When Eli Manning entered the league in 2004, his father Archie and others worked hard to set up the trade that sent his son’s draft rights from the Chargers to the Giants.
Many people are speculating that Eli is going to be on the move again after the team’s move to bench him this week. Manning said on Tuesday that he doesn’t know if he’ll play for the Giants in 2018 and his father told Gary Myers of the New York Daily News that moving on isn’t something anyone’s been thinking about.
“There is no sense doing a lot of speculating from his standpoint,” Archie Manning said. “There is no way of knowing. I don’t think Eli ever envisioned, until now, playing for somebody else. That’s the love he has for the Giants. It is kind of unique and stronger than most. It’s not just the game he loves to play. He loves to play for the Giants.”
The elder Manning said his son isn’t bitter, but the move “breaks his heart.”
The fact that the door’s now open to playing elsewhere likely means there has to be consideration about where he wants to go next. Manning’s contract with the Giants has a no-trade clause and is due a $5 million roster bonus three days into the 2018 league year, so he’ll be choosing his landing spot again one way or another.