No matter how it ends for Eli Manning, no matter when it ends — whether it ends in him wearing No. 10 for the Giants or another number for another team — it will ultimately end for him in Canton.
Bill Parcells was right when he told us Phil Simms would be appreciated more when he was no longer wearing No. 11, and Manning will be appreciated more than he is today when the next Giants franchise quarterback tries to follow in his footsteps, and good luck to him with that.
Manning will turn 38 in January, and the Giants can save $17 million in cap money next season if he is gone. He was 3-12 in 2017 and is 2-7 in 2018, so the football world can see there is writing on the Big Blue wall in capital letters.
Think about all this when you watch him on Sunday against the Buccaneers, likely the first of his final four home Sundays as your quarterback.
Four days from Thanksgiving, it just might be a good time for you to remember to start giving thanks for Eli Manning … the Pride of the Giants.
You should think about David Tyree’s catch and the two-minute drive to shock the Perfect Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, and you should think about the precision pass to Mario Manningham in Super Bowl XLVI.
You should think about Manning beating Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers in the playoffs — Rambo at Lambeau — and you should think about the 49ers knocking him down over and over again, and him getting back up over and over again at muddy Candlestick Park and refusing to leave without a berth in Super Bowl XLVI.
You should think about every time there was a game on the schedule, Manning showed up to play it across 15 NFL seasons. Bad shoulder, bum foot, didn’t matter.
You should think about the 41 game-winning comeback drives he has engineered.
You should think about him being the same guy every day at 37 years old as he was when he arrived at 23 … the football Derek Jeter.
You should think about how he never blinked, never flinched, in the bright lights of a market that can blind outsiders and eat them alive. He did it here, as Peyton’s little brother, when Giants fans were pleading for another Simms.
“They want guys to compete, they expect to win, they want you to win, but they want to see guys busting their tail to try to get a win,” Manning said.
Every day since he arrived, he has busted his tail to try to get a win.
The days when you couldn’t spell elite without an E, an L and an I are long gone, and just because there is no better place to win doesn’t mean icons can’t be booed when they lose.
But maybe this is a good time to remember who you are booing.
Just because he hasn’t taken the Giants to a Super Bowl over the past seven seasons doesn’t mean you can’t start thanking him for the memories before it is too late.
He has been clutch, and he has been class, the face any franchise in any sport should crave.
He wanted to be the face of your franchise. Never wanted to be the face of someone else’s. And still doesn’t.
His won-lost record is barely hanging above .500, but Joe Namath was 62-63-4. Namath has one ring. Dan Marino, Dan Fouts, Warren Moon and Jim Kelly never won a Super Bowl. They’re all in Canton.
Superman plus Ironman equals Hall of Fame.
No one can say for sure how many more games No. 10 will get to start, when coach Pat Shurmur will want to start evaluating rookie Kyle Lauletta.
Just because Eli Manning wouldn’t want any farewell tour doesn’t mean you shouldn’t start to give him one, just in case you don’t get the chance to say goodbye.
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