Eli Manning was a guest on Andrew Marchand’s Marchand Sports Media podcast. Amongst several topics, the two talked about what it was like dealing with the New York media as a player with the New York Giants and how he and Peyton ended up doing the ManningCast on ESPN2 after first doing it on the phone together.
Marchand asked Manning about his personality and how we are seeing more of it now. Manning explained, “I was very conscious being in New York and with this New York media I never wanted them to think I wasn’t all in on being the quarterback of the Giants and if I said stuff sarcastically or if I was seen being goofy or anything but just, ‘this guy only cares about his football and that’s all he’s working on.’ I just didn’t want them to have something else they could go back to [and think] ‘this guy’s not taking it serious’ or ‘he’s got a laid-back personality’ or whatever it might be. So, I never wanted to be called goofy or silly in any way and that’s a little bit of my personality.
“When I’m with my buddies, with my teammates, those guys see that side of me. But I was pretty standoffish to the New York media. Even if I was doing a commercial or something, I didn’t really want to seem silly in any sense. I didn’t want them to somehow bring that and turn it against me in any way.”
Manning said that changed when he stopped playing. He said he didn’t think he needed to hide his personality as he did when he was a player. “Now, I’m [on ManningCast] with my brother and just kind of doing fun stuff. So, I think I can act fun and let the true personality come out.”
Marchand and Manning talked about the Chad Powers show which is being made to air on Hulu. Powers was the character Manning played in Eli’s Places when he was filmed participating in Penn State’s walk-on tryouts. Manning said he filmed a cameo for the show recently in Atlanta and has been involved whenever they have asked him.
“I’ve been on some of the calls with the writers, read through the scripts and try to be helpful in any way just to give an idea of just what’s realistic, what’s totally unrealistic…it’s been a fun project, Michael Waldron the writer and Glenn Powell reached out to me two years ago with this idea and of how they kind of see turning this story of Chad Powers into a real college football story and the thing that really attracted me to it and wanting to do it is that [the writers] are huge college football fans…they want to highlight college football.”
Marchand came back around to the New York media and said Manning was probably aware of what he was getting into and maybe would have a better understanding of dealing with the media. Manning replied, “I don’t think anyone understands the New York media when they first come in. I don’t think it’s something you could ever prepare for…I was really excited about coming to the Giants organization and just their history of success…and I remember, after my first rookie minicamp…and all of a sudden, the New York media is saying I had a really bad day at my first practice and they’re showing clips from it and it’s from warm-ups…and I overthrow a guy who’s running 50% speed. I was like ‘wow’.”
Manning said he always felt like in high school and college the media was with him and wanted him to succeed, but with the New York media he felt like “they’re out for blood.”
He told Marchand he had no plans to get into broadcasting. That like his dad and Peyton, it was more important to be around his kids and see and participate in their activities more than traveling around the country spending time in broadcast booths.
“I didn’t think I’d be very good at it and didn’t have a desire to do that,” Manning said. “My dad had the chance to do some radio for the Saints, but never went into the booth…he wanted to be around to coach our little league teams and be there for Friday nights when we played high school football.”
The ManningCast was also discussed and Manning explained how he and Peyton would sometimes watch parts of big games together while talking on the phone. Now, they do it in the studio.
Manning recalled when he was presented with the idea, saying, “When Peyton called me and said, ‘Do you want to watch football from your couch, be on a zoom and you can make fun of me, does that sound interesting?’ I was like, yes that sounds more my speed, I can do that.”
