NEW ORLEANS — If there was a quiet mystery to America’s Little Brother, rainy days would wash it away.
Like all silent types, Eli Manning isn’t easy for people to read. When people don’t talk, what can they be thinking? His famous father, Archie, is friendly by nature. His famous brother, Peyton, is so expressive, he could pose as a human exclamation point in his next commercial. Another older brother, Cooper, is spirited and humorous.
“Eli’s an easy customer,” Cooper said. “He never complains. I’m not sure he notices, no matter what it is. From a waiter letting us sit there for 45 minutes before we get a drink order, it’s just not going to bother him. While Peyton’s like, ‘Hello! I’m dying here!’ ”
It’s strange how the world’s greatest football passing family managed to take root in this saturated town that runs along the southern tips of the Mississippi River. Ordinarily, rain is not a friend to quarterbacks. Peyton Manning, ever the tedious perfectionist, may have fretted when he saw rain. But his childhood experience came in handy in last year’s Super Bowl when he helped the Indianapolis Colts defeat the Chicago Bears while playing in a steady downpour.
Too bad there’s virtually no chance of precipitation for Super Bowl XLII on Sunday, when Peyton’s younger brother, Eli, will lead the New York Giants against the undefeated New England Patriots at roof-covered University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. Eli not only didn’t mind the rain while growing up here in the Big Easy, it brought some of his most joyous childhood moments.
“Whenever it rained, you knew it was ‘Amazing Catches’ time in their front yard,” said James Montgomery, who the Mannings say is Eli’s best friend. “Arch would get on the porch and lead us throws and we would dive for them in the mud.”
Built prior to the Civil War, the Mannings’ home is a large, two-story structure, supported by four equally spaced stone columns — four outlining the bottom porch, four more between the roof and upper deck. The home is part of the architectural marvel that is the Uptown Garden District.
There is a brick sidewalk splitting the Mannings’ front lawn that is enormous by New Orleans’ standards, but no more than a couple postage stamps to those visiting from the Midwest. And they do visit, from all over.
Tour groups regularly pass by. Anne Rice, the vampire author, lived a block down until she sold. John Goodman, the beefy actor, lives diagonally behind the Mannings. Right next door, the movie “JFK” was filmed.
“This house here,” the tour guide said to his group of 10 visitors in front of the Manning house, “has a swimming pool behind it. And during a break, Kevin Costner once went swimming and played basketball with two of the boys that lived here. Boys named Peyton and Eli Manning.”
Family footsteps
Ever the Southern gentleman, Archie Manning is standing on his brick porch, recreating his pivotal role in “Amazing Catches.” He moves between the first and second column, to a porch opening that in turn gave the Eli gang more soggy area in which to make their dive landing.
“Dad was pretty good at throwing the bad balls so we could lay out for them,” Eli said. “It was a natural talent for him.”
Footballs aren’t all that’s zinged from the Manning household, especially if dad is the intended target. Archie and Olivia did something right. In successive years, General Peyton and Easygoing Eli both quarterbacked their teams to the Super Bowl.
“Peyton’s the guardian type,” said Duke head coach David Cutcliffe, who was Peyton’s quarterback coach at Tennessee and Eli’s head coach at Ole Miss. “Eli, to everybody who has known the Mannings, he’s been everybody’s little brother. He’s such a good guy. I hear criticism of people who say he doesn’t show emotion or he’s not intense. He’s intense, he just has a gift of never getting too high or never getting too low. Which has equipped him extremely well for not only having a big brother but a father precede him that were so famous.”
Not everyone sees Eli as even-tempered and poised. In recent years, while brother Peyton was taking his quarterback play to an unprecedented level, Eli played erratically, which in turn drew barbs that he appeared too passive, even dis-interested. This season started with Tiki Barber, the Giants’ star running back who retired after last season, referring to Eli’s leadership qualities as “comical.”
And to think, there are people out there who believe Eli’s path to the NFL was greased.
Eli had it easy? His father was not just a quarterback, he was a god at Ole Miss, and was the first star of the New Orleans Saints. Peyton, through his numerous commercials and play, is recognized worldwide.
It is probably because he’s not like Peyton that Eli has found his own niche.
“Peyton’s fame, it couldn’t have been easy, but Eli has always been, ‘I’m going to be me,’ Montgomery said. “I’m going to be what I am. I’m not going to try to be Peyton.”
Among the three Manning brothers, Eli was the closest to his mom, Olivia.
“I’d say I was a momma’s boy, I’m not ashamed of it,” he said Tuesday during Super Bowl media day in Arizona. “I don’t think that’s a bad thing.”
Not that Eli had much choice. During some of his formative years, the job temporarily took dad away.
“When I went off to Houston and Minnesota, the other boys were old enough, but I kind of missed something with Eli,” Archie said. “He would have been 2 years old. When I came back I didn’t have that same relationship with Eli at age 3, 4 or 5 that I had with Cooper and Peyton. And it killed me. He was a lot closer to his mother. So I had to work hard at it to have that same thing. And the fact he was shy and quiet didn’t make it any easier.”
All the Manning boys attended Isidore Newman, a private, nonsectarian, college preparatory school that develops kids from prekindergarten through the 12th grade. There are fewer than 1,000 students in all, roughly 330 at the high school level. Newman’s graduates go to the country’s finest universities.
Initially, Eli struggled to read like the others, to the point his teacher recommended he repeat first grade. But Archie and Olivia could see Eli already was bigger than kids his age, and more coordinated. They decided instead to transfer him to St. George, where he stayed through seventh grade.
Then Eli said he wanted to go back to Newman. He wound up even taking calculus. He was an academic All-American at Ole Miss. During the NFL scouting combine in 2003, Eli scored a whopping 39 on the Wonderlic, an intelligence test NFL teams administer to prospective rookies. Peyton had scored a 28.
“Eli’s got good sense,” Archie said. “But like everything he does, he doesn’t tell anybody how smart he is.
“Here’s the deal with Eli that hasn’t come out: He doesn’t have any ego.”
Wedding and wine
Eli is blossoming, in so many ways. On the football field, he nearly handed Tom Brady and the Patriots their only loss in the teams’ regular-season finale. Eli then outplayed Jeff Garcia, Tony Romo and Brett Favre in the NFC playoffs.
Off the field, Eli is engaged to Abby McGrew. They will have a destination wedding in April with Cooper and Peyton sharing the best-man honors.
“Abby? She’s a little pistol,” Montgomery said. “They’re good together. I’ve been to Giants Stadium with those fans and I can sit there and take it if some guys are cursing Eli. But Abby doesn’t take it sitting down. She stands up for him.”
And the boys at Fat Harry’s, a local uptown hangout, aren’t going to believe this, but Eli recently has become somewhat of a wine connoisseur.
“We never saw that coming,” Cooper said.
But in other ways, Eli is the same kid who dived in the rain for dad’s passes from the porch. After the Giants upset the Green Bay Packers, Eli quickly called Montgomery and two other high school friends who made the trip to Lambeau Field for the NFC title game. Super Bowl tickets have been arranged.
And the Manning family goes without saying.
“He called me once during the offseason,” Cooper said. “He went to play golf and there were three of them with a pro. And the pro played so everybody had caddies. And he asks: ‘Was I supposed to tip the caddie who carried the pro’s bag? How does that work? I gave him what I thought was enough.’ I said, you did it right. He did not want to undertip anybody. That’s the high-level stuff he calls big brother for.”
Mike Klis: 303-954-1055 or mklis@denverpost.com
