The resemblance is such that complete strangers will stop and inform me of this doppleganger situation; “has anyone ever told you…” yes. Yes they have. It doesn’t really bother me when people draw the comparison; it is quite uncanny, and has made Halloween a very easy holiday for me.
Just a couple 10’s. (2013)
The face he makes when a ball bounces off his receivers hands and into the defenders is one that has at times dominated meme culture in sports. That’s my face. I don’t really know exactly how this factors into the feelings I have surrounding the news that broke this past Tuesday, but it seems relevant. For the first time since I truly started following the Giants, Eli Manning will not be the starting quarterback. I suppose the likeness we share makes me a bigger Eli sympathizer than most.
There have been a variety of takes over the past few days, ranging from the irate Mike Francesa to the calculated Colin Cowherd. When I first heard the news I definitely found myself skewing in the direction of Francesa. As the days have passed, I have calmed a bit, and can appreciate the Cowherd’s argument. He is essentially saying the Giants saw an opportunity – with the 49ers starting Jimmy Garoppolo – to secure a top 2 draft pick this coming spring. I understand it, it makes sense, what Cowherd is presenting is the rational reaction. Francesa gives us all the emotional reaction.
This struggle between rational and emotional has always been there with sports, especially when it comes to aging stars. The increased role of advanced statistics over the past two decades has exacerbated this struggle. I’m not knocking one side or the other. I actually kind of love the debate, because both sides can be right.
Cowherd is absolutely correct to say that statistically Eli is not an amazing quarterback. He is right when he argues the best move for the Giants, seeing the writing on the wall this season, is to do everything they can to secure as high a draft pick as possible. (I’m not sure Ben Macadoo or Jerry Reese are smart enough to orchestrate this sort of thing, which leaves Mara as the chess master in this hypothetical scenario!) Again, I understand the argument, I don’t necessarily think it’s being executed very gracefully if this is what’s happening.
Which brings me to the emotional, because remember both sides can be right. Francesa listens to Macadoo’s press conference wherein he is questioned about the decision to bench Eli in favor of Geno Smith, and subsequently goes full New York sports radio host, and it is fantastic. The part that irrationally bothers me is the way that the Giants have hypocritically held themselves up as a class organization, refusing to fire the real slicked-backed mustachioed problem mid-season, because, “they don’t do that.”
This has been the strangest, least fun Giants season I have lived through, and this is just another chapter. Eli didn’t deserve to have his time in New York end this way (if this is in fact the end of his time in New York). If the Giants organization is actually conspiring to land a top two pick, they had better be right about what they do with it, because even with Eli, this team wasn’t winning more than maybe one more game this season. Except now they have alienated the fans, because I imagine they all find themselves thinking more like Francesa.
I know I said both sides can be right, and that’s still true. But as I watch that video, and see that face, my face, holding back tears, I’m left with one thought:
What about Eli Manning’s NFL career has been rational?
What was rational about the way he entered the league? What was rational about the David Tyree play? What was rational about beating the best team in the history of football twice? The answer is: nothing. Nothing about Eli ever really made sense, so I guess it’s fitting that the potential end of his Giants career, doesn’t make sense either. I want Eli to come back. I want the Giants to draft the next franchise quarterback in the offseason, and I want the previous franchise quarterback to be there to mentor him for a couple years. But if Eli doesn’t come back, I wouldn’t blame him at all. Where ever he ends up, I’ll be rooting for him, and that goofy face of his.
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