Way back in 2004 before the NFL Draft, all the buzz surrounded Eli Manning and the ultimatum he gave to the San Diego Chargers, I won't play for you, pulling a John Elway trying to avoid being selected by a disfuncional franchise and despite being officially picked by San Diego it didn't take very long until they shipped him off to the Giants for Phillip Rivers and a bunch of picks.
Now here we are almost two decades later, Eli Making recently announced his retirement and the future surrounding Phillip Rivers is completely unknown, he recently moved his family to Florida.
The scenario each one of them is facing right now illustrates why Manning made the right decision by opting not to play for the Chargers.
It's easy to look at the two Superbowls and say everything worked out for him, but playing in San Diego hasn't been the worst thing in the world over the last 15 years, they probably had more talent than the Giants over that period, definitely more offensive talent. Eli never had a running back like Ladainian Tomlinson he never had a Tight end like Antonio Gates and even without winning the Super Bowl then Chargers bave been consistently present in the playoffs.
A completely illogical hypothetical is that if Eli doesn't demand a trade and plays to the same level he did in his career both in the regular season and in the playoffs, the Chargers have at least one Super Bowl. The truth is nobody knows what would really happen but it's not that risky of a lot.
My point is that it's not like Eli Manning avoided playing for the Browns, but looking beyond the gridiron you see even more clearly why he made the right decision.
The last years for Eli with New York weren't exactly moments to remember, a lot of disappointing campaigns and subpar play from the former number one overall pick, being benched for Geno Smith even if for only a game, losing his starting spot in 2019 to Daniel Jones after just a couple of games, despite all of that the ending for the two time Super Bowl MVP came with class, dignity and all the respect he deserves. John Mara made sure he was honoured properly and his jersey was retired basically on the spot.
Phillip Rivers is also facing an ending in San Diego whether it happens this year or in the next remains unclear the important fact to take notice is that for a variety of reasons there is no proper send-off, for a player that can still contribute and probably wants to keep playing there is no signal that they'd like to resign him, like you are seeing in New Orleans for instance, there is no signal that they will be moving on from Rivers just to get it out of the way and pay tribute to his career. The front office and ownership for the Chargers seem to be frustrated with their Quarterback and dragging this situation for a long time. The horrible move to relocate killed the fanbase which also really diminished the support and recognition for the NC State product.
The bottom line is the level of appreciation both players are receiving right now is very different, too different when you look at what they both did. Eli won the two Super Bowls but Rivers was better in the regular season, played the most consecutive games other than Brett Favre, think about how much you heard about that streak when it came to Eli but nobody remembers Rivers actually surpassed him, a lot of that has to do with how they are treated by both franchises.
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