By Billy Watkins
When I caught up with Eli Manning recently, he was getting ready to make a three-hour drive from New Jersey to Delaware for daughter Ava’s lacrosse tournament.
“I’ve got swimmers, tennis players, lacrosse players, hockey players,” said Eli, the father of four — Ava (13), Lucy (11), Caroline (8) and Charlie (5). “You name a sport and we’ve either tried it or playing it.”
He has coached Charlie in flag football and tee-ball, coached the girls in basketball and softball.
“I’ve got maybe one more year of coaching basketball with them. They’ve kinda outgrown my coaching capabilities, but I get to start over with Charlie and that will be fun,” he said.
A two-time Super Bowl champion and MVP with the New York Giants, Eli is one of eight who will be inducted Saturday night into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame at the Clyde Muse Center in Pearl.
The list includes the late Walter “Red” Barber, broadcaster; Richard Duease, basketball coach; Paul Elias, pro bass fisherman; Savanté Stringfellow, track; Becky Vest, tennis; Jimmy Webb, football.
“It’s an honor being selected and I’m looking forward to visiting with the others who are being inducted,” said Eli, who was the starting quarterback at Ole Miss from 2001 through 2003. “There are so many great athletes in the Hall of Fame, a lot of guys I got to play with at Ole Miss like Deuce McAllister, Terrence Metcalf and Patrick Willis. Other Ole Miss guys like Charlie Conerly. And then other great players like Jerry Rice and Walter Payton.
“Being mentioned among those names is really special.”
His legendary father, Archie, was inducted in 1989. They are the fifth father-son duo to be selected.
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Eli has reflected a lot lately on his time at Ole Miss, which was more than 20 years ago now.
“I think about the friendships I made and how much they still mean to me,” he said. “I’ve got a text chain with a lot of the guys and I’ve invited them to come if they can and celebrate the night with me.
“Of course, it means a lot to go into the same Hall of Fame that my dad is already in. And even though I grew up in Louisiana, I love Mississippi,” he said.
He recalled the summers visiting his mom Olivia’s family in Philadelphia and Archie’s mom, Sis, in Drew. The Neshoba County Fair was an annual tradition.
“And I had a lot of great times in Oxford, going to football games and visiting (eldest brother) Cooper when he was in college there,” he said.
The Rebels won 24 games during Eli’s three seasons as a starter. They beat Alabama and Florida twice. Won the Egg Bowl twice. Defeated Nebraska and Oklahoma State in bowl games.
They made a magical run Eli’s senior year, only to come up short against LSU 17-14 late in the season. It was a game packed with future NFL players from both teams.
I asked Eli about his favorite on-field memories as a Rebel.
“My sophomore year, we beat Alabama at home,” he said. “We hadn’t beaten them in 12 years. We had a great two-minute drive to get the game-winning touchdown. I remember hitting Toward Sanford with a pass on a little scramble, rollout play down the sideline. Then hitting Joe Gunn on a swing pass to the left and Joe running over the defender to score. It was a great drive, great atmosphere.
“And my senior year, we beat Alabama at home, beat Florida on the road, went to Auburn and had another two-minute drive late in the game to win. That gave us a chance to play LSU at home to go to the SEC championship game. We had opportunities and just came up a little short. But all those wins my senior year were special.”
The loss to LSU was the biggest disappointment, he said, but a seven-overtime loss to Arkansas his sophomore year still hurts, too.
“It was such a unique game to be a part of,” he said, “and it really hurt us badly the rest of the season. We were playing pretty good, had just beaten LSU on the road. And then that loss sorta took the buzz out of us.”
In the NFL, one of his most impressive victories was in the 2007 NFC championship game at night vs. Green Bay at legendary Lambeau Field. Game-time temperature was minus-1 with a wind chill of minus-23.
Eli and receiver Plaxico Burress cut their usual pregame 45-minute throwing session to a half-dozen passes before sprinting to the dressing room.
The Giants beat the Packers 23-20 in overtime. Eli completed 21 of 40 for 251 yards and — perhaps most important — zero turnovers.
So how did he perform so flawlessly in such brutal conditions?
“I think part of it was just wanting to go to a Super Bowl so badly,” he said. “And we had these big gloves that came up to my elbow and they had six or seven heat packs in them. I’d wear them the entire time the defense was on the field. And I got my backup, Jared Lorenzen, to wear them when I was in the game so he’d be sure and keep them warm. But I had to keep my right hand warm. If I hadn’t, my hand wouldn’t function. It was that cold.”
In that four-game postseason stretch, which ended with a victory in the Super Bowl over the previously unbeaten New England Patriots, Eli defeated teams whose starting quarterbacks were Jeff Garcia, Tony Romo, Brett Favre and Tom Brady.
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His awards are many.
He left Ole Miss with 10,119 passing yards and 84 touchdowns — both career school records.
He started 210 consecutive NFL games, third-most for a quarterback..
His 57,023 yards and 366 touchdowns rank 10th-best in NFL history. His No,. 10 jersey has been retired by the Giants and Ole Miss.
He earned the NFL Walter Payton Man of the Year Award in 2016 for his community impact.
That impact has been felt by Mississippi families for nearly two decades. Eli and wife Abby helped raise $2.9 million for an outpatient clinic at Children’s of Mississippi in Jackson, formerly known as Blair Batson Hospital. It is the only children’s cancer center in the state.
Eli and Abby didn’t just ask others to give. They donated as well — money and time.
Dr. James Keeton, then the vice chancellor for health affairs at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, told me in 2011: “Eli has helped children in Mississippi in a way that very few people will ever match.”
Eli is also working with the children’s cancer center in Hackensack, N.J.
These are the deeds Archie enjoys talking about when it comes to his sons — much more than touchdown passes and Super Bowl wins.
“We’re proud of all three of our boys,” Archie said this week in a phone interview. “We’ve seen Cooper overcome a heartbreaking situation at Ole Miss when he had to give up football (because of spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the space surrounding the spinal cord.) He has a great family and been very successful in business.
“Peyton and (wife) Ashley have done wonderful things for the Peyton Manning Childen’s Hospital of Indianapolis. You know, Eli is five years younger than Peyton, and he watched Peyton and what he did up there.
“Eli came to me and said, ‘Dad, I want to do something for Mississippi.’ I told him about Blair Batson and how it’s part of the Ole Miss medical school.”
When the money had been raised for Children’s of Mississippi — $400,000 more than the $2.5 million goal — Archie told Eli the same thing he had said to Peyton in Indianapolis: “Son, this is your finest hour.”
“And it was,” Archie said. “Because there is nothing sadder than a sick child.”
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