With Eli Manning retiring from the NFL, many people insist he’s a Hall of Famer, while many others insist he isn’t.
Former Giants defensive end and two-time Super Bowl champion Justin Tuck finds this hilarious.
“I laugh, hard,” Tuck said on The DA Show. “It makes no sense to me why this is even a conversation.”
Tuck, if you’re wondering, believes Manning is a slam-dunk Hall of Famer – and not just because of his two Super Bowl titles.
“Even more than that, if you think abut consistency, if you think about day in, day out – he’s top 10 in just about every statistical category that we care about in sports,” Tuck said. “And doing it the right way, when you talk about Hall of Fame, it’s more than just what you do on the football field. I think his football resume speaks for itself, but when you look at what he’s done off the field with the platform he had, in one of the toughest cities to do it, while still being in the shadow of his big brother – if his last name’s not Manning, I don’t think you even have this conversation.”
Manning ranks seventh all-time with 57,023 passing yards and 366 touchdowns.
“If you look at his stats, look at his performance, look at the things he did off the field, take into consideration how he’s made all of his teammates better around him – [he’s a Hall of Famer],” Tuck said. “Everyone talks about, ‘Look who he played with.’ I don’t see a lot of Pro Bowlers on his docket of people he’s played with. Not on offense. He did it for 16 straight years. Just knowing what [you would] get out of a guy, I feel like as though it’s not even a question.”
Manning will forever be known for ending the Patriots’ quest for a perfect season in 2007. But for Tuck, beating Dallas in the playoffs that year was just as sweet, albeit for different reasons.
“Hearing that Jerry [Jones] had gave out tickets already for the next game, him on the sideline, and just the fact that they were the No. 1 seed, they had [13] Pro Bowlers that year,” Tuck said. “No one even gave us a chance to go in there and have a shot given that we hadn’t played against them very well previously that year, that was just a rallying time for us. I think that was the most talented team we played that year.”
Yes, even more talented than the 18-0 Patriots.
“I think so,” Tuck said. “Just look at the roster. As far as talent, yes. Talent gets you so far. Do I think the Patriots were a better team? Yeah, I do. There’s some other stuff I won’t say on radio as far as why that was, but talent-wise, yeah, those guys was loaded.”