In a lot of ways, the San Diego Chargers made out like bandits when Eli Manning snubbed the franchise and forced a trade during the 2004 NFL Draft. The Bolts still landed an all-time great in Philip Rivers, plus Shawne Merriman and Nate Kaeding, who are Chargers legends in their own right.
But the two Lombardi Trophies that Manning and his New York Giants teammates hoisted remain held over the heads of this fanbase. It has always been impossible to separate the careers of Rivers and Manning, even if fans are largely glad that they ended up with Rivers, who was proud to be a Charger.
And for years now, Manning, as well as his father, Archie, have maintained an unfavorable repuation on the West Coast, and rightfully so. But Eli Manning just spoke about the issue in-depth for the first time and cleared the air a bit on exactly what went down all those years ago.
It doesn't really make it any better, but at least we know.
Eli Manning finally opened up about embarrassing Chargers back in 2004 NFL Draft
The perception, at least at the time, was that Archie Manning, who played in the NFL for a long time but never won anything, wanted better for his second son. Rumors surfaced that he had spoken to Ryan Leaf and his family, and they had painted the Chargers' organization in a bad light.
Eli Manning, however, recently appeared on an episode of the Bussin' With the Boys podcast, and he was forced to face the music. A fan submitted a question asking Manning, "What was wrong with the Chargers?" And Manning delivered a very long, thoughtful, interesting, and frustrating response.
In short:
"There's nothing (wrong with the Chargers)," Manning said. "I just didn't feel like they were the most committed team to to winning at the time."
However, Manning expanded on that point, and he began with his impression of the Chargers' dysfunction at the time.
"Marty Shottenheimimer was the head coach, who was awesome. Had great respect for him," Manning began. "But they came to work me out in New Orleans and went through a full workout. We went to dinner that night and like there was just friction between the head coach, the general manager, the owners. They're all yelling, fighting. We're at a Marriott restaurant and Schottenheimer's mad. He's like, 'We're in New Orleans. We're eating at a Marriott?" And so he's pissed. They're just bickering. And it just didn't seem like there was a whole lot of agreement on things, and they weren't committed to building a great winning franchise at at that moment."
In fairness to Manning, that sounds like an awkward and potentially worrisome situation to be in for a young player. One can definitely see him envisioning himself in San Diego trying to keep his head above water in the NFL, all the while the leadership group is too busy bickering with each other.
But the Chargers actually turned things around pretty quickly. They got two more good years out of Drew Brees before dishing him, and LaDainian Tomlinson reached the peak of his powers in the following years. Oh, and that Antonio Gates guy ended up being pretty good as well.
At least Manning acknowledged this fact in the interview, and perhaps things would have been just fine for him in San Diego and Los Angeles. But he clearly wasn't planning on taking the risk. Manning joked, even though it's not that funny, that he "hadn't heard of" Gates, and he wasn't a selling point.
That's a bad misfire.
Then, to rub a bit of salt in the wound, Manning pointed out that the Chargers infamously fired Schottenheimer and both coordinators after a 14-2 campaign in 2006. His replacement, Norv Turner, was very solid as well. But that doesn't seem to be fitting Manning's narrative.
Manning also, to disrespect the franchise even more, admitted that he was trying not to impress the Chargers during the dinner or the pre-draft process. He neglected to tell everyone that he found a $20 bill in the playbook and hoped that they perceived that he was not thorough or interested.
But the most interesting bit came toward the end, when Manning admitted that this whole thing wasn't necessarily his father's doing. It was all Eli Manning's idea based on intel from agent Tom Condo, and in fact, his parents were not on board with it. They just protected him in the aftermath.
"Just intel from Tom Condo ... he had a couple of the players, he had a couple of the coaches," Manning said. "He was supportive in me making this decision. My parents really weren't supportive. My dad didn't like the idea. Now, he came to my defense and like supported me after everything was going down. But he didn't like he didn't like that."
Of course, this is all water under the bridge at a certain point. Manning had his career and Rivers had his. Yes, Manning escaped with two Super Bowl victories, but it is not as if he is head-and-shoudlers above Rivers all-time, if he even is at all.
But it is freeing, in a way, to learn the truth of the matter, straight from the horse's mouth. No sugarcoating it, no holding back. It doesn't make the pill any easier to swallow, but it'll eventually go down just fine.
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