We’ve been building to this for years, but now that Eli Manning will announce his retirement, the NFL punditry can finally dive in the deep end and have all the “Is Eli a Hall of Famer?” arguments they’ve been itching to have forever.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, well congratulations. Just read the below paragraph while smacking yourself in the face and you’ll understand what the next six months of sports radio will be like:
He won two Super Bowls! He took down the Patriots! He also was a perfect .500 as a starter! He threw a lot of picks! Maybe his playing in New York City gave him more attention than he deserved! But those Super Bowls! Helmet catch! HELMET CATCH!!!!
Anyway, Eli’s brother Peyton Manning has now weighed in on the topic, with an interview with the Broncos’ official team site. There he proclaimed not to know what “drop the mic” meant, then proceeded to drop the mic on the conversation.
“When you’re the Super Bowl MVP twice against the greatest dynasty of all-time, the New England Patriots, Tom Brady/Bill Belichick, and you join a list that includes Terry Bradshaw, Bart Starr, Tom Brady and Joe Montana, Eli Manning as the only (multiple) Super Bowl MVPs.
“I don’t really know what that term, ‘drop the mic’ is, but I guess if there was one. … There really is no ‘yeah, but’ after that. That kind of ends it. But if you want a, ‘yeah, but,’ yeah, but he also started 220-plus consecutive games. He’s sixth or seventh all-time in touchdowns. It wasn’t like he just played those two seasons.
Manning would go on to say this stuff doesn’t matter to him, and it doesn’t matter to Eli, though from the clear way he presented his argument, and the fact that he gave this interview, it’s pretty clear he does care, in some way.
And he should! It’s his brother! A brother who was a bit of a derp but by all accounts a nice guy who won two Super Bowls, and made some great throws doing it.
[opinary poll=”should-eli-manning-be-in-the-hall-of-fam” customer=”forthewin”]
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