With the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame’s Class of 2024 introduced this week, we are able to now give attention to the long-standing debate that’s about to come back to a conclusion subsequent yr at the moment.
That debate is whether or not or not former New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning is worthy of being a first-ballot Corridor of Famer.
Manning, who retired after the 2019 season, might be eligible for induction into Canton starting subsequent yr.
Big followers already know that Manning belongs, as do the followers of the New England Patriots — the workforce Manning defeated twice within the Tremendous Bowl.
However there are followers of different groups, particularly these of the rival Philadelphia Eagles, who proceed to contest Manning’s candidacy out of sheer jealousy, though they’ve lastly gained a Tremendous Bowl lately. Others consider he’s a ‘nepo child’ who skated on his household identify.
However the numbers don’t lie. Manning had a protracted and profitable profession. There are various who’ve busts in Canton who’ve achieved loads much less.
Is Eli Manning a Corridor of Famer?
📈 2x Tremendous Bowl champ📈 2x Tremendous Bowl MVP📈 57,023 cross yards (tenth all-time)📈 366 cross TDs (tenth all-time)📈 210 straight begins (tenth all-time)📉 117-117 profession report📉 Solely 4 Professional Bowls📉 0 All-Professionals📉 244 INTs (twelfth all-time) pic.twitter.com/WamNLHgH4J
— B/R Gridiron (@brgridiron) February 7, 2024
Eli might be amongst a powerful group of newcomers who can even be of their first yr of eligibility, however few have his resume.
First-time eligibles for the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame, Class of 2025 embody:
🏈Eli Manning🏈Luke Kuechly🏈Adam Vinatieri🏈Terrell Suggs🏈Marshal Yanda🏈Marshawn Lynch🏈Earl Thomas🏈Joe Staley🏈Demaryius Thomas🏈Aqib Talib🏈Vernon Davis🏈Darren Sproles🏈Cameron Wake
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 9, 2024
That apart, Manning’s induction in Yr 1 is way from a slam dunk. Tom Rock, the veteran Giants columnist from Newsday, is making ready Big followers for a attainable snub.
Whereas Manning definitely would be the most embellished and highest-profile quarterback on the poll the committee considers all through the approaching months, he’s not going to be the slam dunk candidate some would possibly take into account him to be.
The Corridor hasn’t enshrined a quarterback since Peyton Manning in 2021. Meaning fellow two-time Tremendous Bowl champ Jim Plunkett together with others reminiscent of Joe Theismann, Ken Anderson, Earl Morrall and even Phil Simms have been ready patiently on the fringes of Canton.
Eli Manning was the quarterback for a sequence of Corridor of Fame-worthy moments, the type of performs that can get rewound and replayed yearly round this time so long as soccer exists, however his general profession numbers are far much less spectacular.
All true. Many can even level to Eli’s lukewarm report as a beginning quarterback (117-117) and the truth that he was by no means named to the primary or second All-Professional Workforce, which for a participant who performed so long as Manning, is a conspicuous gap that would trigger some voters pause.
None of which will matter. Manning’s on-field exploits alongside together with his off-the-field actions might merely add as much as a ‘sure’ for a lot of.
Eli has been a mannequin citizen, working tirelessly for a number of charities, and was named the NFL Walter Payton Man of the Yr in 2016.
In any case, why would so many firms select Eli to be their spokesman if he wasn’t an important participant and an important particular person?
He’s worthy.
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