Manning steps out of brother’s shadow to be a Super Bowl Giant

Eli Manning has long been used to living in the shadow of his older brother Peyton. But Eli can now boast of doing something his future Hall of Famer sibling has not after leading the New York Giants to a 21-17 win over the New England Patriots in Sunday’s Super Bowl in his brother’s stamping ground of Indianopolis.

The victory provided Eli with a second Super Bowl title, one more than Peyton, whose solitary success came in the ‘Manning Bowl’ of 2006 when the Indianapolis Colts beat Eli’s New York Giants.

On Sunday night, Eli was named as the game’s Most Valuable Player for a second time, just as he was four years ago when the Giants also beat the Patriots.

He joined Bart Starr, Terry Bradshaw, Joe Montana and Tom Brady as the only players to win the award more than once.

Eli was born into a world of football. His father, Archie Manning, was the second player drafted in 1971 and played quarterback for 13 NFL seasons, mostly with the New Orleans Saints.

Peyton, an 11-time Pro Bowler, was top pick in the 1998 NFL Draft. Eli was also the top pick, in 2004. While Eli is rarely mentioned among the game’s elite quarterbacks, his performances over the past two months have been in a class of their own.

“I’m excited to win a championship. I’m excited for my team mates,” Eli said. “There are a number of guys, this is their first one. There are some other ones who are getting their second and more, but I’m just excited for them. This isn’t about one person. This is about a team coming together, getting this win.”

With Peyton watching from the stands, Eli turned in a masterful performance, completing 30 of 40 passes for 296 yards, and engineering a late drive that led to the game-winning touchdown from Ahmad Bradshaw in the last minute.

Bizarrely, the ultimately decisive score did not result in the usual wild endzone celebrations as it had, by a quirk of American football strategy, been scored in error. A sheepish Bradshaw touched down with 57 seconds to play after the Patriots provided a gaping hole for him to run through, giving their quarterback Tom Brady one more crack at going down the field.

Bradshaw admitted he had intended to fall down at the one-yard line after Manning had ordered him to ‘take a knee’, but the running back did not understand the instruction in time and his impetus carried him into the end zone to make the score 21-17. While the touchdown did provide the Giants with the lead for the first time since the second quarter, it also gave Brady an opportunity to steal back the game with a final drive.

“I was taking a hand-off and Eli was saying, ‘Don’t score, don’t score,’” Bradshaw explained.

“I tried to declare myself down and touch down with my hand. They didn’t call it and my momentum took me into the end zone.”

Had Bradshaw followed Manning’s instructions, the Giants could have ran the clock down to nothing and let Scottish-born Lawrence Tynes, the hero of the Championship game, who contributed a conversion and two field goals on Sunday, kick the winning field goal again. “I thought Ahmad was going to take the knee,” Tynes said. “That would have been pretty sweet if he kneed it.”

As it was the Giants had to endure a tense 57 seconds at the end of which Brady’s ‘Hail Mary’, last-ditch pass was incomplete and his dream of a fourth Super Bowl ring was gone.

Patriots receiver Wes Welker was inconsolable after dropping a crucial catch in the defeat. Welker looked distraught when he faced the media after a game in which his error was a key turning point. The Patriots were 17-15 up with 4:06 left on the clock and on second and 11 when Brady threw a 23-yard pass to a wide-open Welker, just by the Giants 20-yard line. But the ball spilled out, New England were unable to progress, and that allowed the Giants possession which resulted in the freakish winning touchdown. It wasn’t a perfect pass but the normally reliable Welker was ready to take the blame.

“The ball is right there. I’ve just got to make the play. It’s a play I’ve made a thousand times in practice and everything else. It comes to the biggest moment of my life and don’t come up with it. It’s discouraging,” Welker added. “It hit me right in the hands. I mean, it’s a play I never drop, I always make. The most critical situation and I let the team down. It’s one that will take a while to shake off, that’s for sure.”

The Giants needed to win their last two regular season games just to make the play-offs, then won four sudden-death games to claim the biggest prize in American team sports. Head coach Tom Coughlin, who was facing calls to be sacked after the team’s shaky start to the season, said: “Eli’s performance, coming down the stretch, was outstanding. He is the guy who has done it for us all year. He is the guy who put us in position.”