Eli Manning retires a Giants legend with complex NFL legacy

Eli Manning will reportedly announce his retirement on Friday and he walks away as New York Giants royalty but also with a complex NFL legacy.

If the purpose of taking a player No. 1 overall in the NFL Draft is for that player to lead your team to the highest heights, then Eli Manning fits the bill as the top-overall selection in the 2004 draft. Traded from the then-San Diego Chargers to the New York Giants on draft day as Manning refused to play for the Bolts, the Ole Miss quarterback headed to the Big Apple.

Guiding the way to two Super Bowl victories in 2007 and 2011, Manning became a Giants legend for that alone. There’s having success and then there’s having success in New York, which is what Eli Manning managed to do. But with Daniel Jones taking the reins of the offense as a rookie in the 2019 season, the writing seemed to be on the wall for Manning’s career.

Sure enough, rather than suit up as a backup or stopgap starter for the Giants or elsewhere in the NFL, the 39-year old Manning is hanging up his cleats. As reported by ESPN’s Dan Graziano and Jordan Ranaan, the quarterback will hold a press conference on Friday to announce his retirement:

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It’s certainly time for Manning to walk away from the game, which is meant with no disrespect. However, we watched his skills deteriorate over the final years of his career, thus necessitating drafting Jones in 2019 and then starting him as a rookie. And frankly, it wouldn’t be right for him to have anything other than the white “NY” on a blue helmet.

Manning will go down as a Giants legend and one of the greatest New York athletes in history. Like I said, success in that city means more arguably than anywhere else. So the fact that he not only captured two Lombardi Trophies but was the Super Bowl MVP in both instances only cements the fact that he brought Big Blue to the pinnacle of the NFL world throughout his career.

Outside of New York, however, the legacy of Eli Manning is a bit complicated. There are sure to be arguments about whether or not the quarterback deserves to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame once he’s eligible but, in the simplest truth, he’s a lock to get his gold jacket. For his notoriety, Super Bowl championships and Super Bowl MVPs, Manning will be enshrined in Canton.

And yet, the fact that there are many who will vocally oppose that notion speaks to the complicated nature of Manning and what he did in his NFL career.

Perhaps there’s no more fitting number to describe Manning than to say that he finishes his career with a 117-117-0 record as a starter, an even .500 for his career. While he retires sitting seventh in career pass completions, passing yards and passing touchdowns in NFL history, the bulk of Manning’s career in New York was defined by him merely being an average quarterback playing for a long time in an increasingly pass-happy league.

Even looking at Manning’s Super Bowl exploits, those teams were largely buoyed by terrific defenses and supporting casts. To be sure, when the lights got the brightest, Manning turned it up a notch, submitting virtuoso playoff performances to get his team to the mountaintop.

And yet, he was one-and-done in his other four playoff appearances in his career, completing well under 60 percent of his passes with three games under 170 yards passing, only three touchdowns and seven interceptions.

The fact of the matter is that you have to take the whole picture of Eli Manning when you look back at his 16-year career. He was often pedestrian, had just six playoff appearances over that long career and undoubtedly had some stinkers along the way. But he was also capable of reaching down and pulling out greatness, which he showed with his Super Bowl MVP performances.

Eli Manning is a Hall-of-Famer and there will be no convincing me of the contrary. He’s also a New York sports icon, a Giants legend, the owner of two rings and one of the most unforgettable figures in NFL history. He’s also a player that was rarely at the top of his position in the ranks of the league and that had his share of warts on the field. That’s all part of the picture, which makes him all the more fascinating as he says goodbye.