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Eli Manning: the inscrutable underdog
Posted By katie allison granju
They’re pyschoanalyzing the lesser-known Manning in New York Magazine:
He’s got the arm—but does he have the guts? Can you possibly grow up as the son of one famous quarterback and the little brother of another and not be a massive head case? Would he flourish or implode under the searing glare of New York’s demanding fandom, after the Giants paid a king’s ransom to acquire him?
So far … well, neither, really. He’s refused to star in either story line. He’s enjoyed occasional stretches of proficiency, reliably followed by epic incompetence. This frustration has been compounded by Eli’s personality, or lack of same. He is famously inscrutable, affectless, even, some whisper, uninterested. He is, saints preserve us, an introvert. “I’m not the guy who runs down the field with his finger up in the air like I just saved the world,” he once told a reporter. “I used to score 25 points in a high-school basketball game; then I’d have two points the next game,” he said on another occasion. “I’m not a guy to force things.” In other words, we’re not exactly dealing with Michael Jordan’s patented brand of teammate-berating, win-at-all-costs passion. Eli just isn’t a fire-in-the-belly kind of guy. More like a well-balanced breakfast in the belly. And off the field, he’s just as disappointing. He talks to his mom on the phone nearly every day. He can’t even get stalked properly. When paparazzi caught Brady in the Village in a medical boot, it touched off worldwide headlines. Meanwhile, a Gawker Stalker had this to say about Eli, seen leaving a steakhouse: “Looked like average guy. Very boring!”
Jan 28th, 2008
The New York Times has a piece about how Eli is a mamma’s boy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/29/sports/football/29manning.html?hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1201557750-DPJ3vBuu+3LCvg5yhhOISQ
Being an Ole Miss Rebel, I have had the opportunity to meet Eli a time or two. Just a solid normal guy, a guy you would love to have a beer with. I think we need more normal/boring people to step up and lead. Eli is just a humble dude, who just happens to play football. No Flash, no problems, just a do good approach.