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The first family: Archie, Peyton and Eli are incredibly famous, immensely skilled and intensely driven. But as Eli prepares to be—like his brother—a first overall draft pick, what stands out most about the Mannings is how refreshingly grounded they are
Sporting News, The, March 22, 2004 by Paul Attner
Eli is not Peyton. It's an inevitable comparison, one they understand but don't particularly enjoy. Nor is it fair. If teams are looking for another Peyton, they'll be sorely disappointed, and not because Eli is incapable of becoming an NFL star. But Peyton has one of the most intriguing personalities in sports. He is consumed with football to the point of obsession and always has been. When he was being recruited in high school, he would study media guides and talk to college coaches about their staffs and returning players. He always is on, deadly serious, analytical and detailed, so gregarious and focused.
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That's not Eli. One family friend, Bo Ball, says it was years before Eli "finished a sentence." Once painfully shy and introverted, Eli dryly blames his brothers. "I could never get a word in," he claims. During his time at Ole Miss, he has emerged and blossomed to a point where he could give a recent speech before a sports gathering in Memphis and, when asked about his college recruiting, reply: "I had a great visit to Colorado." When the laughter stopped, he quickly added: "Just kidding." But he still keeps his own counsel. He is observant, smart, loose, unassuming, but he doesn't readily share his thoughts--even with his parents--and is unwilling to take himself too seriously.
David Cutcliffe, who was Peyton's offensive coordinator at Tennessee and Eli's head coach at Ole Miss, knows the brothers better than anyone outside the immediate family. "Here's the difference," he says. "I would walk into a stadium on a Friday with Peyton, and he would tell me all the great players who had played there. If I tried to talk to Eli about the same thing, he would look at me as if I was crazy." When Eli was young, the only reason he knew the schools in the SEC was because Peyton would hold him down and pound him on the chest until he could name them all.
But Cutcliffe cautions NFL teams not to misread Eli. "He is every bit Peyton when it comes to game preparation," he says. "They both work as hard. They have great minds and a fast-twitch thinking ability that allows them to absorb things very quickly" Eli is passionate, just in a more quiet way. "I love everything about football," he says. "The games, the practices, the preparation, the smells, everything." Anyway, Eli always has developed more slowly than Peyton.
Unfortunately, neither son inherited Archie's rare mobility. "Archie had absolutely great feet," says Wolf. Archie's sons are elusive in the pocket but not particularly quick. Instead, they are classic drop-back passers at a moment when Vick-like movement is favored. That's one reason the buzz around Eli has not equaled the clamor that surrounded Peyton. Any criticism would nag Peyton. But Eli? "I can't change who I am," he says.
Imagine how difficult it could have been, growing up in New Orleans with Archie Manning as your father. He last played with the Saints in 1981, yet he remains by far the city's most revered sports figure. He still lives in the same classic manor home along splendid St. Charles Avenue. Still works in the city, too, in his own marketing and public relations business. He immersed himself in community affairs and befriended seemingly the entire population. He's instantly charming and warm; no one can remember anyone saying one bad thing about him. But when his sons leaped into football and then gravitated immediately to quarterback, it seemed like a formula for eventual rebellion--or for offspring so full of themselves to be obnoxious.
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