arthurracoon
The Cardinal Smiles
Good fortune finds Mannings . . . and steers them away from desert
Dan Bickley
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 18, 2004 12:00 AM
Eli's coming
An early look at how Eli Manning might fit in with the teams picking at the top of the 2004 draft:
1. SAN DIEGO: Drew Brees is supposed to be the quarterback of the future, but given that he spent the end of his third season watching 41-year-old Doug Flutie take his job, the Chargers might be ready to start over.
2. OAKLAND: Rich Gannon is only one year removed from a Pro Bowl season, but he's now 38 and broke down after seven games in 2003.
3. ARIZONA: The Cardinals have no shortage of needs, but it's doubtful new coach Dennis Green is comfortable planning his revival around incumbent QBs Jeff Blake and Josh McCown.
Crazy luck can't go on forever, and sometimes, Archie Manning is afraid to cross the street.
One child has risen above every other quarterback in the NFL. Another was a Heisman Trophy finalist and now is the hottest collegian in the country.
So, does this embarrassment of fatherly fortune end today, when prime-time Peyton squares off against Bill Belichick's darkest thoughts?
Or does it happen when young Eli gets drafted by the Cardinals?
"I'll be honest with you, it's lining up like it did with Peyton six years ago," Archie Manning said. "Back then, I had people telling me to pull an Elway, that you don't want to go there (Indianapolis). That team was starting over.
"I hear my friends talking again (about the Cardinals), but I'll tell you, it's just not in our nature to do that."
Still, Manning understands the irony, for he has skirted this Arizona scenario before. That was in 1997, when the Cardinals staged a remarkable rally to beat the Falcons in the last game of the season, thus losing any chance to draft Peyton.
The Colts snagged him with the No. 1 pick and immediately changed the lineage of a sorry franchise that once failed to sign John Elway. That was largely due to another football father, Jack Elway, who didn't want his son in the hands of Colts coach Frank Kush.
So here is Archie Manning - once again looking at the Cardinals, the losses and all the empty seats - and wondering like any sane father would.
"I know Arizona hasn't had a lot of success in the last 15 years, and that people are critical of the organization," he said. "I also know and respect Dennis Green. We're not going to assume anything with Eli, and we'll just have to see how the process works."
Manning knows something else, though. When Peyton steps on the field today in New England, he could make all of this worrying go away. He is in the midst of one of the greatest playoff runs a quarterback has ever had, and if you prefer images, think of Joe Montana times two.
By the numbers, that would be 44 completions in 56 passes, no interceptions and a punter whose leg is atrophying from lack of use.
In this postseason, Peyton has become the brain surgeon of his trade. Now he is facing the perfect nemesis in the Patriots' Belichick, a diabolic game-planner who lives to rattle quarterbacks. If Manning finds his way through this collision course, the DNA factor goes off the charts and young Eli surely will be the No. 1 pick in the draft. That would put him in San Diego instead of Arizona.
"I was just telling his mother the other day that what's happening with Peyton is certainly not hurting Eli," Archie Manning said. "Someone asked me if I was kind of living through my children, and I had never felt that way before. But I'll admit that during these two playoff games, maybe I am. I played 15 years and never got to the playoffs. I know how hard it is."
Truly, it has been a season that makes a father's vehicle and thoughts run in many directions.
Peyton has been the lucky one. The first pass he threw in the NFL went for a touchdown. The Colts went from 3-13 to 13-3 in his second season. And here they are, playing for a shot at the Super Bowl.
But his oldest son, Cooper, had to quit the game after being diagnosed with a spinal cord condition. He is an institutional broker in New Orleans. Young Eli could end up in the wrong situation, where all the money in the world can't soothe the losing.
Archie would know. His own career was defined by all those bad teams in New Orleans, ones that had Manning scrambling for his life on nearly every snap, ones that made him a model of resolute toughness. In those days, the Saints were known as the Ain'ts.
Of course, he already had grown accustomed to hard knocks in college, when Archie's father committed suicide.
"Peyton always kept up pretty good, a student of the game, a historian," Manning said. "Eli was the other way around. He just didn't pay much attention to the past. Once he signed with Ole Miss, he was looking through the media guides. I guess people told him how good I was. He called me and said, 'Dad, your numbers aren't that good.' "
Eli broke 45 passing records at Ole Miss, including 27 of his father's. Now, only one of Archie's remains intact. Eli could be the best Manning yet, and I really should refrain from teasing Cardinals fans with the following:
The Manning brothers and Cardinals coach Dennis Green are represented by the same agency, IMG. And it's likely that young Eli already has completed his first pass to Anquan Boldin, as the two are currently working out with a group of IMG clients in Florida.
"Eli told me he met Anquan the other day," Archie Manning said.
Alas, the way things are going, the Cardinals never will get a chance to draft young Eli. Not if they don't trade up. Not with the way Peyton's playing. Not with the way Archie's luck has been lately.
So the elder Manning will take his seat in New England today and shake his head. A sudden reprieve is expected from the bitter weather. His boys are living large, and Archie feels like an overly blessed father, patriarch of the first family of quarterbacks.
If he gets a moment, he may think of the strangest twist in luck yet: that day in Arizona when Josh McCown threw a touchdown pass to Nate Poole, capping another improbable comeback that kept one of his boys out of the NFL's withering desert.
Dan Bickley
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 18, 2004 12:00 AM
Eli's coming
An early look at how Eli Manning might fit in with the teams picking at the top of the 2004 draft:
1. SAN DIEGO: Drew Brees is supposed to be the quarterback of the future, but given that he spent the end of his third season watching 41-year-old Doug Flutie take his job, the Chargers might be ready to start over.
2. OAKLAND: Rich Gannon is only one year removed from a Pro Bowl season, but he's now 38 and broke down after seven games in 2003.
3. ARIZONA: The Cardinals have no shortage of needs, but it's doubtful new coach Dennis Green is comfortable planning his revival around incumbent QBs Jeff Blake and Josh McCown.
Crazy luck can't go on forever, and sometimes, Archie Manning is afraid to cross the street.
One child has risen above every other quarterback in the NFL. Another was a Heisman Trophy finalist and now is the hottest collegian in the country.
So, does this embarrassment of fatherly fortune end today, when prime-time Peyton squares off against Bill Belichick's darkest thoughts?
Or does it happen when young Eli gets drafted by the Cardinals?
"I'll be honest with you, it's lining up like it did with Peyton six years ago," Archie Manning said. "Back then, I had people telling me to pull an Elway, that you don't want to go there (Indianapolis). That team was starting over.
"I hear my friends talking again (about the Cardinals), but I'll tell you, it's just not in our nature to do that."
Still, Manning understands the irony, for he has skirted this Arizona scenario before. That was in 1997, when the Cardinals staged a remarkable rally to beat the Falcons in the last game of the season, thus losing any chance to draft Peyton.
The Colts snagged him with the No. 1 pick and immediately changed the lineage of a sorry franchise that once failed to sign John Elway. That was largely due to another football father, Jack Elway, who didn't want his son in the hands of Colts coach Frank Kush.
So here is Archie Manning - once again looking at the Cardinals, the losses and all the empty seats - and wondering like any sane father would.
"I know Arizona hasn't had a lot of success in the last 15 years, and that people are critical of the organization," he said. "I also know and respect Dennis Green. We're not going to assume anything with Eli, and we'll just have to see how the process works."
Manning knows something else, though. When Peyton steps on the field today in New England, he could make all of this worrying go away. He is in the midst of one of the greatest playoff runs a quarterback has ever had, and if you prefer images, think of Joe Montana times two.
By the numbers, that would be 44 completions in 56 passes, no interceptions and a punter whose leg is atrophying from lack of use.
In this postseason, Peyton has become the brain surgeon of his trade. Now he is facing the perfect nemesis in the Patriots' Belichick, a diabolic game-planner who lives to rattle quarterbacks. If Manning finds his way through this collision course, the DNA factor goes off the charts and young Eli surely will be the No. 1 pick in the draft. That would put him in San Diego instead of Arizona.
"I was just telling his mother the other day that what's happening with Peyton is certainly not hurting Eli," Archie Manning said. "Someone asked me if I was kind of living through my children, and I had never felt that way before. But I'll admit that during these two playoff games, maybe I am. I played 15 years and never got to the playoffs. I know how hard it is."
Truly, it has been a season that makes a father's vehicle and thoughts run in many directions.
Peyton has been the lucky one. The first pass he threw in the NFL went for a touchdown. The Colts went from 3-13 to 13-3 in his second season. And here they are, playing for a shot at the Super Bowl.
But his oldest son, Cooper, had to quit the game after being diagnosed with a spinal cord condition. He is an institutional broker in New Orleans. Young Eli could end up in the wrong situation, where all the money in the world can't soothe the losing.
Archie would know. His own career was defined by all those bad teams in New Orleans, ones that had Manning scrambling for his life on nearly every snap, ones that made him a model of resolute toughness. In those days, the Saints were known as the Ain'ts.
Of course, he already had grown accustomed to hard knocks in college, when Archie's father committed suicide.
"Peyton always kept up pretty good, a student of the game, a historian," Manning said. "Eli was the other way around. He just didn't pay much attention to the past. Once he signed with Ole Miss, he was looking through the media guides. I guess people told him how good I was. He called me and said, 'Dad, your numbers aren't that good.' "
Eli broke 45 passing records at Ole Miss, including 27 of his father's. Now, only one of Archie's remains intact. Eli could be the best Manning yet, and I really should refrain from teasing Cardinals fans with the following:
The Manning brothers and Cardinals coach Dennis Green are represented by the same agency, IMG. And it's likely that young Eli already has completed his first pass to Anquan Boldin, as the two are currently working out with a group of IMG clients in Florida.
"Eli told me he met Anquan the other day," Archie Manning said.
Alas, the way things are going, the Cardinals never will get a chance to draft young Eli. Not if they don't trade up. Not with the way Peyton's playing. Not with the way Archie's luck has been lately.
So the elder Manning will take his seat in New England today and shake his head. A sudden reprieve is expected from the bitter weather. His boys are living large, and Archie feels like an overly blessed father, patriarch of the first family of quarterbacks.
If he gets a moment, he may think of the strangest twist in luck yet: that day in Arizona when Josh McCown threw a touchdown pass to Nate Poole, capping another improbable comeback that kept one of his boys out of the NFL's withering desert.