Tag: Eli Manning

Former Chargers GM Says Trading Eli Manning Was the Highlight of His Career. Respect the Spite

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Yahoo – In 2004, the New York Giants and the Los Angeles Chargers made a trade that would forever change the course of both franchises. Moments after the Chargers selected Eli Manning with the first pick in the NFL draft, the team traded him to the Giants for Philip Rivers…

“[The trade] was the most satisfying moment for me in my career and I really mean that. I would say that if I was ever fortunate to win a Super Bowl, I’m sure it would’ve trumped that, but I don’t know that. I gotta tell you there was a lot of highs and lows in the business, but that moment was the greatest high for me as an executive for an organization.”

As Smith explains, the deal netted the Chargers with enough draft picks to select Shawne Merriman and kicker Nate Kaeding. Both guys played big roles in the team’s success from 2004 to 2009. More importantly, though, Smith was happy he took some of the power away from Manning and his agent, Tom Condon.

“When I heard emphatically from Tom Condon and Archie Manning ‘don’t take us,’ that hit me — call me a traditionalist — it hit me the wrong way,” Smith said. “I decided I was not going to play this game with them and I flipped it, in my view, to an unknown where they didn’t know what I’m going to do or how this is going to unfold — they really didn’t.”

I hated the Chargers growing up. Hated them. Shawne Merriman was an arrogant dickhead who could dish it but couldn’t take it when the Pats did his Lights Out dance in San Diego after an upset. LaDanian Tomlinson was the greatest runningback I’ve ever seen, but all he did was complain about how “classy” the Patriots were. All while sitting on the sidelines in his Darth Vader outfit while Philip Rivers played on a torn ACL. So aside from the Peyton Manning Colts and the Rex Ryan Jets the mid 2000s Chargers were my most hated football team.

BUT, I now LOVE AJ Smith. The architect of one of the most hated teams of my youth is an A+ grudge holder and I have to respect the spite. Oh whats that Eli, you don’t want me to draft you No. 1 overall in the NFL? In fact you won’t even play for my team if I do draft you? Well fuck you because now I’m doing it.

AJ Smith wasn’t going to let some rich kid and the Manning Mafia tell him how to do his job. I bet he would have ate the draft pick and let Manning sit the year out if he didn’t get the trade offer he wanted. Just spite that whole family because you ain’t John Elway, kid.

Now obviously this trade was the rare trade that worked out swimmingly for both sides. The Chargers got Philip Rivers and a boatload of picks that turned into franchise cornerstones and the Giants got Eli and 2 Super Bowls (kill me) out of it. Big Z made the point that the Giants might actually have won more Super Bowls with Rivers under center because aside from two month long hot streaks by Eli Manning, Rivers is clearly the better player. Rivers has a better career Completion %, more TDs, 60+ less INTs, and a better QB Rating.

I’d still rather have two SB rings, but I respect the shit out of AJ Smith for deriving so much pleasure out of something so small. An early candidate for The 300s 2019 Hater of the Year.

The 300s Bloggers’ Is Nathan Peterman Elite? Fantasy Football Round Up – Week 6

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Welcome back. Let’s first address today’s dedication.

I liked Nathan Peterman coming out of school. Prototypically sized, decent-armed QB from a blue collar school like Pitt. Thought he could be a good spot starter in the NFL, maybe even mold himself into a late blooming starting QB. So far I have been drastically wrong. Not in my evaluation of his talents, no. Take a look at the TD he threw Sunday. Absolute seed. No, the problem with Peterman is he cannot get out of his own way to save his life. If he just “regular sucked”, for lack of better terminology, I think analysts and fans alike would say he has potential. Instead, he throws a stupefying number of pick 6’s. It’s almost a constant at this point. He could go 10-21/200/1 and people would say, “you know what, kid might have something.” But noooope, not Nate, he prefers the 10/21/200/2/4 pick 6’s. Like what the fuck man. JUST STOP IT.

Any way here’s the round up.


Big Z

A play in three acts.

Me with 106 points Sunday at 4.

Me with 111 points and a 17 point lead after Sunday night.

Me after the two-minute warning of the Monday night game when Aaron Rodgers and my undefeated opponent pulled ahead of me for the win.

No bad beats or bad plays this week that will have the league office questioning my competence to run a fantasy football franchise. Just a tough loss to a great team. We’re on to Week 7.

Papa Giorgi

3-0 for the first time since week 1! I’ve never felt more alive. Yeah, my real life QB Josh Allen is dead and the never ending Nathan Peterman experiment rolls on, but at least i’m on my way to making some money. Aaron Rodgers played like an angel last night and I was able to steal the W thanks to a last minute game winning kick by Mason Crosby.

Joey B

Everyone from LA to Boston said Matt Breida wasn’t going to play, so I, much like Mattes and the rest of the “Why The Fuck Did I Pick Jordan Howard” Club, tried to get cute. I took a flier on Alfred Morris for the week. Welp, Breida and some absolute NO NAME played and Morris did not get A. Single. Carry. I got beat. 3-3. I’m not having fun anymore.

Red

So after ripping on Eli Manning all week long for never really being an elite quarterback outside of two hot streaks in years that shant be named, I went against all of my better judgement and started him in fantasy anyways. I was in a bind as my QB was on a bye so it was either Eli, Bortles or Danold. Welp, Eli promptly shit the bed, didn’t throw a touchdown and finished with 11 points. And I STILL WON, mainly because the other guy started the other bum on the waiver wire in Bortles.

Mattes

So, I started Amari Cooper again… I’m now 1-5. I also invested a lot in guys like Jordan Howard, Carlos Hyde, and Keelan Cole. It’s just not working out this year, but at least I traded Antonio Brown for an extra second-round pick next year. This year’s squad is absolute hot garbage, though.

Fortunately, I’m 4-2 in my other league after my opponent started TWO guys who were announced as inactives just before game time. That’s why you always gotta pay attention right up to kickoff, folks. I’ll take the gift, though, and I got both Ingram and Thomas coming back from a bye this week. (Also, how about Sony Michel??!! Kid’s a beasttttt.)

 

Giants Clean House and Fire EVERYBODY. Eli to Start on Sunday Now.

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ESPN – The New York Giants cleaned house on Monday, firing coach Ben McAdoo and general manager Jerry Reese in the midst of a 2-10 season…Mara said he and co-owner Steve Tisch met and “agreed it was pointless to wait any longer to make these changes.” “This has been the perfect storm this season,” Mara said. “Everything that could have gone wrong this season has gone wrong.”

This is like the market having a correction. Eli was not playing well, but the entire Giants organization is a dumpster fire currently so to bench him for a 27-year-old Geno Smith was not the solution. It was handled so poorly that the coach got fucking fired for it a week later. So did the GM! Look, if the Giants had some young 1st round pick riding the pine, I would have been totally fine with seeing what the kid’s got. Its basically how Eli got his start, with the Giants benching veteran QB and Super Bowl champion Kurt Warner. But to bench him for the guy we all already know is trash, even the guy who drafted him in Rex Ryan said so, is just laughable.

So what do the Giants do? Fire EVERYBODY. Geno actually played pretty decent, but the Giants still lost. And being a head coach in the NFL is a lot more than just x’s and o’s. You are essentially the CEO. Its more like being a politician. You have to keep certain constituencies happy, you have to make tough choices, and then you also have to perform. The only guy who gets away with being a clown to the media is Bill Belichick and thats because he’s been to SEVEN fucking Super Bowls in the past 16 years. He gets the benefit of the doubt. Ben McAdoo does not get that same privilege. So when he created an absolute shit storm and made national headlines for benching the best QB in franchise history with the same tact as a high school coach, it was only a matter of time until he got the ax.

Benny with the good hair flew a little too close to the sun and he got burned. Dude started feeling himself just a bit too much. Once McAdoo went from this:

to this:

you just knew it was curtains for this guy. Can’t walk around pretending to be The Cooler from Road House and start 2-9 then bench the beloved franchise QB and live to talk about it.

PS – If I was Eli Manning, this just pisses me off even more. Oh you mean that 200+ games started streak that I earned over the course of 10+ years, we pissed that away to let Geno start for a week and then bring me back after you fired everybody? All those consecutive starts down the tubes just for a one week vacation? Yea cool, no problem, I won’t hold ANY resentment towards you guys for that one. Players can say records and numbers don’t matter, but its bullshit because they do.

The Return of Joseph Q. Ballgame – New York Media Having A Meltdown Over A Bad Player Getting Benched (Not The Name Of A Novel)

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Image result for eli manning manning face

 

“The FCC won’t let me be or let me be me so let me see. They try’n shut me down on MTV but it just feels so empty without me.”
– Marshall Bruce Mathers III

 

There are very, very few stories that could have brought me back here. I left my post at the 300’s due to the pro-Bieber regime’s constraints on this peacock’s ability to fly. I said I would never come back and I didn’t. Not when 100000 Patriots went down for the year. Not when UFC 217 saw 3 titles change hands, eye-rollingly becoming the most overrated PPV of all time (Cody-TJ could have gone either way, JJ gets hit every fight, just never got stopped, GSP is GSP, stfu), I think Tiger came and went 4 times but I can’t keep up. My point is through all of this, with entire blogs written in my head I stayed dormant, a keyboard-laden Bruce Wayne choosing to hole up in Wayne Manor rather than engage in internet battles I was deemed unworthy to fight in. That ends here. That ends now.

The New York Giants have decided to bench Eli Manning to give Geno Smith a look down the home stretch of a lost, fruitless season. And the New York sports media is FUCKING. OUTRAGED. They are saying the Giants are ending the Eli era in the most “ugly way possible”, which must mean they are taking a Manning family photo at some point in the near future. They’re bitterly saying Ben McAdoo only did this to save his job, as if Geno going 5-0 and leading the Giants to a playoff-less 7-9 season will do the trick. Mike Francesa is hitting the organization with school yard insults and may march up to Giants HQ with an angry mob and torches demanding the Beast release Belle. They’re saying this is at the wrong way to treat a man of class and grace, as if Eli isn’t just a robot that does what Daddy tells him (It just dawned on me the Manning Brothers are just two versions of the QB from “Mr. Deeds”.) The NY sports media is butthurt. They’re angry. They’re legitimately throwing a shit fit like only the has-been sports media can. It’s fucking bizarre. Anyway, I understand I’m a Pats fan and it’s easy to say I’m just biased, but look:

I get it.

The not-originator-but-master of the Manning Incredulous Facial Expression was the face of the only two NY teams to win anything in the past decade. Throw in Jersey and Connecticut and I believe Thanksgiving Day has been the only other cause of a parade in the Tri-State area for a long time. He threw two iconic Hail Mary’s to win two Super Bowls – the fact that two anonymous receivers made a pair of obscene catches on kind of lousy throws seems irrelevant for some reason, but I digress.

And so I get it.

The things is, the two years the Giants won the Super Bowl it took a GIGANTIC team effort, not just Eli pulling David Tyrees out of a hat. Their defense in particular played out of their tree’s both years. Additionally, since that 2011 Super Bowl Eli has gone one-and-done at best in the playoffs, missing them completely in the years he doesn’t bow out after one game. He has led the league in interceptions three times, his passer rating sucks year in and year out, and OH IN CASE YOU FORGOT, the Giants would never have to be these “legendary,” Cinderella teams if he didn’t always play like particular ass the first eight weeks of every Goddam season.

In the end, if we could all settle down a moment, the real truth of this whole overblown mess is pretty clear: There are five games left in a lost season. There’s a former 2nd Round pick with some natural gifts sitting on the bench. There are some other pieces on the team, but also some other holes that may be more worth addressing with early draft picks than the Quarterback position if either Geno Smith or Davis Webb could be the answer there. I understand your 37 year old “Aw, Shucks” looking QB has semi-inexplicably become some sort of icon in the way so many New York icons have, but he sucks. And he has sucked. And don’t get me started with this ridiculous “Games Consecutively Started Streak.” It reminds me of when we had a competition in high school over who could wear the same pair of pants the longest number of days in a row. Plus, would you rather this or sit him for the last game at the Meadowlands? Maybe cut him in the offseason to little fanfare? You can’t even answer that question, can you Tri-City?

Aw, shucks.

The New York Giants Will Start Geno Smith Over Eli Manning at QB This Week. BAHAHAHA

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Giants.com – Coach Ben McAdoo announced today that Geno Smith will start in place of Eli Manning when the Giants face the Raiders in Oakland on Sunday. Rookie Davis Webb will also play, if not this week, then sometime before the end of the season. “Geno will start this week,” McAdoo said. “Over the last five games, we will take a look at Geno, and we will also give Davis an opportunity.” Manning has started 210 consecutive regular-season games, the second-longest streak by a quarterback in NFL history, behind Brett Favre’s 297. He has started every Giants game since Nov. 21, 2004, when he took over for veteran Kurt Warner in the 10th game of his rookie season. Manning has also started 12 postseason games, and twice led the Giants to Super Bowl victories.

BAHAHAHA! What a sad, confused little franchise. Sure, Eli Manning sucks. I’ll be the first one to say that, but benching him in favor of GENO SMITH? Its not like he’s some rookie who could be good, no its Geno Smith. We all KNOW that guy sucks.

The man with the sterling career completion percentage of 57.7% The man with a career 28/36 TD to INT ratio? Thats the guy you turn the reigns over to? Man, Ben McAdoo is fucked in the head. Its like Costanza just doing everything he can intentionally trying to get fired.

But seriously though, Geno Smith played on the same exact fucking field as you guys for four years. Literally nobody aside from Todd Bowles has seen more of Geno than the Giants. But, yea lets throw that guy in there and really piss *everyone* off. Eli may not be Peyton, but the Giants have a whole shit ton of problems bigger than the QB play. Like having 19 guys on IR. Not to mention, most of the Giants fans I know love Eli because he, ya know, won two Super Bowls. How does McAdoo handle that situation?

Manning was given the option of starting against the Raiders to keep the streak alive, but declined. “Coach McAdoo told me I could continue to start while Geno and Davis are given an opportunity to play,” Manning said. “My feeling is that if you are going to play the other guys, play them. Starting just to keep the streak going and knowing you won’t finish the game and have a chance to win it is pointless to me, and it tarnishes the streak.

Benches the best QB in Giants history and then offers to keep his consecutive starts streak alive by having him take the first series and then mixing in Geno and 3rd stringer Davis Webb like its fucking Texas Tech. Props to Eli for basically telling Benny Mac to go piss up a rope.

Yes, the Giants beat us in the Super Bowl (twice), but again I find myself saying thank god I am a Patriots fan as we march towards Minneapolis and Super Bowl title No. 6.

It May Be Time to Give Up On My Dream of Seeing Johnny Manziel Back in the NFL

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I am a huge Johnny Manziel guy, but even I’m starting to think this may be the end of the line after seeing these TMZ pics of him hanging in Hawaii with his GF. Not getting signed to a CFL team? Sure that one stung, but this is worse. Looking more like a 24-year-old Dad Bod than a former Heisman winner on the NFL comeback trail 24-year-old.

But if you can still pull tail like this

then his game clearly isn’t hurting. So I don’tttt think playing football matters all that much. If you’re already pulling 10’s, then maybe the constant media scrutiny and guaranteed CTE isn’t even worth it.

But, as another season passes we’re reminded that Father Time is undefeated. As is guzzling Bud heavies and sitting on the beach with your girlfriend. But hey, Eli Manning has the best Dad Bod in the NFL and that guy has two Super Bowl rings so anything is possible right?

If he can get it together though, I do know of a certain football team in need of a new young, developmental backup quarterback…

Eli Manning is Probably Having a Rough Morning

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These primetime games have featured some HELLACIOUS hits the first two weeks of the season. First we had JJ Watt nearly cutting a guy in half on Thursday night and last night on Monday Night Football we had Eli getting absolutely smoked. Looking like the lady out of the Life Alert commercial.

I’m sure all the tough guys and practice heroes will say stop babying the QBs, put a skirt on em etc. etc. but my god thats a 300 pound dude falling on your neck and head. Not a great position to be in, especially for a guy with two brothers that have had spine/neck injuries. Despite Gruden saying “thats why” Eli Manning is great, my advice would be to bail out on those ones before you look like this:

Rating Yahoo’s Rankings of the Best Possible Patriots Super Bowl Matchups

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sblilogo

So I’ll save you the pain of imagining a Texans-Cowboys Super Bowl matchup, which Yahoo’s Shutdown Corner had ranked as the worst possible game. Four of the top 5 and 5 of the top 7 potential matchups are all Patriots games too. Who says people don’t wanna see another Pats SB? To the ratings!

7. Patriots – Giants: “Third time’s gotta be a charm, right Pats fans?”

Rating: A+ // This game would be the granddaddy of them all. I would be living off adrenaline and anxiety for two weeks straight leading up to this game. I need to beat the Giants in a Super Bowl more than I need oxygen. It’s like acid in my mouth. Buuuttt, Playoffs Eli scares the shit out of me for obvious reasons and I don’t think I can emotionally handle a 3rd straight SB loss to the Giants. But there coach has a mustache and looks like he’s on a list somewhere so maybe things are different this time. Tread carefully.

benmcadoo

5. Patriots – Seahawks: “Seattle isn’t what it’s been in the past, but it beat New England in Foxborough this season and Super Bowl 49 was an absolute classic. We’ll gladly roll the dice on another round.”

Rating: B+ // This would be another great matchup, the rematch of arguably the best Super Bowl ever with (not arguable) the greatest ending ever. Part of me worries the Seahawks get their revenge, but the last 5 times the Pats have played Seattle have gone: Loss (2016 reg season), Win (SB XLIX), Loss (2012 reg season), Win (2008 reg season). Soo science says the Patriots win this one.

butlersbint

shermansb

4. Patriots – Falcons: “This matchup might not be at the front of everyone’s mind, but it has just as much potential for a great game with the league’s top scoring defense (New England) trying to harness the league’s top scoring offense (Atlanta).”

Rating: C+ // I want to rank this higher, but every angle that the media will play to hype this game seem forced. Thomas Dmitroff left NE, built this Atlanta team and is now going against his former boss Bill Belichick, Former Boston College stud Matt Ryan going up against the Boston pro team etc. However it would be pretty interesting to see the NFL’s No. 1 scoring offense (ATL) vs the NFL’s No. 1 scoring defense (NE) and see who takes the title.

patriotsfalcons

3. Patriots – Packers: “Tom Brady vs. Aaron Rodgers. What more do you need?”

Rating: B- // Yahoo somehow did not mention a SB XXXI rematch?? (Still the best SB logo ever BTW) Belichick was just a young pup in 1996, the assistant coach under Bill Parcells. Think Belichick would love to beat the same franchise his mentor and boss couldn’t? Plus Brady vs Rodgers would indeed be a matchup made in Madden exhibition mode.

sbxxxi

1. Patriots – Cowboys: “Yes, Super Bowl media week would be insane and there’s no way anyone is running out of storylines with Jerry Jones around. But take away the hoopla that would cause TV ratings records to be smashed and we’re still left with a game between two teams that were the best in the NFL from wire to wire this year. If this matchup happens, it’ll be the fourth straight Super Bowl that the No. 1 seeds meet in the Super Bowl.”

Rating: B+ // The two biggest franchises in the NFL. America’s Team vs the Team That Invented America. The parallels are crazy too. A young QB stepping in for the injured veteran, playing so well he keeps the job and leads his team to a Super Bowl title. Shit, no I don’t like the way this is setting up. Luckily the Pats run defense is their strength because Ezekiel Elliot could dominate this game single handedly. In the end though I think Brady and co. make it a track meet and I don’t think Dak Prescott, as well as he’s played, is ready to win that kind of game yet.