Why Jeremy Lin, Not Eli Manning, Is Apple of New York City's Eye

In a time when the New York Giants stole the Super Bowl, you would think that the man who led the team there would be getting all the headlines. But the man who stole the Super Bowl, Eli Manning, is seeing the headlines stolen from him by a kid whom no one had ever heard of until a week ago: Jeremy Lin. 

Lest you think I'm exaggerating, "Linsantiy" has rendered Eli Manning Linsignificant. Since Lin has been starting for the Knicks, the ratings are up 66 percent over last year. In fact, Forbes estimates that he already has the sixth highest brand of any athlete in the world!

Linsanity is right! So, what it is about this kid that has made the normally jaded city of New York fall in love so hard so fast?

It's the very culture of the city itself. It's almost as though Horatio Alger, the American novelist who got fame and fortune writing about those finding fame and fortune in New York City, wrote the Lin story himself. New York City is built around and consists of underdogs vying for the opportunity to strike it rich. 

Eli Mannig's story is closer to the Alger villain than the Alger hero—he who has all the privileges of wealth and society bestowed upon him by virtue of his royal birth. Don't go overly literal on this with me, or overly literary for that matter. I'm not suggesting Manning has't earned his way. He has, however, gotten a lot of opportunity that based on his family pedigree. It's not the kid of story the Big Apple embraces.

No, it's the rags to riches story. The underdog overcoming odds to make it in the world. It's a story that New Yorkers love because it's the one they are all trying to live. 

There's been much said about the "perfect fit" of Jeremy Lin and the Mike D' Antoni offense, and that's a perfectly valid observation. That's only half the story, though. The other "perfect fit" is a point guard who suddenly emerges to lead the Knicks while living on his brother's couch in the city of New York. 

Lin is a hero in New York because he's the kind of hero that the city embraces. That's something that Manning, through no fault of his own, can never be. New York City loves this story because they all believe they can be this story, and this gives hope.