Love Him or Loathe Him – Eli Manning’s Elite!

Love him or loathe him,
you've got to admit that Eli Manning is elite.

Has everyone had enough of the ‘Is Eli Manning elite’ talk by now? I know I have – and besides – I thought it was pretty clear that Manning was elite – before he even won his most recent Super Bowl title.

Before Manning collected his second championship trophy this past Sunday, only 10 quarterbacks in league history had managed to win more than one Super Bowl – and now Manning joins that elite group – not just today’s class of elite quarterbacks.

With the win, Manning joined Bart Starr, Bob Griese, Roger Staubach, John Elway, Jim Plunkett and  Ben Roethlisberger as two-time Super Bowl winning quarterbacks. Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw both won four while Troy Aikman and New England's Tom Brady won three apiece.

More importantly, Manning has risen to the occasion at just the right time in both of New York’s Super Bowl runs which tells me he has that special quality to remained poised at the most critical times – an intangible that has ruined many a NFL quarterbacks’ career.

Love him or loathe him – Eli Manning is an elite quarterback – and not just among today’s era of signal-callers either. He’s going down as an all-time great people!

Karma’s A Bi**h Bill!

New England Patriots head coach
Bill Belichick got a big dose of karma
after cutting reserve wide receiver
Tiquan Underwood on the
eve of Super Bowl XLVI.  

It’s pretty funny how I just wrote about how wrong New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was for cutting reserve wide receiver Tiquan Underwood just 24 hours before the biggest game of his life in order to add defensive lineman Alex Silvestro from the team’s practice squad.

The only problem with Belichick’s nonsensical plan – and one that many, including myself expected – was that neither Underwood – or his replacement – Silvestro – would even see the playing field and sure enough, Silvestro never got in the game. Only two Patriots defenders didn't play in Super Bowl 46 and Silvestro was one of them.

To make a long story short Eye On Sports readers, Tiquan Underwood was released for absolutely nothing – and mostly because Bill Belichick had to show the world just how ‘ingenious’ he is.

Some random comments from around the Internet generally agree that Bellichick was wrong – and foolish for making the late switch.

Travis from Mississauga, Canada

Why not cut him last week ? You let him practice all week, fly his people in, go thru all the festivities to cut him the eve of ? I'm sorry you don't conduct business like that.... Let that man have some dignity... Very embarrassing

Luv1138 from Irvine, California

Messed up. Why hours before SB 46? The guy must be devastated. Good luck Underwood, I wish you the best.

22Thumbs UpThumbs Down1 from New York, New York

And couldn't they have just cut OchoStinko instead? He's the least useful player on the roster.

Jason from Milwaukee, Wisconsin

The hell with Bill, he has never shown any class and cutting someone the night before is uncalled for. They had 2 weeks to figure it out, so either the Pats are way behind on their planning for the game or the coach is an #$%$ clown!

Travis from Las Vegas, Nevada

That's cold blooded Belichick. That's embarrassing not only to the player but his family.

Needless to say, maybe Belichick’s thinking about karma today!

'Papa Bear' Was Right - It’s How You Finish!

The New York Giants proved it's not
how you start, but how you finish!

You know, Eye On Sports readers, my father, the late, great track and field coach, George ‘Papa Bear’ Williams always told me, ‘It’s not how you start son, it’s how you finish’ and apparently, that’s a message that New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin, has shared with his players since taking over as the head coach back in 2004.

New York Giants head coach
Tom Coughlin is 'old school'.

New York has now shown on two occasions that you don’t necessarily have to be a dominant team during the regular season – and that it’s not how you start the regular season – it’s how you finish it and the postseason!

Denver Broncos
quarterback Tim Tebow.

The G-Men caught fire at just the right time in 2007 and did the same thing this year after falling to a mediocre 7-7 with just two regular season contests remaining. One common theme that the Giants preached after their hard-fought victory over the Patriots, was their total belief that they could overcome any obstacle in their path.

"Never," defensive end Justin Tuck said. "We have been in that situation all year and we just kept telling ourselves one game at a time, one play at a time and we finished it."

First, we got a huge dose of Tim Tebow mania and now this from the Giants?

Talk about belief in the NFL this season - not to mention the fact that dear old dad was right - it's not how you star, but how you finish!

New York's Defensive Lineman Factory!

Justin Tuck was a third
round draft pick in 2005.

Look, it probably shouldn’t have taken this long, but maybe somebody should try and find out just who’s behind the Giants’ masterful drafting of the team’s highly successful defensive lineman.

Osi Umenyiorya was a
second round draft pick in 2003.

I mean, really, Osi Umenyiora, Justin Tuck, Mathias Kiwanuka and Jason Pierre-Paul!

Really?

New York’s new-age ‘fearsome foursome’ sacked Tom Brady twice (both by Tuck), hit him on eight other occasions and forced him to throw early on several others.

Oh yeah Eye On Sports readers, I wanna’ know who’s the mastermind behind the drafting of Tuck, a third round draft pick in 2005 and Umenyiora, a second round pick in 2003 – and I want to copy this guy’s method – like, immediately.