Eli Manning spent his entire career with the New York Giants, and those ties to the organization didn’t fade away with his retirement. It was known that Manning provided advisory last season to the Giants under Joe Judge, and it looks like the same offer is extended now that there’s new management in town.
“I told them if they need anything from me in any way, nothing is off limits. I’m happy to help,” Manning told the New York Post, speaking of GM Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll. “I look forward to getting to know both of them better and seeing if I can be of service to them and help them get back on track and win more games. I’m all for that.”
Given the drastic changes within a short amount of time in the front office and coaching staff, it’s easy to see why advice from a veteran name like Manning might be appreciated. After all, few have handled the harsh New York market better.
There’s also few players with a better perspective on the current rebuilding process. By the time of Manning’s retirement during that rebuild, he was the last player to have been around for the heights of the last Super Bowl run.
Manning takes Giants’ side in Brian Flores debate
It doesn’t look like the controversy around Brian Flores is set to go away any time soon, and Manning joined the side of those to come out in defense of the Giants during the same interview.
“I know the Giants organization. I know they do everything possible to give everybody a fair chance. They don’t care, minority or not, they are looking for the best possible candidate,” Manning said. “They are going to do everything properly to look for that perfect candidate. So, I don’t think there was any wrongdoing there.”
If the timeline of events provided by the Giants is correct, it’s hard to argue they didn’t do as Eli said and pick the candidate they believed was the best. Given the string of bad coaching hires the organization has made, the theory that they made their latest one before even conducting an in-person interview is highly unlikely at best.
Still, given the nature of the court system, it’s going to be a long time before we get a definitive verdict one way or the other in this case.