Why Eli Manning probably won't wear another team's uniform

Eli Manning stood at his locker waiting for the questions to come pouring in about his demotion to backup quarterback.

Like the pro he is, he answered every single question without revealing his true thoughts or future intentions.

"There’s no other option but just to handle it and do my job, support my teammates, support the Giants, and do what I can do to try and go help win some football games," he said.

"Right now, that’s getting Daniel (Jones) prepared and helping him and supporting him."

But while Manning might be living int he moment, he no doubt realized there was a possibility this day might come sooner than later, especially after the Giants got off to an 0-2 start.

And while he claims to be taking it one day at a time, Manning no doubt doesn't agree with his critics who believe he's washed up.

"I know I was with him this summer and he talked about, look, he still loves to play the game," said Shaun O'Hara, Manning's former center on the Super Bowl XLII championship team, in an interview with SiriusXM NFL Radio Tuesday evening.

"I think that’s the one thing that’s probably hardest for him is that physically he feels like he can still play. All these quarterbacks are dropping like flies, and still, the only people that could knock Eli out of a game have been coaches. So I think, for him, he’s still got the desire and the passion to train and to play."

Manning insisted Wednesday that he hasn't thought too far down the road and is instead focused on being a good teammate. "Just taking it day by day and figuring that out," he said.

But with this being the final year of his Giants contract and with head coach Pat Shurmur opining that Manning "can play in this league" (as opposed to "on this team"), it's clear that next year, Manning probably will not be a member of the Giants locker room.

But would Manning want to go elsewhere?

"Look, when it’s over with, man, that’s it. Life changes," O'Hara said. "I know he still wants to play. I don’t think that he could wholeheartedly put on another uniform and go out and play."

O'Hara did toss out the possibility that given the link between the Mara family, who owns half the Giants, and the Rooneys, who own the Steelers, perhaps there could be something for Manning in Pittsburgh.

But Manning, who has a wife and four young children who have settled in northwestern New Jersey, might not want to relocate.

"I don’t think he’d be willing to pick up and move his family to go play somewhere else at this point in his career,” O'Hara said.

"There’s no reason for him to go play anywhere else for the money. I feel like playing quarterback for the New York Giants has meant something to him, and I don’t know if wholeheartedly he could go out and play for another team."