Eli attends 1st game as spectator
You know how those on the outside say things like, “This is a big year for so-and-so” at the start
of a new season, putting, if not heat, certainly attention on certain players?
Eli Manning, now an outsider (sort of ), does that, too.
“I’m excited for the team,” Manning said Sunday at MetLife Stadium, a few hours before the Giants’ 27-13 loss to the Broncos. “It’s a big year for a number of guys. It’s a big year for Saquon [Barkley].
It’s a big year for Daniel Jones. A lot of guys, Evan Engram, a lot of guys who have been close and been here for a while, trying to see if they can take those next steps forward or stay healthy.
“I’m excited to watch ’em and cheer for ’em and root for ’em. I’m not here to judge and analyze, I’m not that person. I’m just here to be a fan and support them in any way I can.”
This Giants game was the first one for Manning as a spectator, something he was keenly aware of when he said, “It’s much more relaxed coming to the stadium today than the last 16 years when I was coming to play and coming to perform and game-plan.”
Manning works for the Giants in a business operations and fan engagement role. As such, he helped cut the ribbon prior to the game on the newly named Hackensack Meridian Health Legacy Club. Manning, as a player and since retirement, has worked tirelessly on his “Tackle Kids Cancer” program to find a cure for pediatric cancer.
Manning, 40, was like everyone else during the 2020 pandemic season, watching from afar. Before this year’s season opener, he met with Giants sponsors before settling in to watch his former team with his wife, Abby, and their four children. He owns six season tickets.
“I hope to make this a tradition that we get to do on Sundays, growing up and watching the Giants and coming to see games,” Manning said.
His first order of the day: Not getting lost inside the inner corridors of the enormous stadium.
“I don’t know my way around the inside of the building,” he said. “This is all kind of foreign territory for me. I got to learn my way around a little bit.”