I just readthis article and have to say I agree with every word of it and was wondering if others agreed.
I actually think its pretty sad of this old dude to try and capture the attention and NFL success he never got through his kids. When the media is interviewing the father of a player with no affiliation to the team post game instead of players, that’s just wrong, I don’t care who dad is. We should be hearing what Burress and Strahan have to say, not Eli’s paw. The media is partly to blame, but if Archie wasn’t so omnipresent they couldn’t get to him- and Arch, if they do find you, why not politely refuse the interview and tell them the focus should be on the players, ok? That humbleness that Peyton and Eli have must have come from mom I guess.
Totally disagree with your premise. He is at the games. Probably a lot of the players parents are at the games. But none of them are one of the best quarterback ever. You think he should stay home? The media seeks him out. How does that make him an attention whore? I watched the pregame. I listen to sports radio. There were no Giants players that were left for want of a reporter to talk to. There were plenty to go around and I guess some didn’t want to be the 10th guy to hear from Burress that they won as a team. So they interview the famous father of the quarterback. The guy who had one son win the Superbowl last year and now has another son in the game this year. You can’t see how that is a story?
Eh…I can’t fault a guy for being proud of his kids. I agree that the media should have given more attention to the players than Archie (it’s especially dumb that they were ignoring Plaxico Burress who was arguably the player of the game), but that’s on the media and their stupid fixations on celebrity connections and relationships.
I kind of think that Earl Woods set the bar about as high as it can go for fame-whoring sports dads. At least Archie has done something to earn some fame in his own right.
By the end of the two weeks of hype for the Super Bowl this will probably be the least of your complaints about the media. Seriously they, the media, scratch every itch over two weeks, frequently it’s the same itch over and over…
I can see how that can be a story to some, but it shouldn’t be, not at this point. The interviews with him have been done to death, especially last year, with Peyton winning it all. It’s definitely a story at first, QB with two sons who are QB’s, but after how many years should it cease to be a story? What more can Archie say about how proud he is of his kids? And its not like he’s this great charismatic interview- he’s pretty dull, with none of Peytons wit. And is really standard for fathers of players to be in the locker room right after a game?
Eli is in his friggin mid 20’s now, he doesn’t need daddy there to talk for him anymore. The draft day shit was bad enough- I can’t believe Arch took very little crap for it- anyone else who have been crucified for doing the same. And when did this guy become a great QB anyway- sure he played for the Saints but his stats are pretty shitty to be honest- Steve Grogan has better stats.
Agree, but if he is not there, they would be forced to interview the players. I know, All-American father and son sells papers, not interview with left tackle, but still- its their time, not yours- accept it.
And agree with Earl Woods but different as he was sharing spotlight with his kid only and his kid was cool with it- if all the Giants were OK with Arch being there, then no problem- but per the linked article, they aren’t OK with it, and its their team.
Loach, if they find him in the loo and interview him, fine. My problem is him being in the *winning locker room right after a game * doing interviews. They want to interview him at his seat, no problem with that.
No argument that the story is boring and repetitive and beaten to death, but that’s the media for you. Just thank your lucky stars that Green Bay didn’t win or we’d have to suffer through two weeks of “grizzled veteran with childlike enthusiam,” stories about Brett Favre with every personal tragedy rehashed incessantly. During the build up to the Superbow, every possible storyline and human interest angle gets beaten into hamburger.
Hey, I wonder if the Patriots know they’re going for perfection. Has anybody asked them?
The only part that really irked me was the way he clogged up the hallway. If he wants to hold court, that’s fine, but there’s no reason to inconvenience everyone while he’s doing it.
I wonder if Eli doesn’t mind having his dad around to distract the media. It’s not like the media has traditionally had great things to say about Eli.
Archie Manning one of the greatest QB’s ever?? Maybe one of the greatest QB’s at Ole Miss, not in the NFL. If Archie’s sons were not QB’s now he would be mostly forgotten outside of Ole Miss or New Orleans.
No one has considered here that maybe the Giants or the NFL people asked Archie Manning to be available for interviews after the game! He was sitting up in a luxury box, I can totally see one of the Giants media people asking him to come down to the locker room for photo ops or interviews. While watching the post game on Fox, there was even some footage of Eli talking to someone about what section “they” were in (gotta assume the “they” he was looking for were the parents)…you could hear him on the audio saying, “I think they were at the 50 yard line…119 or 113 or something…” Sounds to me like someone was asking Eli, “Where’s your dad?” Or it could have been Eli asking them to find his dad to have him come down to the locker room. (Of course, Archie could have declined…)
It does make a nice human interest story or photo to see Archie with his other son who made it to the SuperBowl. I really doubt Archie is just “hanging around” hoping that someone wants to talk to him.
I can totally understand other players being annoyed by it, though.
Manning does sound like an attention whore. On the other hand, this guy just wrote an entire column about how Manning stood in the hallway after the game. Somehow, that also bothers me. He writes that everybody ignored Burress… well, did he ask Burress any questions? Or anybody else? Apparently he stood there to get material to write about Manning. So it sounds like he wasn’t exactly part of the solution.
If reporters would let the Manning Family storyline go already, Archie Manning would get out of the hallway.
Agree, but if Arch would get out of the hallway the stroy would go away as well. Its not uncommon for players or family or coaches when someone tries to interview them say “hey don’t interview me, interview the players”. Or interview me at any time, any place, except right after the game in the locker room. Instead of the TV audience getting to see comments from Coughlin Eli and Burress, we got Coughlin Eli and Archie- is that fair, Burress had a huge game and didn’t get to get his comments on live national TV? Wouldn’t his family have enjoyed that? Archie’s not an idiot, he knows if he goes down there he’ll be surrounded- you can’t play that “I was just there, I can’t help it they asked me questions” bit.
Archie seems like somewhat of a douche, and it goes back to the “won’t play for San Diego” thing.
I think it was Bill Simmons this week who said that he thought it would be funny if during a Pats game, they said they were showing a picture of Tom Brady’s father, and put up a picture of Archie Manning.
I only have 2 recollections of Archie, both of them pleasant. The first was when he was on the Vikings, and the Bears sacked him (IIRC) on 3 consecutive downs, busting his tailbone on the final one. The second occurred years later, when my family was visiting Nawlins. Saw Archie getting into his car in front of his house. Waved and yelled, “Hey Archie!”, and he smiled and waved back.
Like many fathers of kids who play sports he’s in the locker room for one thing and one thing only. He helps them tie their shoes and makes sure that their pads are on correctly. Good ol Dad.
