to truly appreciate Eli Manning's best years here...
Disclaimer, this is not a knock or an insult because I get it, I was 10 and 14 when the Giants won in 86 and 90, this is coming from a genuine place.
There was a BIG difference between enjoying those teams as a kid/teen in the 80's, and then waiting 17 years for 2007 when I was 30 years old and an adult, and all that came in between.
When I look back on it all, I think the biggest difference was that I was preoccupied with so many other things in the 80's and 90's, high school, graduating high school, college, partying, girls, etc... that while I was watching the Giants every week, they were just one of a billion things that I was focusing on and didn't carry as much weight.
Fast forward to around 1999-2000, I was out of college, had settled into a job and relationship, and with all those boxes checked it just seemed like the Giants because a much more passionate thing. Like, I was in a daily/weekly/monthly routine, and the Giants felt like a much bigger part of that routine. The internet made it a lot easier to follow the team. By 2001-2002, I knew the entire roster. Every won lasted a week and every loss stung until the next one. Mondays and Tuesdays were miserable. I agonized over missed calls, blown opportunities, injuries, won/loss records and what that meant for the postseason, etc... My friends and I discussed these things non-stop, NFL football consumed us. It was around that time I found BBI and the discussion was supplemented here.
My point is, from my early to mid twenties, I know what it was like to just want that championship run so bad, or even just a deep run. To be one of the good teams in the league. To agonize over every decision like it was life or death and honestly if felt like it affected me that way during that time.
When the 2004 draft came, and the Manning rumors started, it was a massive weight. We had to get this right, it could set the franchise back years if we got it wrong. It was everything. People hated, at the very least were skeptical of, Coughlin for being Coughlin, many posters despised Manning for the way his family had orchestrated the trade and what we gave up to get him (some still do but I digress)... There were super highs and super lows that followed that. Sitting through all those losses, some miserable (0.0 rating vs. Baltimore when he got pulled), feeling so defeated and unsure about the future. Seeing Parcells having success in Dallas as salt in the wound, seeing Roethlisberger having success.... Just the emotion involved in all that. Being exhausted mentally by it all at the end of that season, and staying up and watching that Monday Night Game, in bed quietly, that John Mara referred to earlier today, and seeing Eli with all those backup WR's drive down the field and beat Dallas/Parcells in the final moments and just giving a quiet "yes" *fist pump* in the air with my soon to be wife sleeping next to me, just sort of ended that season on the right note. 2005-2006 were as roller coaster as they came, including the Denver game specifically (the last game Wellington was alive for) and then the following week when Tiki ran for 300 on the Skins in Wellington's honor.
I'm rambling now... But I'll try to get to my point again. We all know what happened. But when the dust settled on that Superbowl, I cried. Just cried because it was 17 years since I had experienced that, and at least 10 of those years I was scrutinizing every move along the way. I stayed up all night watching coverage and didn't go to sleep until 6 am. At some point, I was talking to my uncle who said "now you know what it felt like for us when you were a kid and why it was so special to us". When you want something so bad, for so long, and you feel like it's never going to happen and then it does. There is just an indescribable joy and relief that goes with that. For it then to happen four years later... Well, Eli just symbolizes all of that for me. In a lot of ways, not in a religious way, Eli felt like a savior. It all felt meant to be. And when I look at this picture, it has come full circle and the book is now closed.
For a lot of you, this is year 9 or 10 of that awful drought. You've been miserable in the past decade and I understand. But know this, eventually, there will be a guy that comes along that is "your" guy. Like Eli was "my" guy, and like Phil Simms was "their" guy. Hopefully, that guy is here now and it's just the beginning. My 8 year old son is the same age as I was when the Giants won in 86...
One day "your" guy will be yesterday's news, and my son and daughter (and your sons and daughters) will be looking for "their" guy, while you/we're waxing poetic about whomever the last guy was... :)
I genuinely hope for you, and us all, that we get another guy like Eli. A guy that comes in as our savior and lifts us out of this rot and gives us ten years of joy that rival the 7-10 incredible years that Eli did before it all fell apart). I can't overstate how much of a privilege it was to be able to watch his career from beginning to end completely, and with that the ability to understand just how special those years were as it was happening. When #10 took the field, I always thought we were going to win. Not hoped, I believed it. I wish that for you/us all going forward.
Sorry for the rambling, and I hope that made sense. It's hard to put into words.
Unless you're a Browns fan. In which case, I'm sorry.
Helluva player, class act, & somebody you could count on every Sunday.
And call me sentimental, but I'm glad he retired only playing for us.
The first half of Manning's career represented the highest of the highs for me.
Eli was a class act on and off the field, and I feel like a lot of the disrespect he has gotten through the years is fueled by the rise in fantasy football and the thirst for stats from people who don’t really understand what winning means. Eli was about as clutch as they come which doesn’t always show up in the stat sheet.
I was 22 in 2004 and stationed in Korea during the draft. I remember staying up until 2am watching in the Day Room. Eli has been my "guy" for the majority of my adult life.
My favorite Giant.
2007 and 2011 were so good because I was able to enjoy them with my son who knew a lot about the game despite only being 10 and 14 for those wins. He is now 22 and has a deep love the football and deeper love for the Giants.
Here is to Jones, Barkley and our young team. Let's hope they bring some credibility to our team.
I still say, even after getting married and having my first kid, the night of XLII was a euphoric feeling that I don't know if I will ever feel again. Not saying that super bowl was better then my wife or kid, but that feeling was just insane.
Great post.
I still say, even after getting married and having my first kid, the night of XLII was a euphoric feeling that I don't know if I will ever feel again. Not saying that super bowl was better then my wife or kid, but that feeling was just insane.
Great post.
Totally.
I got engaged in 2005.
Got married, started a new career, and bought my first house at the beginning of the 2007 season.
My son was born in August 2011, right at the start of our next season.
My daughter followed in 2015 and we bought a new house in 2016.
Manning was there every Sunday. They were the greatest years of my life, and the Giants helped make them that by providing so much joy to supplement the great things that were happening for me personally.
Just turned 44 last Sunday.
Yup. Onward and upward.
Totally.
I got engaged in 2005.
Got married, started a new career, and bought my first house at the beginning of the 2007 season.
My son was born in August 2011, right at the start of our next season.
My daughter followed in 2015 and we bought a new house in 2016.
Manning was there every Sunday. They were the greatest years of my life, and the Giants helped make them that by providing so much joy to supplement the great things that were happening for me personally.
This time frame is nearly exact to mine...
That 2007 run was the first in my new house, so I vividly remember every Sunday being an event with friends over, and every match-up of that playoff run had a party following it. I even saved the champagne bottle my friends and I downed after Super Bowl 42.
My first born came in February of 2013, towards the tail end of this run, so all she knows is how much Daddy loves Eli. We moved into our new home in 2015 and my son came in March of 2016.
My negative view has been directed at the Giants these past few years, not Eli, so I'm pretty sure my kids think I'm more a fan of Eli than the Giants. Wednesday night I was watching the Eli coverage on NFL Network with my daughter in the room, and she curled up next to me and said "I'm sad that Eli is leaving".
The point being is that this group was easy to get attached to and form a bond with, which is why I had a hard time seeing fans become so negative towards Eli. I came to grips with moving onto the next phase, but I could NEVER turn hostile towards the guy who created so much joy for so many years.
That's what happens when your a fan of the Giants. We're fortunate to root for one of the most iconic franchises in all of sports.
To all of the young Giants fans. Don't despair about the most recent seasons. Our time will come again. History has proved that regarding our Giants
Sports greet. Phil was my guy, Y.A. my fathers. Eli my godson’s. The point? They are ALL Giants. Wee keep moving forward.
Then in the summer of 2011, my daughter was born. I can't believe how those seasons mirrored each other.
Anyway excellent post, I am a couple of years older. I was 12 and 16 for the 86/90 and I really connected with that 90 team as I was playing JV football and really falling love with the game so all 4 Superbowls have some meaning.
Really well put, Britt.
I understand and agree totally with your post though while a Simms guy I feel Eli just as much is my guy when it comes to Giants football.
On Simms....Denver Superbowl was awesome....hated Hostetler starting the Bills game but OJ carried the day. If Simms is the QB that day and they win there is a discussion of him being in Canton. He does not though have the cumulative stats Eli does...
I began watching the Giants when Tarkenton as the QB.
Low point was probably the fumble...
Parcells and beating SF in SF with Burt smacking Montana is one of my fav moments as a fan. As is Reasons and the 4th down hit against the Broncos and the fake punt run...
Eli in my mind though is the Giants all time best QB in my mind....solid and under rated. He beat the Pat's twice as a big underdog. The win in the cold in GB always sticks out as does the day he took all the hits from the 49ers. A team player who led by example and a QB who would have had much better stats if it was not for the failure of the front office to field a competitive team. The Earnhardt offense fit him.. strong run with play action pass.
I never saw Tittle play... Simms is right there but Eli is the guy...we are lucky to have had them all..once a Giant always a Giant
Then in the summer of 2011, my daughter was born. I can't believe how those seasons mirrored each other.
Anyway excellent post, I am a couple of years older. I was 12 and 16 for the 86/90 and I really connected with that 90 team as I was playing JV football and really falling love with the game so all 4 Superbowls have some meaning.
Really well put, Britt.
Please have another kid. Haha
Quote:
Me, as well, I moved into my new home that summer in 2007. My first son was born in 2007 as well and he is 12. He has the picture of him and I before the game in his Giants onesie.
Then in the summer of 2011, my daughter was born. I can't believe how those seasons mirrored each other.
Anyway excellent post, I am a couple of years older. I was 12 and 16 for the 86/90 and I really connected with that 90 team as I was playing JV football and really falling love with the game so all 4 Superbowls have some meaning.
Really well put, Britt.
Please have another kid. Haha
Bradshaw I’m 45 - like Eli , I’m also retired!!
Quote:
In comment 14792881 Drewcon40 said:
Quote:
Me, as well, I moved into my new home that summer in 2007. My first son was born in 2007 as well and he is 12. He has the picture of him and I before the game in his Giants onesie.
Then in the summer of 2011, my daughter was born. I can't believe how those seasons mirrored each other.
Anyway excellent post, I am a couple of years older. I was 12 and 16 for the 86/90 and I really connected with that 90 team as I was playing JV football and really falling love with the game so all 4 Superbowls have some meaning.
Really well put, Britt.
Please have another kid. Haha
Bradshaw I’m 45 - like Eli , I’m also retired!!
Lol, understandable.