Eli Manning: No Middle Ground

Last weekend brought one of the worst sports weekends for me in recent memory. Not only did the Red Sox drop two games from Saturday to Monday, but I attended the 'Skins-Rams game, and watched my Giants get the royal beatdown courtesy of the formerly one-win Cleveland Browns.

Sure enough, Tuesday followed with the inevitable coverage of Eli Manning's poor performance. The same people who had been writing on Friday that he was clearly better than Peyton, were saying that this was the Eli they've known was lurking the whole time.

And I noticed something. No one ever gives Eli any sort of middle ground. He's either a fantastic quarterback, or he's awful.

No other quarterback gets such treatment. Peyton gets the benefit of the doubt that his injury is making him play poorly, and when he turns in a good performance, all of a sudden, he's ready for the Super Bowl again.

Tony Romo, who has higher and lower extremes than Eli, seems to be the anointed savior of not only football, but humanity.

Rex Grossman, when he is leading his team to a 13-3 Super Bowl, is questioned relentlessly, and when he is finally benched, the media crows about how right they were all along.

Brett Favre, no matter how many soft lobs he throws deep, no matter how many poor playoff performances he turns in, is called a "gunslinger," and all is forgiven.

So why can't people see Eli for what he is? An above-average quarterback. If you include all day-one starters (which means Brady), he's probably somewhere in the 5-7 range.

He may not be as good as Romo (though he does have the playoff win to back it up), Brady, Manning, or McNabb, I think he's better and more consistent than Jason Campbell (though that is looking less like a sure thing), Ben Roethlisberger, and others.

Is it his pedigree? If his name was Eli Jenkins, I think he would be regarded much higher. Think about it. If your No. 1 draft pick brought you to the playoffs every year as a starter, and won the Super Bowl in his fourth season, knocking off an 18-0 team, he would get all the credit in the world, and would have a hard time losing it. 

Alex Smith is in his fourth season; do you think he's anywhere close to a Super Bowl (or the playoffs)?

But because Eli's off game came at the same time his brother exploded against a tough Ravens defense, there's automatically a standard to measure him by.

But as Peyton slowly starts to break down, Eli will be entering his prime.

Sure he threw some stupid picks last week. But every quarterback has a bad game. We all saw last year how much luck it takes to go 16-0, and simply put, no one is that lucky.

While Tony Romo's stink bombs get swept under the carpet, Eli's become Monday (or Tuesday) morning quarterback fodder.

So before you start piling on Eli, look at what he's accomplished, and what he can continue to accomplish.