Eli Manning takes a shot at the LA Chargers in new commercial

The LA Chargers currently have one of the most exciting young quarterbacks in football in Justin Herbert. Charger fans are spoiled as before Herbert, the team had the greatest quarterback in franchise history, Philip Rivers.

The Chargers did not originally draft Rivers, who went fourth overall to the New York Giants. Instead, the Chargers selected Eli Manning with the first overall pick in the 2004 NFL Draft. Eli and his father Archie wanted nothing to do with San Diego and forced a trade and quarterback swap with the Giants.

All these years later, with both quarterbacks now retired, Eli is still firing off shots at the Chargers. In a new commercial for ESPN+, Eli compares his brother to the “San Diego Chargers of executive producers” and demanded a trade.

Peyton Manning’s got a new super team.

Assembling this summer ?

National #StreamingDay with the #DisneyBundle pic.twitter.com/8mnlDc7Eq9

— ESPN+ (@ESPNPlus) May 20, 2021

This happened 17 years ago and Charger fans are definitely happy it did happen as the team got Philip Rivers out of it, so jokes on Eli? He at least made a good decision as he was carried to two Super Bowls by stellar defenses.

The LA Chargers still wound up with the better quarterback.

Philip Rivers is one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history to not win a Super Bowl and he should absolutely be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Manning, meanwhile, has two Super Bowls on his resume and people are still debating about whether or not he is a Hall of Famer.

Manning’s best season was probably 2015, where he threw for 4,432 yards, 35 touchdowns and 14 interceptions with a 62.6 completion percentage. That is a solid year and is something that Rivers did regularly.

Rivers had six seasons with over 4,400 passing yards, six with 30+ passing touchdowns, nine with 14 or fewer interceptions and 12 with a completion percentage of 62.6% or better. In fact, his career completion percentage is 64.9%, which is 4.6% higher than Manning’s.

When it really boils down to it, the Chargers kind of fleeced the New York Giants with this trade and made a good situation out of a bad one. Giants fans are not going to complain as they won two Super Bowls, but if the team had Rivers, they probably would have had more with some of those defenses that they had.

Charger fans are happy with how it turned out, Giants fans are happy with how it turned out and Eli Manning is happy with how it turned out as he was carried to two Super Bowls. Everyone is happy. Jokes on us?