ESPN the Magazine's Christmas Eve issue has Eli Manning front and center - not to crown him one of the NFL's great quarterbacks mind you - but to participate in everybody's favorite pastime - doubting Eli. It's absurd. All he's done is win two Super Bowl trophies, one of which was against what might have been the best team in the history of the NFL, but for Eli, who in the most dramatic fashion in the history of the game, in a play that couldn't have been written any more beautifully if it was in a movie, escaped the doom of a fierce oncoming Patriots pass rush, threw a rocket down the center of the field to an unheralded receiver under blanket protection striking his helmet with the ball's leather so hard that David Tyree had no choice but to catch it. And then he followed it with the winning touchdown. It was perhaps the finest moment of football ever played, and Eli was the star.
Eli Manning was made for the Hall of Fame.
If Eli was anybody but Eli he'd have already been anointed one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. He has two Super Bowl MVP's playing for one of the most prestigious large-market teams in the league in the New York Giants. That alone would ordinarily be enough for a ticket punched into Canton. Except, his name is Eli, and because of it, he suffers the jealousy of many and the irrational hatred of some. It makes no sense, and I've long wondered why.
For years I've listened to the doubters, and pondered from whence their angst comes. After some amount of thought I've concluded that the inexplicable dislike some have for Eli comes down to three things:
1. He bucked the entire college football system and followed his heart to Ole Miss where he wasn't able to overcome the lack of talent around him to get the team to a BCS bowl. The outside world loves to hate on Ole Miss, and Eli has suffered for it, not that he's worried about it. He loves Ole Miss and Oxford more than ever. But for the same reason Eli will forever be endeared to Ole Miss fans, he's disdained by those who couldn't stand his audacity for taking the path less chosen over the norm like Texas, Tennessee or Florida. Those same people also can't stand that Manning was so coveted coming out of Ole Miss that he was able to dictate which teams could or couldn't draft him and actually did so, refusing to go to the San Diego Chargers;
2. Eli is the younger brother of Peyton Manning and son of Archie Manning. To the world Eli didn't earn his greatness. He inherited it. Nobody likes a spoiled rich kid. To to the haters Eli was spoiled with talent, and it drives them stark raving mad. They'll look for any evidence they can find to make a case against him;
3. He is too dang nice. There's not a person on earth with a humility to greatness ratio higher than Eli's. Nice guys, in case you haven't heard, usually finish last, making Eli one of life's great underdogs. But Eli will pull a 4th quarter comeback against that old adage, too. After he wins his 3rd Super Bowl there will be little dispute but that Eli is the cream of the crop - elite - and worthy of the top.
But there will always be haters. No matter how much more success Eli has over the remaining half of his career.
That's why, when Eli Manning takes the stage at Canton to give his acceptance speech to the NFL Hall of Fame, he'll have earned it more so than any man before him.
And Rebel Nation will celebrate.