Browns, Dinner and $20: Eli Manning Reveals New Details of 2004 Chargers Draft Drama

The Los Angeles Chargers are fresh off an epic schedule release but some ancient draft day history was brought back to the surface just before the release. The Chargers and New York Giants have been tied together since the 2004 draft day swap that sent Eli Manning to New York and helped land Philip Rivers with the Chargers. Luckily, the connection is currently more friendly now that Jim Harbaugh is the coach of the Chargers and his brother John Harbaugh is now the head coach of the Giants.

Fans have always remembered Eli Manning for his refusal to play for the Chargers when the then-San Diego Chargers held the number one overall pick in the 2004 draft. Manning has been asked about the events that led up to his refusal to play for the Chargers before but on a recent podcast episode of Bussin' with the Boys with former NFL players Taylor Lewan and Will Compton, Manning gave far more details as well as new revelations about the drama surrounding and leading up to the 2004 draft.

Rejecting the Chargers

Eli Manning claims he did not start the process hellbent against joining the Chargers but his agent Tom Condon did represent several of the Chargers players and staff who were on the roster at the time. Having an inside view of the dynamics of the organization in that era, led to advice of possibly looking to find greener pastures. Condon represented both Peyton and Eli Manning at the time and ironically he currently represents Chargers tackles Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt.

As Manning tells it, the Chargers brass all came down to New Orleans to work him out before the draft. The group included ownership, general manager AJ Smith, head coach Marty Schottenheimer and offensive coordinator Cam Cameron.

Following the workout, they all went to dinner at a local Marriott and this is where the tension began and Manning felt something was off. Head coach Marty Schottenheimer protested having dinner at the Marriott while being in New Orleans, seemingly a city with vibrant food options. The dinner gave Manning a glimpse of the Chargers' behind-the-scenes dysfunction in that era, where the organization's alignment was off.

Two years later, the Chargers would go 14-2 and lose in the playoffs. Both Chargers coordinators, Cam Cameron and Wade Phillips were hired to be head coaches and Schottenheimer and Smith's famously contentious relationship reached a boiling point and Schottenheimer was fired.

Manning had been led to believe there were elements within the Chargers organization that were not aligned, and unfortunately for the Chargers, he was not misinformed and read the room correctly at the time. Following Schottenheimer's firing, Chargers owner and team president Dean Spanos released a statement stating, “The process of dealing with these coaching changes convinced me that we simply could not move forward with such dysfunction between our head coach and general manager."

New revelations

Eli Manning was nearly sent to the Cleveland Browns

Eli Manning revealed during this appearance with Taylor Lewan and Will Compton that following the Chargers being informed of his refusal, his agent called him and told him the Chargers had worked out a trade with the Cleveland Browns for the number one overall pick. The Browns were picking sixth that year. The bad news is, Manning refused to go to Cleveland as well.

This is a new revelation shows that the Chargers were ready to walk away from Manning and liked their chances of landing either Philip Rivers or Ben Roethlisberger at pick number six. Manning's refusal to go to Cleveland forced the Chargers to pivot to the eventual draft day trade with the New York Giants.

Did the movie Draft Day get an idea from the Chargers?

Draft Day stars Kevin Costner, left and Dennis Leary talk on the sidelines prior to Super Bowl XLVIII — Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY

The movie Draft Day, starring Kevin Costner as the general manager of the Cleveland Browns, is a fun movie although not deeply realistic. There is a scene where Costner's character is being told about a quarterback they may take at number one overall where he had lied to another team during the interview process. The lie was caught by the team taping a $100 bill in the playbook to test if the prospect actually read the playbook in its entirety.

Eli Manning revealed that Cam Cameron, the Chargers offensive coordinator at the time did the same thing before his workout but with a $20 bill. Manning, unlike the movie character, found the bill and discreetly returned it to Cameron. It's unclear where the practice originated from but it is a bit of real pre-draft process that made it to the big screen.

Does Archie Manning deserve an apology?

Mississippi Rebels former quarterbacks Archie Manning and Eli Manning shake hands before the retirement of Eli's number 10. — Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

The patriarch of the Manning family, former NFL quarterback Archie Manning, has been on the receiving end of a tremendous amount of criticism over the years based on a belief that he orchestrated his son Eli's refusal to go to the Chargers. Peyton and Eli have both maintained that their father was not the mastermind behind the move.

Eli Manning reveals, in a more candid way, that his father simply went to the media after the draft to try to defend his son for the move despite privately being against it before the draft. The connections with Manning's agent and the Chargers makes this a viable explanation.

Archie has for years taken the criticism. His grandson Arch, currently at the University of Texas, is set to be the next Manning drafted to the NFL. His pre-draft process may reignite the criticism that he does not deserve.

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