Eli Manning to the Hall of Fame Shouldn't Be a Debate
(Video Transcript):
Whether Eli Manning is a Hall of Famer is now one of sports talk’s greatest hits. Which is fun, but I’m not sure what kind of debate it actually is.
Seems to me the people who don’t want him in say so based on a feeling or an arbitrary standard, not the one that already exists. Just do the blind resume test. If I told you a player was number seven all time in passing yards and passing touchdowns as well as a two time Super Bowl MVP, I think your initial instinct would be no brainer Hall of Famer.
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I get some of the counter arguments I suppose. The stats are due to accumulation, the overall record is pedestrian and it never felt like true greatness when you were watching him.
But what I don’t get is dismissing the other factor aside from numbers that will get him in, the Super Bowl wins. We’re always saying guys are failures if they don’t have a championship, and then when someone has twice beaten Brady, Belichick and the Patriots in incredible fashion we’re just going to yeah but it away? Or pretend the qb who threw for 15 touchdowns to just two picks in those runs was along for the ride?
No one is saying Eli Manning is the greatest of all time but he’s at least got the credentials of say Jim Kelly. I know I won’t stop the debate. But I do know what will. When the best quarterback in the history of New York City inevitably gets in.
