Column

Searching for truth behind Eli's fast rise

By JOHN ROMANO, Times Sports Columnist
Published February 3, 2008

ADVERTISEMENT Super Bowl XLII Shelton: Brady close to best ever, but not quite there yet Desert dual dissected Giants look for cracks in line It's easier to fight the urge to burn cash on free agents Romano & Shelton: We'll take the Pats Spygate II? Pats deny they taped Rams in '02 Super Bowl TV schedule Top 5 Super Bowl teams [Getty Images] The Giants' Eli Manning averages more than an interception a game for his career but has only one in the past four games.

PHOENIX -- The kid ain't talking.

I mean, okay, he is blabbing nonstop. But it's all this meaningless twaddle.

Stuff about experience and maturation and confidence. You see? Nothing but bull snot.

The kid won't give up the goods. The truth. The secret.

C'mon, who is he fooling?

He was a mediocre quarterback. And that's when he wasn't awful.

His first year in the league he couldn't complete 50 percent of his passes. By his third year, his passing rating was still worse than Jon Kitna and J.P. Losman. Heck, for a while there, the guy looked like he had more in common with Bruce Gradkowski than Tom Brady.

Even in this, his fourth season, he had as many interceptions as touchdown passes going into the final week of the regular season.

And now we're supposed to believe he is Joe Namath?

Something is not right. Somebody is hiding something. A page has been turned, or a soul has been sold. Something is different about this 27-year-old Giants quarterback, and we're going to find out what it is.

"There's no magic potion, nothing that just clicked," he said. "It's just playing good football."

Yes, there is a word for this explanation and I believe it is called …

Liar!

You're telling us that, beginning with the regular-season finale against the Patriots, it's simply coincidence that you've had a passing rating of 105.1? Against four consecutive division champions? Three of them on the road?

Or, that in your first 54 NFL starts, you had a Vinny Testaverde-like 63 interceptions. And then, miraculously, you had just one interception in the next four games. Four of the most important games of your career.

Yeah, tell it to Arlen Specter.

Enough of this silliness. We're going to the big guy, the owner of this family business.

Surely he will appreciate our interest in the truth. After all, he's the one who stuck his neck on the line. He's the one who approved the trade that brought the kid here in the first place.

Remember, the Giants traded Philip Rivers and first-, third- and fifth-round draft picks  to the Chargers to bring this kid to New York in 2004. And, oh yeah, they passed on Ben Roethlisberger in that same draft. Roethlisberger won a Super Bowl in his second season and Rivers was in the Pro Bowl in his third.

So, obviously, it's in the owner's best interest to explain how they got the kid to transform overnight.

"I sat down with him after the last game of last season and visited for a while and let him know I didn't care what anybody said, if we had to make the deal over again, we would," the owner said. "We had all the confidence in the world, and if he kept doing what he was doing, things would get better and we'd start to win."

You too, huh?

Okay, be that way. We've got other ways of figuring this out. Other rocks to turn over.

We've heard stories about the kid having no leadership skills. Comical, I believe, was the word Tiki Barber once used. Now there was a leader. Tiki was a tiny little bundle of charm, attitude and fire.

So how is it, when Tiki walks away, the kid ends up running the locker room?

I mean, it's like watching Mr. Rogers take over a biker bar. The kid is a Boy Scout. He's quiet. He's polite. He follows rules and probably stands up when a woman walks in the room.

And now we're supposed to believe he is a leader of a roomful of 300-pound, hairy, ferocious men?

The offensive coordinator will know. He's been the kid's confidant for years. He'll know how this nebbish quarterback could follow Barber as the leader of a pack.

"Was he going to be the yeller, the screamer, that type of thing? That was never going to happen until certain people left and gave him the opportunity to more easily step into a role that was vacated," the coordinator said. "And then the players almost naturally turned to him to fill that void."

Yeah, it still doesn't explain everything.

Something is still missing from this story.

You don't come to Tampa Bay and make one of the best defenses in the league look impotent. And you don't go to Green Bay and play a better game in subzero weather than the legend Brett Favre.

Not when you have a reputation for being soft. Not when half the population of New York has, at one time or another, accused you of being a head case intent on ruining their lives.

I have a sense about these things, and there's something fishy to this tale. For instance, how come the only time we ever see him with his famous brother is in commercials? Didn't think we noticed that, did you?

Is it some kind of video trickery? Are there really two of them?

How did Eli Manning become a great quarterback?

"There's nothing different," he said. "I've had streaks when I've played three good games in a row. These are just bigger games. Everybody has their own theories. For me, I've just played smart football."

Oh yeah, that explains it.

Look, the Super Bowl is about to start. You can't hide forever. The truth is eventually going to come out. Your secret will someday be revealed.

We're watching you, kid.

John Romano can be reached at jromano@sptimes.com.

[Last modified February 3, 2008, 01:38:21]