Why I dislike the Mannings

With the news of Payton Manning being named MVP of the NFL season this year, it fueled my disliking of Payton and Eli Manning even more. See I use to like Payton Manning and liked watching him play in football all the way until the draft in 2004.

The San Diego Chargers had the number one pick and Eli said if signed he would not play for the Chargers. Here is something I found off of Wikipedia:

“Days before the draft, Chargers general manager A. J. Smith announced that Eli Manning and his representative Tom Condon informed the Chargers organization that if Manning was drafted by the Chargers, he would not sign. Manning described his refusal to play for San Diego was a result of feeling that San Diego would not be conducive to his future. However, what was reported was that his father, Archie Manning, said he would not sign if drafted by the Chargers.”

See what bothers me about this is two things. One, as a rookie you should not be able to dictate where you are going to play. Being a professional athlete is not a right it is a privilege. You have to earn your stripes and then if you are good enough then you can you can dictate where you are going to play. This is the reason I never liked Steve Francis, because even though he did play for the Grizzlies he threw a big fuss about and tried protesting. The second thing is why did Payton and Archie get involved. It wasn’t there fight, and it wasn’t there problem. Baby Eli was big enough to handle his own battles.

Here is another thing I found on wikipedia:

“NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue announced that the Chargers, with first overall pick, would indeed select Eli Manning. Manning was clearly unhappy when selected by them. When the pick was announced, the crowd in attendance booed and jeered loudly. Manning accepted a Chargers jersey but refused to wear a Chargers draft day cap. Chargers head coach Marty Schottenheimer, after a half hour, called Manning and informed him that a plane was waiting to take him to San Diego.”

This is just disrespectful and ungrateful. And another thing I don’t understand why do people in the NFL hail Archie Manning as some great Quarterback. He was mediocre at best. I mean look at the stats he had:

Played for 3 teams in 13 years: Saints, Oilers and Vikings. He had 125 touchdown passes compared to his 173 interceptions and career QB rating of 67.1, hardly worth bragging about. You would think he’s Joe Montana the way people talk about him.

The absolute sad thing is I am not even a die hard Chargers fan, I just feel bad they had to deal with that garbage. Look on the brightside though the Chargers got Nate Kaeding, Shawne Merriman and Phillip Rivers. I would love to see the Chargers and Giants play each other in the Super Bowl eventually when S.D. gets fully healthy and would love to see what would happen.

I’ve said my thoughts on this matter, and if you asked me if I think a Manning vs. Manning Super Bowl would be cool? I would most definitely say no!!!

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manning-Rivers_trade