And so begins the barren wasteland of professional sports until baseball begins in April.
I hate this time of year, even with the combine and NFL draft heating up. I dont follow NCAA basketball outside of March Madness, a time where I have to buy in to feel a part of the herd, despite my feelings on basketball. I dont follow the NBA period. I hate hockey. Dont even talk to me about soccer. Its all over, and even baseball is getting boring again. The NFL is over until the fall, and I am bummed out.
Eli Manning is the darling of the sports world after his second win and MVP in as many tries, but I still believe he has a lot to prove to be an Elite QB in the history of this league. Even though rings drive a lot of chatter, as they do in every sport, Eli is not even close to the room in the office building that houses the list of the greatest QBs of his era. He is on the same floor, but still waiting in reception for Tom Brady and his brother to come and get him.
Check out some of his cards since the victory. Rings do crazy things for card values:
Eli Manning SP Authentic Rookie Patch Auto Gold /25
Eli Manning Playoff Contenders Rookie Ticket Auto
Eli Manning Ultimate Collection NFL Logo Patch Auto 1/1
Brady played well enough for the Patriots to win, and if he had any semblence of a defense, or even half a gronk, he would have. Sure Welker dropped a pass, and the safety was a ridiculous call, but the Giants are no slouches when it comes to locking it down. To hold the Pats balls to the walls offense to 17 points is a task in itself, and they deserve the credit for making it happen.
More importantly, there has been a lot of discussion among the talking heads about how Eli has surpassed Peyton as the QB that defines the Manning name. Bull. Aside from being the smiling face of the NFL, Peyton was everything to his team in each of their Super Bowl apperences. In fact, we saw just how much of a difference Mr. Cut That Meat can be, as without him, a 11-5 Colts team went 2-14. That is just ridiculous in every way. With the parity present in this league, no team should face that. Without Eli, the Giants defense can still be a force to be recokoned with. They dont make the playoffs, but they dont go 2-14. Hell, they only ended up in the playoffs because the Dallas Cowboys are incompetant, not to mention how they ended up in the Super Bowl. This wasnt the march march march that the Packers had the year before, it was basically two muffed punts leading to a Lombardi win.
I have a lack of respect for Eli Manning after his draft day stunt back in 2004, as no player should be able to dictate which team they play for in that situation. I dont care who you are. If LeBron James can play in Cleveland for as long as he did, Eli can play in San Diego and not bitch about it. Regardless if the choice he made has paid off, that is bush league, and I wish New York had stuck to their guns with Phillip Rivers.
For the record, Eli definitely has a place in history, but when it is all over, he wont be up on the modern era QB mount rushmore with Peyton, Favre, Brady, Rodgers, and Brees. Its just not going to happen. Super Bowl wins does not a QB make, right Terry Bradshaw? HOF yes. One of the greatest at his position ever? No.
Just to think that Manning Ultimate Shield was listed all summer for 1995 BIN and recently sold for over 4k. Probably do better then that now. Crazy
-wheels
All the credit to the TEAM for finding a way to win this past Super Bowl. Eli is good, that’s it. Not great. … not yet, anyway. There’s a massive gap between looking good with good players surrounding you versus looking great because you make borderline players good/great players. Brady does stuff like the latter part of that statement. Favre is the posterboy for the latter part of that statement. Peyton should get credit for being the definition of the latter part of that statement.
QB’s don’t get that top-tier recognition until they make other players better. Eli is still in Trent Dilfer-Super Bowl winning QB-tier to me. I feel like the Ravens would have given the Giants more trouble, since they can actually run, but even if Flacco would’ve won, you could just interchange the Eli comments to what would’ve been said about Flacco. They both just manage games well and don’t make many stupid mistakes. People tend to not appreciate that and it shows with Eli.
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