Eli Manning Comments on Peyton's Retirement, NFL Career

After Peyton Manning's emotional retirement on Monday, New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning is the last member of the family left in the NFL.   

He wanted to surprise his older brother in Denver, per the New York Post's Paul Schwartz, but an illness kept him home. 

However, Eli did speak to Schwartz about his brother's retirement after 18 years, five MVPs, two Super Bowl rings and one Super Bowl MVP: "I’ll definitely miss him playing football. I’ll miss watching him play, I’ll miss talking football during the week or talking about a common opponent that we might be playing. I am happy, obviously, for him winning a championship and getting to go out being happy about how the last season ended." 

That championship win on Feb. 7 in Super Bowl 50 tied Peyton with Eli in terms of Super Bowl wins and proved to be his final game in the league.

In a stirring last address to the media on Monday, Peyton bid adieu to football, via the NFL:

Eli thought it was a fitting way to wrap things up. "I am happy that he was able to kind of go out on his own terms," Eli said to Schwartz. "I know it was tough, but I’m proud of the way he handled today."

Eli was drafted first overall—like his brother—in 2004 by the San Diego Chargers and quickly dealt to the Giants. In the brothers' first three meetings in the NFL, Peyton won each of them, two with the Indianapolis Colts and one with the Denver Broncos. 

Now with Eli preparing for his 13th NFL season, his first without big brother Peyton, he took a moment to think about his own career:

New York's Manning always had big shoes to fill as the youngest member of one of the greatest football families.

While he'll most likely never reach the records set by his brother, whether it be the 71,940 yards or 539 touchdown passes, Eli will always have one more Super Bowl MVP award. More importantly, he'll have one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game watching and rooting him on through the final stretch of his own career. 

Stats courtesy of Pro-Football-Reference.com.