Eli Manning’s not used to being the only Manning playing football.
So he’s anticipating even more contact than before, now that his brother Peyton has retired.
“He might be calling me a little bit more than normal,” the Giants quarterback said, via Ebenezer Samuel of the New York Daily News. “Just to kind of talk football and see what’s going on.”
Eli said it would definitely be “some adjustment” to knowing Peyton wasn’t preparing for a season as well, the way he has for the first 12 years of his career. He said the first hint came in 2012, when neck surgery put his career in doubt, though there’s a definite sense of finality now.
“I think it’ll be a little different just knowing he’s not in OTAs, knowing he’s not going through training camp, having that call in training camp where you talk about different things that are going on from a football standpoint or a funny story here or there,” Eli said. “I guess I kind of had a little bit of a feel for it a few years ago. [But] there’ll be some differences in not having that brother who is going through the same things you’re going through.”
Of course, if the Giants make the playoffs, we expect to see shots of Peyton in the family suite cheering for his brother. Perhaps he’ll even smile.