Mara: ‘No decision’ yet on whether Manning will start again

Eli Manning’s emotional interview last Tuesday may in fact not be his final hurrah as the Giants’ franchise quarterback.

ESPN reported Monday afternoon that Manning will return to being the starter next Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys. The 36-year-old’s longest active consecutive starts streak of 210 games ended this past Sunday when the Giants opted to begin evaluating other quarterbacks for the future, beginning with Jets castoff Geno Smith in Oakland. But after head coach Ben McAdoo was fired Monday, interim coach Steve Spagnuolo will reportedly play Manning again when the Giants return to MetLife Stadium.

“There’s no decision, to my knowledge, that’s been made on that yet. I’d assume (Spagnuolo) will run it by me before he makes that decision,” Giants coowner John Mara said. “I’ve spoken to Steve and he’s still trying to come to grips with this whole thing. He wants to talk to his offensive staff and he’s going to talk to (interim general manager) Kevin (Abrams) and myself. Ultimately, it’s going to be his decision as to who to play at quarterback.”

Mara admits he “signed off” on the Giants’ original plan to start Manning in Oakland, then have Smith take over in the second half. Manning declined the option of merely keeping his consecutive starts streak alive.

Mara, who was at an NFL owners committee meeting in New York when Manning’s decision became final, says he didn’t actually want Manning to be subbed out of Sunday’s game no matter what. But the idea of Manning remaining in the game if he was playing well or the Giants were winning at halftime was never communicated.

“My hope had been to talk to (McAdoo) to try to have a little more flexibility with it,” Mara said. “Not have a hard, fast time when he was going to come out of the game. But by then Eli rightfully had rejected the notion of only starting and playing the half and coming out. We issued a statement and it was just too late at that point.”

Still, Mara insists McAdoo’s presentation of the plan “had no effect whatsoever” on ownership’s decision to fire McAdoo and longtime general manager Jerry Reese, who communicated with McAdoo on Manning.

Mara and co-owner Steve Tisch reversed course after originally stating three weeks ago that no decision on McAdoo’s future would be made until after the season.

“You ought to stop blaming Ben and Jerry on that,” Mara said. “If you want to blame me, go ahead and do it. I certainly have the power to overrule them if I wanted to. I chose not to do it.”

Manning’s benching sparked public outcry from former Giants players and other prominent figures. His streak, second-longest in NFL history behind only Brett Favre (297) began Nov. 21, 2004 and included two Super Bowl victories.

After Sunday’s game, Manning expressed a desire to continue playing but declined to contemplate his future. He has a no-trade clause and two years remaining on his contract with the Giants.

“There’s no point,” Manning said. “I can’t control what’s going to happen. We’ve got four games left, finish out this season in whatever capacity they need me to do and go from there.”