Super Bowl XLVI: Eli Manning Changes the Narrative Without Changing Anything

Eli Manning is basically the same guy now as he was when the New York Giants traded the rights to Philip Rivers along with two other draft picks to the San Diego Chargers for Manning during the 2004 NFL draft.

In 2004, first-year coach Tom Coughlin installed Manning as the Giants’ starting quarterback in place of Kurt Warner despite New York’s 5-4 record and things did not go well from there.

The Giants were just 1-6 the rest of the way and Giants fans discovered many things about Manning they didn’t like.

He didn’t show any fire, the critics said. His body language is bad, they claimed. The naysayers asked, what’s up with that goofy tilt of the head when something goes wrong?

Seven years later, the fans and the critics have some different descriptions of Eli Manning.

Unbelievably cool under pressure, they say. Never gets rattled, is the mantra. Has the same demeanor if it’s Week 1 of the preseason or if it’s the Super Bowl, it’s been said.

The funny part about it is this: Eli Manning didn’t change. It is our perception of him that did.

The 2011 season turned into Manning’s coming-out party; we just didn’t get the invitations in advance.

From the now-infamous interview with Michael Kay on ESPN 1050 Radio shortly before training camp opened, when Manning said he believed he was in the class of the elite quarterbacks in the NFL, to Sunday night, when Manning hoisted the Vince Lombardi Trophy over his head for the second time in four years, Eli basically forced everyone to acknowledge his rightful place among the league’s hierarchy of quarterbacks.

There was the career-high and Giants’ franchise-record 4,933 yards. There was the NFL-record 15 fourth-quarter touchdown passes. There were the six fourth-quarter victories he engineered during the regular season.

Four years ago, when the Giants rode a rugged running game and an air-tight defense to a Super Bowl title, Manning made some big plays but his role at that time was basically not to screw anything up.

The Giants didn’t depend on him to win games for them. Instead, they just didn’t want him losing them, something he was capable of at times with his tendency to throw interceptions by the bushel-basketful.

If you can point to one thing—and only one thing—that has changed over the course of Manning’s career, it is that; he no longer takes as many chances with the football.

He cut his interception total during the regular season from a league-high 25 in 2010 to a more manageable 16 while increasing his average yards-per-attempt from 6.5 to a career-high 8.1 in the process.

This year, when the Giants scratched and clawed to barely reach the postseason party, things were different.

The Giants offense ran through Manning, who was now expected to do more than just manage games; he was supposed to win them.

And win them, he did.

He completed 65 percent of his passes in the postseason for 1,219 yards and nine touchdowns against just one pick in four playoff games.

He is the all-time road warrior among NFL quarterbacks, with a record seven postseason wins away from home.

He is unquestionably elite. He’s a two-time Super Bowl MVP, for crying out loud. He quarterbacked the first 9-7 team to roll through the playoffs to win the whole enchilada.

Yet through all the highs and lows, Eli Manning never really changed a thing.

It was us who did the changing, of our perspective and our tune.