Like the late, great comedian Rodney Dangerfield, New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning gets no respect.
It’s one thing when fans and pundits don’t give a player their due. It’s entirely something else when a player’s peers don’t think highly of you. That’s the situation that New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning finds himself in.
In a poll of 155 active NFL players, Manning was voted the game’s “Most Overrated QB,” receiving 14 percent of the vote, according to ESPN’s Kevin Seifert. Here’s how the top 5 in the voting looked:
- Eli Manning, New York Giants: 14 percent
- Andrew Luck, Indianapolis Colts: 11 percent
- Joe Flacco, Baltimore Ravens: 10 percent
- Jay Cutler, Miami Dolphins: 7 percent
- Sam Bradford, Minnesota Vikings: 7 percent
Flacco seems like an obvious choice. If the six-year, $120.6 million deal he signed in 2013 wasn’t bad enough, Baltimore gave him an additional three-year, $66.4 million extension in 2016. Nearly $190 million for a QB who has led the team to one Super Bowl, a 34-31 victory over San Francisco in Super Bowl XLVII.
Nobody has considered Cutler a quality QB for years, so his inclusion is odd. Bradford and Luck make some sense, as neither one has been able to stay healthy over the course of their respective careers.
But Eli? Sure, he’s not the same quarterback he once was, but he’s as durable as any signal-caller in the league and has thrown for at least 4,000 yards in six of the past eight seasons—including the last three.
Maybe people don’t like him because of his last name. Perhaps some players still hold a grudge against his older brother, Peyton Manning, who decimated opposing defenses for 17 years before retiring after the 2015 season.
Or maybe they’re just jealous of his two Super Bowl rings—or his two Super Bowl MVP Awards—or the fact that he’s beaten Tom Brady and the mighty New England Patriots twice on football’s biggest stage.
Whatever the reason, Manning isn’t likely to lose much sleep over these results. All he has to do is look at the sparkling hardware in his home—or his bank account—to make him feel better.
Haters are gonna hate, after all.