Manning Archie - In the name of the father: family, football, and the Manning dynasty

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MARK RIBOWSKY

LIVERIGHT PUBLISHING CORPORATION

A DIVISION OF W. W. NORTON & COMPANY

INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS SINCE 1923

NEW YORK LONDON

Copyright 2018 by Mark Ribowsky

All rights reserved

First Edition

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Book design by Daniel Lagin

Production manager: Anna Oler

JACKET DESIGN BY GREGG KULICK

JACKET PHOTOGRAPHS: (ARCHIE MANNING) FOCUS ON SPORT / GETTY IMAGES; (PEYTON MANNING) ANDY LYONS / GETTY IMAGES; (ELI MANNING) CHRIS TROTMAN / GETTY IMAGES; (FOOTBALL FIELDS) HISTORIA / REX / SHUTTERSTOCK; THE GRANGER COLLECTION; UNDERWOOD ARCHIVES / REX / SHUTTERSTOCK; (BACK COVER) UNDERWOOD ARCHIVES / REX / SHUTTERSTOCK

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Names: Ribowsky, Mark author.

Title: In the name of the father : family, football, and the Manning dynasty / Mark Ribowsky.

Description: First edition. | New York : Liveright Publishing Corporation, A division of W. W. Norton & Company Independent Publishers since 1923, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018008749 | ISBN 9781631493096 (hardcover)

Subjects: LCSH: Manning, Archie, 1949 | Manning, Cooper. | Manning, Peyton. | Manning, Eli, 1981 | Manning family. | Quarterbacks (Football)United StatesBiography. | Football playersUnited StatesBiography. | Fathers and sonsMississippiBiography.

Classification: LCC GV939.A1 R485 2018 | DDC 796.3320922 [B] dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018008749

ISBN 978-1-63149-310-2 (e-book)

Liveright Publishing Corporation

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For my own legatee, Jake Ribowsky

Has it ever struck you, Connie, that life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quick you hardly catch it going?

MRS. GOFORTH TO THE WITCH, THE MILK TRAIN DOESNT STOP HERE ANYMORE BY TENNESSEE WILLIAMS

L ike the other famed Southern family dynasty of the last half century, the Bushes, who actually came by way of New England and not the Deep South, the three-headed Manning football dynasty, its roots in the Mississippi mud, seems never to go gentle into that good night. Witness the self-perpetuating saga of Eli Manning, the baby of the family, who still plays on Sundays, upholding the tradition built by his father, Archie, and updated by his brother Peytonthough Eli may have wished he too had retired before the 2017 season, when the weekly travails of the carnival act from hell known as the New York Giants won him three games and the kind of headlines no player with his achievement would want. Indeed, by the time this surreal nightmare was over, he found himself on a bad acid trip into the underbelly of his career, courtesy of a team without blocking, defense, or running, and a coach without a clue. The latter, a mustached mannequin known as Ben McAdoo, who had gotten to the playoffs the previous season with the same team almost solely on Mannings interception-prone but clutch arm. He then seemed to conspire with equally feckless team management and ownership to crucify their quarterback of distinction, keeping him from starting his 211th consecutive game, having bettered his brothers streak of 208 to trail only Brett Favres record 297.

If this was meant as a power struggle that would climax with a Manning trade, it was the worst plot since the cork in the middle of the island in Lost. After one game, and in the midst of a backlash in the city not seen since a president told it to drop dead in the 1970s, the Giants brainless brahmins did an about-face, gave him his job back, and sent the coach packing, possibly to a gulagbut leaving open the question of whether the third Manning would stay or go, capping his career with a real team or, as his brother was prevented from doing, ending it with the one he began with so long ago.

By the new year, it was clear he would stay, less clear if he would be throwing to Odell Beckham Jr., a wildly talented receiver with the impulse control of a six-year-old, who surfaced over the last off-season in a video cavorting in bed, a funny looking cigarette in hand, with a woman holding a credit card in front of lines of white powder. That made it seem likely Beckham would be pawned to the highest bidder, leaving Elis path back to the Super Bowl after five years in the woods even less likely. If so, his now long-ago victories over Tom Bradys New England Patriots in that event will always stand as Elis only edge over Peyton, who lost to Brady 11 of 17 times, forever leaving his legacy unfairly damned by faint praiseas the best regular-season quarterback in history.

But give him props, Peyton Manning was great enough and charmed enough to beat Brady in their final clash, with a Super Bowl appearance as the reward and the chance to close out a fairy tale few believed was possible, retiring with his second NFL championship. Four seasons before, he too had been 36 and had undergone four neck surgeries that left the nerve endings in his right hand unable to feel the ball he was throwing. But, leaving the Indianapolis Colts for the Denver Broncos, his knees wobbling and joints groaning, he made it to his fourth Super Bowl, against the superior Carolina Panthers and their preening quarterback, Cam Newton, the avatar of a new generation of mobile, ultra-athletic quarterbacks. It was a generational settling of scores if ever there was one. And even if it was because he was lifted by his defense, the old boy sure did finish in style. The last pass of his career, the two-point conversion that made the final tally 2410, put away his 200th career victory, a nice, round all-time record he held for less than a year before Brady bettered him (as he has in most metrics, including their head-to-head matches).