Eli dodges the blitz
Collector-helmet suit gets settled
Giants quarterback Eli Manning scrambled away from his sports-memorabilia lawsuit on Monday when a settlement was announced just as the case was about to go to trial.
All parties involved in the litigation, including the Giants, released a joint statement saying the agreement on the matter involving the two-time Super Bowl MVP does not support any allegations of wronging.
“All parties are grateful to have the matter, which began in 2014, concluded and are now focused on football, the fans and the future,” the statement read.
No details of the deal were released.
Manning — who has a contract with memorabilia dealer Steiner Sports to peddle some of his game gear — had been accused of conspiring to defraud collectors by selling equipment that he never actually wore.
He had been asked by his marketing agent for two helmets to sell in 2010, prompting him to write an e-mail to Giants equipment manager Joe Skiba requesting “2 helmets that can pass as game used. That is it. Eli.”
The agreement was reached after court papers revealed Manning trying to explain away that apparent smoking gun.
The documents showed that he insisted in an August 2017 deposition that he had no idea why anyone would think he was pulling a scam.
Asked to explain the e-mail, Manning said at his deposition, “Looks like I’m asking for two of my game-used helmets.”
A lawyer for the plaintiffs asked Manning to read how Webster’s dictionary defined the phrase “pass as.”
“To cause people to believe that one is (someone or something) that one is not,’’ Manning recited.
Manning then threw Skiba under the bus, saying that if the helmets weren’t game-used, it was the equipment manager’s fault.
“He was responsible for my helmets, and he provided me with my helmets,’’ Manning said.
“If a game-used helmet — a game-used helmet of mine — was claimed to be game-used and [was] not, there would be something wrong with that.’’
Collector Eric Inselberg and others had filed the lawsuit against Manning and the Giants.
Inselberg claims he bought a 2004 Manning helmet in 2015 and later learned the helmet wasn’t actually worn by Manning — because it didn’t have the black “RB” sticker that all of the team’s helmets bore that season in memory of Roosevelt Brown, a 1950s offensive lineman who died that year.