Why Eli Manning Didn't Want to Go to the Chargers

[Bolt-O]

From the horsey mouth.. the sense of a lack of commitment to winning at the time. It wasn't Archie...

By the way, he's still a jerk, even though after football, he's kind of funny.

[jubei]

the giants won the trophy mostly from their D. He DID come thru 1 PO where he actually played pretty well IIRC...and that one UNLIKELY Tyree helmet catch...unlike Rapelesberger who played the worst of any winning QB.

[Bolt-O]

the giants won the trophy mostly from their D. He DID come thru 1 PO where he actually played pretty well IIRC...and that one UNLIKELY Tyree helmet catch...unlike Rapelesberger who played the worst of any winning QB.

At least in this corner of the fandom, its clear that the trade worked out for both teams, but just lucky breaks and a great defense got the Giants two Super Bowl wins, and you can't take that away from Eli... he did enough. The story of his meeting with the Chargers at a Marriott in NOLA and the arguments with the Front Office and Marty then ring absolutely true. I think Eli might have sat a long time behind Brees and would have been traded if Brees wasn't hurt. It would have been hilarious if the Chargers did pull off a trade with the Browns, though, at least at Eli's expense.

[DerwinBosa]

From the horsey mouth.. the sense of a lack of commitment to winning at the time. It wasn't Archie...

By the way, he's still a jerk, even though after football, he's kind of funny.

He is a jerk, and the one important thing he said in that interview was what I already knew. He didn't think he could win in San Diego, so he cowered his way out of it. Rivers took on the challenge. Roethlisberger, as much as I don't like him, would have taken on the challenge, too. That's one of many reasons why I don't consider Eli a Hall of Famer. There's no doubt in my mind that he would have done the same thing if the Arizona Cardinals had the first pick. Same if he had been in the 2002 NFL Draft, when the expansion Texans had the first overall pick, or in 2003, when Carson Palmer went first to the Bengals. Former Giants general manager Ernie Accorsi had mentioned in an NFL Network interview that Cleveland was looking to move up for Eli. I had never heard that Eli knew about that before the draft, but it doesn't surprise me at all that he would have refused to go there, too.

[powderblueboy]

I preferred Rivers to Manning at the time, so Eli did us a favor.

But, it is interesting how he describes the bickering between Marty, AJ, and Spanos, already at that time, as being a turn off,
and that they were already touting Antonio Gates as a stud from the 2003 season ....Eli not knowing anything about the guy..

[Whydachargers?]

I salute Eli for saying what he didn't want. That took balls. Worked out for him. And for us too.

[sonorajim]

I salute Eli for saying what he didn't want. That took balls. Worked out for him. And for us too.

I loved the look on Eli's face when the Chargers drafted him. Priceless.

And a little later we traded him for Rivers plus picks that paid off too. Thanks Eli. ass-hole.

[Velo]

I forgive him. It was a long time ago.

[dmac_bolt]

I preferred Rivers to Manning at the time, so Eli did us a favor.

But, it is interesting how he describes the bickering between Marty, AJ, and Spanos, already at that time, as being a turn off,
and that they were already touting Antonio Gates as a stud from the 2003 season ....Eli not knowing anything about the guy..

Yeah, that jumped out in his interview to me too. So they were bickering and fighting a full 3 yrs before AJ finally engineered getting Marty fired. That and they took him to eat at the hotel restaurant - tsk tsk, Marty was right. Wow.

[Topcat]

Here's the main text of what Eli said:

The reason Manning wanted nothing to do with the Chargers

During the lead up to the draft in 2004, the Chargers sent every top person in their organization out to New Orleans to meet with Manning and his family. At the time, the team's head coach was Marty Schottenheimer and the general manager was A.J. Smith, and they were both on the trip. The Chargers are owned by the Spanos family and several of them were also in New Orleans to meet with Manning, who had just finished his final year of playing at Ole Miss.

At one point during the visit, Manning had dinner with the Chargers' brass and that's when he seemed to have a realization.

"I just didn't feel like they were the most committed team to winning at the time," Manning said. "Marty Schottenheimer was the head coach, who was awesome, had great respect for him."

Over the course of the night, the Chargers came off as an organization that was in total disarray with members of front office 'yelling' at each other at dinner.

"They came to work me out in New Orleans, went to dinner and there was just friction between the head coach, general manager, the owners," Manning said."They were all yelling, kind of like fighting. We're at a Marriott restaurant. Schottenheimer's mad, he's like, 'We're in New Orleans and we're eating at a Marriott?' He's pissed. They are kind of bickering. It just didn't seem there was a lot of agreement on things and [didn't seem] they were committed to building a great winning franchise at that moment."

After the visit is when Manning apparently decided that he would rather not play football than play for the Chargers. To his credit, Manning did a good job of reading the room, because there was definitely some friction between Schottenheimer and the front office. In 2006, the Chargers fired Schottenheimer after a season where he had led them to a 14-2 record.

Manning also cleared up a misunderstanding that's been floating out there for 22 years. The former Giants QB said his dad had nothing to do with his decision. Over the years, the belief was that his dad, Archie Manning, talked him out of going to the Chargers, but Eli says that simply wasn't the case.

"My parents really weren't supportive," Manning said of his decision to not play for the Chargers. "My dad didn't like the idea. Now, he came to my defense and supported me after everything was going down. Afterwards, he took a blunt of the criticism, because he came to my defense and people were saying, 'Oh, you played in New Orleans. All those years you didn't win, so you're trying to dictate where your son's going.' And he just kind of bit his tongue and said, 'This is what Eli wants to do and I support him.' And he kind of did some media to save me from doing all of the media and taking the hits."

Back in 2021, Manning originally revealed that his dad had nothing to do with his decision, but this is the first time that he has ever revealed publicly that a dinner with the top members of the organization is what turned him sour on the franchise.

It probably also didn't help that the Chargers were gaining a reputation as a place young quarterbacks should avoid: Drew Brees had a rough first two seasons in San Diego and that came shortly after the team's debacle with Ryan Leaf, who was the No. 2 overall pick in the 1998 NFL Draft.

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/eli-manning-reveals-why-he-refused-to-play-for-chargers/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

[jamrock]

Marty was right. Who eats at a Marriott in NOLA? The relationship among Marty, AJ and the Spanos was already so toxic and dysfunctional' that they were bickering in front of the guy they wanted at #1? Jesus.

Cant blame Eli for wanting no part of it. Archie is completely off the hook. Took the heat for his kid.

[Destrier]

I've always wondered how many Super Bowls Rivers would have won with the Giants had nothing changed on draft day. He was OBVIOUSLY the superior QB. He would have done more with the Giants than Eli.