I wrote a column for Bullz-Eye.com in April of 2004 defending Archie Manning’s decision to tell the San Diego Chargers to not draft his son Eli with the first overall pick in the draft:
“Coming out of Ole Miss, Archie Manning was destined for superstardom. But because the Saints failed to surround him with quality talent, he fell well short of those early expectations. Playing in the NFL is a dream come true for anybody who actually makes it, but looking back on his career you can bet Manning recognizes everything that those years in New Orleans cost him.
So why wouldn’t Archie want to spare Eli that same fate with another abysmal franchise like the Chargers? As a parent, don’t we want our children to benefit from our own mistakes and misfortunes rather than repeat them?
It’s simple: In San Diego, Eli could’ve become the next Archie Manning; in New York, he could be the next Peyton Manning.”
Man, did I take a beating from Chargers fans. Not right after I wrote the column, though. No, San Diego fans decided to bombard my inbox with hate mail after the Chargers made the playoffs. They cleverly called Manning “She-li” and asked if I thought Archie would rather have his son playing in San Diego now. And then they called me names. A whole bunch of names. None of them as witty as She-li, but they came up with some doosies.
My response at the time was, let’s see where the Chargers and Giants are in a couple of years. The Bolts were coming off a Cinderella season that ended with them making a surprise appearance in the playoffs. Of course, the way these San Diego fans made it sound, they all expected Drew Brees to lead their team to the postseason whereas everyone else expected a repeat of 2003’s 4-12 performance. And obviously, they expected continued success for their team and sustained failure for Eli and the Giants.
I originally said to wait a couple of years before comparing the progress of Eli to that of the Chargers franchise, but maybe we only had to wait a few months. The Giants travel to San Diego this Sunday, a game that’ll be televised nationwide on ESPN at 8:30. Chargers fans are going to be all over Eli. It’s gonna be ugly. And he, rightfully so, expects it to be. This is the moment Bolts fans have been waiting for since last year’s draft, the chance to prove to the prima-donna She-li and his cry-baby daddy that they made a mistake.
The only problem is, the Giants are 2-0 and the Chargers are 0-2.
Plus, while Manning is still developing as a QB, the Giants look to have one of the better teams in the NFC. Tiki Barber has picked up right where he left off last year, the defense looks solid, Manning has been finding Jeremy Shockey and newcomer Plaxico Burress downfield, and they’re well-coached by Tom Coughlin. As for the Chargers, they lost two tough games to the Cowboys and Broncos by a total of seven points, they haven’t found a groove offensively, and you can bet they liked their 4-12 schedule more than their 12-4 schedule — the Patriots, Steelers, Raiders, Eagles, Chiefs, Jets and Bills await in the seven games following Sunday’s match-up with the G-men.
It still may be too early to predict how this one will end up, but from the looks of things right now, I’d say I won’t be getting any hate mail from Chargers fans anytime soon.
