Mister clean must explain
Eli Manning has pulled off something more spectacular than two last-minute game-winning drives in the Super Bowl. He’s been in town for 13 years and despite his celebrity, has managed to stay out of trouble.
He’s not been arrested. He hasn’t failed a drug test or had a DUI. When he dines out, fights didn’t break out around him. He’s stayed off the gossip pages. He’s been one of the most well-known and visible New York athletes, yet lived the life of a quiet family man who happens to have a high profile job on Sundays. Now there’s Eli-gate. Manning was named the co-owner of the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award by the NFL at the Super Bowl in February for his work with pediatric cancer patients, but he’s among many defendants in a lawsuit filed by Eric Inselberg, a memorabilia collector. Manning has been accused of requesting fake game-worn helmets and authenticating them as ones he actually used in a game.
“I have no comment,” Eli’s father, Archie, texted to the Daily News Thursday.
The memorabilia business is competitive and lucrative, but by its nature raises questions of what is real and not real. That’s why Steiner Sports, which has a contract with Manning, goes to great lengths to authenticate the items it sells.
Manning has made so much money from the day he signed a six-year, $54 million contract with the Giants in 2004 that he obviously does not need the income from jersey and helmet sales. His $20 million signing bonus was at the time the largest for a rookie in NFL history. According to the website Spotrac, he has made over $200 million in football earnings alone during his career.
Whatever Brandon Steiner pays Manning to provide game-worn jerseys and helmets and occasionally show up in his New Rochelle office to meet high-end clients or sign items, well, it likely doesn’t come close to paying his taxes on his football income. But it’s easy money and just about every athlete’s jersey and helmets are available for the right price.
But what Manning has been accused of is completely out of character. Included in recent court filings was an email chain that Manning must explain as he attempts to clear his name.
On April 27, 2010, his business manager Alan Zucker sent him an email with the subject line: “Game Used for Steiner Sports.”
Zucker: “Eli, Can you please try and bring 2 game used helmets and 2 game used jerseys per your contract. Any chance you can bring them with you tomorrow? Thanks, Alan.”
The next email is from later that day sent from Joe Skiba, the Giants equipment director, to Manning.
Skiba: “Let me know what your looking for I’ll try to get something down for you.”
Manning: “2 helmets that can pass as game used. That is it. Eli.”
Skiba: “When do you need it for?”
Manning then wrote to Zucker: “Should be able to get them tomorrow.”
What did Manning mean when he wrote “that can pass as game used” in his email? Will he try to explain that he was directing Skiba to find one of his helmets he’d actually worn in a game but may not be battered, or to scuff one up so it looked like he wore it but did not. On the surface, without any further context, Manning asking Skiba to come up with two helmets that can “pass” as game used does make it seem like he was attempting to come up with a helmet at a time of the year when there might not have been any left from the group he had worn in a game.
Given Manning’s history of doing the right thing, he deserves the right to explain himself. He is next scheduled to speak to the media next Thursday.
Manning’s lawyers are already on the attack, saying the emails were taken out of context and shared publicly “by an unscrupulous memorabilia dealer who for years has been seeking to leverage a big payday . . . Eli Manning is well known for his integrity and this is just the latest misguided attempt to defame his character.”
That criticism, until now, really has been limited to what he does on the field.