We understand deadlines. We understand sensationalism. We understand that columnist's have to sometimes go against the grain simply to sell papers (do papers still sell anymore?), but this latest gem from Mike Celizic cannot go unnoticed.
And here we go...
Eli for MVP? It's Not as Crazy as it Sounds
Really? Because it sounds pretty fucking crazy...
There’s still a shot for the Giants to make the playoffs, and if they beat Carolina and Minnesota to do it, let me be the first to start the campaign.
Eli Manning for MVP.
I'm going to preface this by saying that I hate Peyton Manning. He's a product-hawking whore with a stupid face, but goddammit he's good at football. He's more than likely headed to another MVP this season, therefore negating this entire article, due to the fact that Eli isn't even the most valuable player IN HIS OWN FAMILY.
Go ahead and say that suggesting Manning the Younger could be a more deserving MVP candidate than his big brother, grizzled old Brett Favre, Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Philip Rivers or Donovan McNabb is like taking the rice cakes over the aged prime rib.
Ok, food metaphors aside, every single one of those quarterbacks is a more deserving MVP candidate than Eli Manning in nearly every single statistical category imaginable.
I’ll understand, because when the idea was first suggested to me, I thought the same thing.
Oh, good. Then there was a time when you weren't batshit crazy.
But if you look at what the Giants have to work with, you have to admit there’s merit to the idea.
The 7th best defense in the league in terms of yards allowed per game? 125 yards per game on the ground? That doesn't seem too shitty to me.
In a year in which the Giants’ defense has played worse in each succeeding week, Eli Manning has without any fanfare been putting together the best season of his six-year career.
Bully for him. It doesn't mean he's the MVP.
I’m not suggesting he’s the best quarterback in the league.
Killer! Join the party, bro!
Even I’m not that foolish.
That's debatable.
I’m not going to say that automatically makes him more valuable than Favre, Brees, Rivers, McNabb, Brady and Peyton have been to their teams.
Then you're negating the whole reason for writing this article. If you're going to say that Eli is the MVP, then you can't list a bunch of players (who are having better seasons, mind you) and say they're probably more valuable than the man you're trying to make a case for. It's Journalism 101.
Before you guffaw at that, picture him in a Dallas uniform for the past six years. If you don’t think the Cowboys would have won some playoff games, you’re not being honest.
Eli Manning lost his first three playoff games. Tony Romo lost his first two playoff games.
Eli isn’t leading the league in anything
But he's got my vote for MVP!
but he’s among the leaders in most categories.
I'll bet dimes on the dollar that at least one of those players that Eli is "among" in terms of league leaders is a more deserving candidate for MVP.
With 26 touchdown passes, he has surpassed his career high, and he has thrown just 11 interceptions. His yards per attempt are at a career high of 8.1, 1.3 yards better than he’s ever done before. His 61.2 completion percentage is also a career high, as is his 96.0 quarterback rating.
Once again, that's totally awesome for Eli Manning. He's having a career year. His TD passes put him 5th in the league, his 11 picks put him 14th (11th among starters), his yards per attempt put him at 5th in the league, he's 16th in the league in completion percentage, and his QB rating puts him 9th in the NFL.
Seems to me that Eli is having a pretty average year. The fact that it's a career year for him should really shed some light on how bad he was in his previous seasons.
Before the season started, the Giants laid a $97.5-million contract extension on Eli. With his 2009 salary, it gave him a seven-year package worth $106.9 million. That’s more than his big brother is making. When he signed it, it was more than anybody was making.
That's a lot of money to give a middle-of-the-road QB.
In New York, eyebrows were raised higher than the Empire State Building at that contract. If he was going to get that kind of money, shouldn’t he at least be the best quarterback in the league?
Short answer? Yes.
But that’s the wrong question. Better is to ask how valuable he is to the Giants. The numbers the team threw at him show that the Giants believe he’s the one player they cannot live without. They say he’s the best quarterback the Giants have ever had.
Jim Jones was the greatest leader that the followers at Jonestown ever had as well, you know, until he forced them all to drink poisoned fruit punch.
That's possibly the worst argument ever for an MVP to say that he's the best player in any franchise's history. It's irrelevant. If he's got the best numbers of anyone in the league, he should be the MVP. Not because he plays for a team in a city with a shitton of people and and ass-load of media members in it.
He’ll never be viewed as being as good as Peyton. But there shouldn’t be any more shame to that than there is to being judged not quite as good an artist as Michelangelo or not as incisive a thinker as Stephen Hawking.
Or as gentle a lover as Ike Turner. Or as well-endowed as Milton Berle. Or as drop-dead gorgeous as Corey Feldman.
All four of Eli’s postseason wins came in the team’s 2007 Super Bowl run. Other than that, he’s 0-3, which isn’t anything to brag about.
You're makin a hell of a case for your boy here, Mike.
That record keeps him from getting the recognition his brother gets, and nothing will change the perception. The big stats are on Peyton’s side of the board, and they’re going to stay there. Eli may be destined to be the best Giants quarterback ever, but Peyton will be the NFL’s best ever.
Probably the most intelligent thing you've said in this entire article. Completely obvious, but intelligent nonetheless.
Eli seems to understand that, and if there’s anyone who can handle playing second fiddle, it’s him. There seems to be no sibling rivalry with his big brother, no neurotic compulsion to somehow outshine the sun itself. If Peyton is Mozart, Eli’s no Solieri, brooding about seeing his own genius eclipsed.
Oh, I get it. THIS GUY knows about classical music! I'm gonna call him "THE MUSIC MAN". Now, I understand. We're all too stupid to see why Eli Manning should be the MVP because we don't listen to classical music, and therefore aren't sophisticated enough to see why a quarterback of an 8-6 team with terribly average stats should be given the league's highest individual honor! Silly me.
This is part of what makes Eli so valuable. He’s comfortable in his own skin and worries only about the things he can control. If other quarterbacks get more acclaim, let them.
Yes, yes, Eli is valuable because he knows that half the other quarterbacks in the league are better than he is.
It’s probably not fair. For all the records Peyton Manning is likely to retire with, so far he has exactly as many rings as Eli — one. That’s also the same number that Brett Favre has after 19 years in the saddle. So as great as those two have been over the years, they haven’t brought home any more trophies than has Eli.
And isn’t that what it’s all about?
For the team? Sure. For individual honors like the MVP? It generally goes to the goddamn MOST VALUABLE PLAYER, not MOST VALUABLE TO A TEAM THAT PLAYS CLOSE TO WHERE I LIVE.
And this concludes your lesson. Homework will be assigned after recess.
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