NEW YORK - With Eli Manning in town, Kerry Collins is ready to leave.
Collins, who took the Giants to the 2001 Super Bowl, said his goodbyes Monday after five years with the team. Though the quarterback wasn't officially released, Collins and the Giants said that would almost surely happen in the next few days.
Saturday, the Giants traded North Carolina State quarterback Philip Rivers and three draft choices to the Chargers for Manning, the No. 1 overall pick.
Manning's salary makes it almost impossible for the team to have cap room for Collins, who will earn $7-million next season but will cost $8.95-million against the $80.6-million cap.
"I figured there was no reason to hang around," Collins said after turning down a request by general manager Ernie Accorsi to restructure his salary.
Accorsi said he hadn't issued a release because he hadn't discussed the release with new coach Tom Coughlin and team owners and because he was leaving open the the possibility of a trade. But he conceded making a deal was remote because of Collins' salary.
Accorsi also denied he suggested the quarterback take a pay cut, as Collins asserted.
"He may have misunderstood," Accorsi said, adding that the restructuring would have involved turning some of the salary into a signing bonus and adding "voidable years" that Collins would almost surely opt out of.
Collins said he also has the impression Coughlin seemed ready to start Manning almost immediately.
"Ernie told me that he felt Eli was one of the three or four best college quarterbacks he's seen in the last 20 years," Collins said. "Someone like Elway or Marino. Someone like that."
RAMS: Defensive end Leonard Little was charged as a persistent offender with felony driving while intoxicated and speeding. Little pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in a 1998 accident that killed a St. Louis woman. He was arrested again early Saturday in the St. Louis suburb of Ladue.
CFL: Former NFL running back John Avery signed a four-year deal with the Toronto Argonauts.
