PEACE OUT!

Dumped Eli should return favor

FOR HIS entire football life as a Giant, his champion football life and arguably Hall of Fame football life, Eli Manning has worn No. 10 as proudly as anyone has worn blue, as proudly as Frank Gifford and Harry Carson and Lawrence Taylor and Michael Strahan.

He should now waive his notrade clause and Escape From New York, and f inish out his last days in a place where he can find the happiness he deserves, because this is no longer the place where he can play for a head coach he deserves, because Ben McAdoo is not that head coach.

Tom Coughlin, you have Manning’s number. Rescue him! You need him again, and now he needs you again.

One of the saddest sights you will ever see will be Sunday in Oakland, where Eli Manning will stand on the sidelines as the backup watching someone else — GENO SMITH — quarterback his team.

Wellington Mara did not step in for Phil Simms when George Young and Dan Reeves made him a salary-cap casualty, and apparently John Mara will sit by idly and allow this to stand.

And so this will be McAdoo’s legacy — the man who forced Manning to selflessly step aside and end his remarkable 210-game Ironman streak. And his Giants career. Remember The Fumble? That one happened on the field.

This one happened inside the Quest Diagnostics Training Center This is the Giants’ Buttfumble. It is a sickening betrayal of a champion who has been The Pride of the Giants.

“Coach McAdoo told me I could continue to start while Geno and Davis [Webb] are given an opportunity to play,” Manning said. “My feeling is that if you are going to play the other guys, play them. Starting just to keep the streak going and knowing you won’t finish the game and have a chance to win it is pointless to me, and it tarnishes the streak. Like I always have, I will be ready to play if and when I am needed. I will help Geno and Davis prepare to play as well as they possibly can.”

Of course he will. He has been class every step of the way. This 2-9 record is not his fault. It’s McAdoo’s fault, for orchestrating an offense that has become downright offensive. It’s Jerry Reese’s fault for not building a wall in front of his immobile 36-year-old quarterback.

There is blood on their hands. They are the ones who deserve to go Not Eli Manning. They quit on the one Giant who would never have quit on them.

Eli Manning should never be anybody’s scapegoat.

The headline, in bold on the club release, read: “Geno Smith to start at QB on Sunday.”

Your immediate thought was this had to be April Fool’s Day.

“Surprised is not the word,’’ Coughlin said Tuesday on 1010XL radio in Jacksonville. “My sentiments are totally with Eli Manning. I love the kid. He is a class act. He is a two-time Super Bowl champion. He is the finest, most humblest young man in that locker room. I haven’t followed the Giants. I know it’s a disappointing year. But my thoughts are strictly with Eli. I’m very upset about when I heard that.’’

The original plan to start Manning for one half and then yanking him for Smith was clearly an insult to Manning, who was put in the untenable position of being perceived as selfish for wanting to continue his streak.

“It’s not a preseason game,” a visibly upset Manning said. “It’s not fair to me, it’s not fair to Geno. That’s not how you play. You play to win.”

It was an offer that a somber, dazed Manning could refuse. And should have refused. Disgrace. “Nobody knows what the future holds, but right now, this is what we think is best for the franchise,” Reese said. Wrong. It is never best for the franchise to treat the face of your franchise like this, someone who has played through plantar fasciitis and a slightly separated shoulder and beaten Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers at frozen Lambeau in the playoffs and stood up to a beating in San Francisco in the NFC title game and Tom Brady twice in the Super Bowl.

“Our No.1 priority every week is to go win a game, but we owe it to the organization to get an evaluation of everybody on the roster, and that includes at the quarterback position,” McAdoo said.

He should look in the mirror first.

Getting a look later on at rookie Davis Webb is one thing. Throwing The Pride of the Giants under the Big Blue Bus this way is another.

McAdoo and Reese, who apparently are starring in “Death Wish 10,” won’t be there next season. Smith probably won’t be there.

And now, it seems inevitable that Eli Manning, starting quarterback since Nov. 21, 2004, won’t be there. .Shame on the Giants. Manning, asked if this was his hardest day as a Giant, said: “It’s up there. Yeah. Yeah.”

Someone asked him if he feels he might have started his last game for the Giants.

“I don’t know. I don’t know. One week at a time,” he said.

Abandon your Giant For Life dream. Because they’ve abandoned you.

Get out.