Jets fan relives memory of 2004 draft
Sherwyn, then 11 years old, told Manning he’d been traded to Giants
The scene was surreal inside the Theater at Madison Square Garden, and anyone could see Eli Manning was a bit dazed as he was paraded from interview to interview.
A San Diego Chargers cap atop his head, Manning was being celebrated as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2004 NFL draft – an incredible honor for a quarterback who would go on to win a pair of Super Bowl MVPS and become a beloved franchise legend in the city where he played for 16 seasons.
Just not for the team he was drafted by.
“I was walking between interviews, and a little kid ran into the room, yelling I had been traded to the Giants,” Manning said. “I thought he might be joking with me. I’m kind of walking with someone with an earpiece, a draft day worker, and he put me on the spot where I was supposed to stand. I was like, ‘Anything to that?’ He was like, ‘Hold on. Yeah, you’ve been traded to the New York Giants.’ ”
And that’s how Dylan Sherwyn became part of Giants history. The “little kid” was him.
Then a week shy of his 12th birthday, Sherwyn had come with his father, Steven, to the NFL draft in New York City from their New Jersey home. A family friend worked for the NFL, so the Sherwyns were able to obtain passes with clearance into the former Play-by-play restaurant, which served as the backstage media area for the event.
Now 31 years old and an attorney, Sherwyn remains unsure just how many people – even those closest to him – realize the role he played in the Big Apple arrival of one of the greatest and most popular athletes to ever play here.
“It’s been cool how it’s sort of come back full circle every once in awhile,” Sherwyn told Northjersey.com in a phone interview. “And it’s fortunate for me that Eli had such a great career with the Giants, becoming such a monumental thing, versus somebody who hadn’t panned out as well.”
Getting the news first
The entire draft experience has changed for all involved since the swap of Manning for Philip Rivers swap shook the league.
As NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell turned a two-day weekend event to a three-day prime-time event that made the first round a marquee showcase on Thursday night. The draft now moves around the country instead of staying at what was once its home base in New York.
For the players, the trading of picks can happen now prior to names being announced. Back then, that was not the case. So when the Chargers selected Manning, he was introduced awkwardly for family photos while holding a Chargers jersey – even though Manning had said he would not play in San Diego.
The Giants were on the clock at No. 4 when they reengaged trade talks with the Chargers, unbeknownst to just about everybody watching the draft continue. The Sherwyns were crowded into a corner watching the festivities play out on a small TV.
“I was watching the draft on a TV with my dad and Eli was across the room doing a radio interview, still wearing a Chargers hat, and (then–nfl commissioner Paul) Tagliabue came on and announced the trade,” Sherwyn recalled. “I looked at my dad and was like, ‘He’s still wearing his Chargers hat, he’s wearing the wrong hat.’ And he was like, ‘OK, cool, go tell him then.’
“So I just kind of ran over and screamed it out when he was in the middle of a media scrum,” he continued. “He got a startled look on his face, like, ‘What did this kid just say?’ And I ducked out of there and didn’t think twice about it.”
The next morning, Steven Sherwyn was reading The New York Times’ sports section when he came across the quote that turned the entire story upside down for that “kid,” his son. Soon after, the Sherwyns were put in touch with Pat Hanlon, the senior vice president of communications for the Giants, who invited father and son to the Giants-jets preseason game that summer.
On that August day in East Rutherford, New Jersey, Manning came face to face again with – well, his pint-sized version of ESPN football reporter Adam Schefter. They took photos together and Sherwyn, a Jets fan, had no problem donning a Giants No. 10 jersey.
As Manning embarked on his NFL career, Sherwyn continued his own journey. He went to the University of Michigan and then to Fordham Law School, enduring the ups and downs of rooting for the other team in green.
“My roommate in college was a huge Giants fan,” Sherwyn said. “So I loved to tell him I had more of a connection to Eli and his favorite team than he did.”
Fast forward to today and Sherwyn has managed to reconnect with Manning via email on numerous occasions.
Chuck Baker, his mentor at the law firm Sidley Austin, is co-chair of the company’s entertainment, sports and media group and sits on the board of the March of Dimes Sports Luncheon with Manning. The moment in time for the quarterback and the fan comes up at the annual luncheon every now and then.
“Still a huge Jets fan, love the NFL,” Sherwyn said. “I actually work professionally in the sports space. I worked for the Pistons and the Nets in their inhouse legal departments, and now I work as a lawyer for various teams and owners and organizations in the sports entertainment space.”
Sherwyn joked that, before he went on a first date with his wife, Austen, she did an internet search on him for more background on the man she was about to meet. Up popped a story from Draft Day 2004 and that kid who scooped everyone on the trade that made Manning a Giant for life.
“Stayed a Jets fan, for better or worse,” Sherwyn said with a laugh. “But I’m always an Eli fan.”
So the question had to be asked: If the Giants needed a bit of the good fortune they experienced back in 2004 and someone reached out with an invitation to join their on-site contingent in Detroit Thursday for the first night of the draft, provided team brass swings another draft day trade for a quarterback, is Sherwyn willing and available to break the news to say, North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye or fellow Michigan alumnus J.J. Mccarthy?
“Would probably lose whatever cute appeal it had 20 years ago and be borderline creepy,” Sherwyn said with a laugh. “But happy to do it if the Giants want to get me a ticket, see if we can do something great again.”
“I was walking between interviews, and a little kid ran into the room, yelling I had been traded to the Giants. I thought he might be joking with me.”
Eli Manning
Former NFL quarterback