959 Championship after 3 quarters and both times John Unitas went wild.
Unfortunately in recent years NFL Hall of Fame ballot casters have turned the process into not much more than a high school popularity contest so that we now have a situation where players who have no business getting into the hall breeze through while others who should be first ballot are left out.
Under those circumstances it becomes nearly impossible to judge any individual player's worth or eligibility. It's basically a free-for-all, or more like a shell game where a certain thing (championships won) is touted as being most important sometimes while another thing, like pure lifetime stats, is elevated at other times.
This "shell game" allows sports writers and veterans commitees alike to pick and choose only those players they "like" to be honored, while players that were not "nice" to them or played for teams the writer didn't liked during their career can be left out.
This is true for almost all post season awards that are voted upon, not just for the hall of fame. Everything from league MVP to all-pro status have been reduced to popularity contests.
Unlike the baseball hall of fame, which seems so focused on numbers and stats only, the football HOF seems to grasp more of what the hall should be -- a Hall of Fame, not a Hall of Guys Who Had Long Careers So They Could Put Up Impressive Numbers.
You could argue, for instance, that Joe Namath's stats aren't "hall-worthy" but his place in the game and all that surrounded Super Bowl III and the era of the NFL-AFL merger are undeniable.
Eli has quarterbacked his team to two Super Bowl titles. The Hall, rightfully so, will not keep out a QB with two rings. Even if the rest of his career is average at best, he'll get in. And he deserves to. The HOF, which is for the fans, makes a lot more sense to admit a two-time champion than simply a statistically good QB.
Phillip Rivers, for instance, has a much better career QB rating and far fewer interceptions than Manning, but, so what?
Just this last vote is a (somewhat mild) example. Although Curtis Martin deserves to be in, simple logic says there are a host of players who have been eligible longer then him that should have made it before him. Tops on that list are Cris Carter and Ray Guy. Putting Martin in before them sends a message that Hall voters are approving guys they like for some reason ahead of what's logical and fair.
Another example. Here are three names of players that have no business being in the hall at all: Floyd Little, Roger Wehrli, Charlie Sanders. When they played (in the 60's and 70's) and then retired nobody thought about them as hall of famers in any way.
Maybe he won't deserve consideration as one of the greatest ever, but he's off to a fine start.
2nd is his ever increasing ablility to read defenses and call plays pre snap at the line of scrimmage.