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| Birth Name(s) : Eli Manning |
Date of Birth: N/A |
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Full Eli Manning Biography
Elisha Nelson "Eli" Manning (born January 3, 1981 in New Orleans, Louisiana) is an American football quarterback for the New York Giants of the National Football League. He was drafted by the San Diego Chargers with the first overall pick in the 2004 NFL Draft. However, a draft-day trade sent Manning to the Giants in return for Philip Rivers and the Giants' first- and fifth-round picks in the 2005 NFL Draft. He played college football at University of Mississippi.
In 2001, Manning earned honorable mention All-America honors from Football News and collegefootballnews.com. He also won the 2001 Conerly Trophy, given to the top collegiate football player in the state of Mississippi. He was one of 12 semifinalists for the Davey O'Brien Award, given to the nation's top quarterback. Before the season, Manning was named to the Blue Ribbon College Football Yearbook's 2001 preseason All-SEC first team.
Manning spent the first half of his rookie year being tutored by veteran Kurt Warner. After two tough defeats in the middle of the 2004 campaign, coach Tom Coughlin decided to start Eli against the Atlanta Falcons. Despite several poor performances, Eli finished the season with three successive solid games against the Steelers, Bengals, and Cowboys. On January 2nd, 2005 against Dallas, Eli's future trademark as a "come-from-behind" quarterback came front and center as he led the Giants to a last-minute touchdown drive to end an eight-game losing streak with a 28-24 victory.
Following his performance at San Diego, Manning returned home to throw for almost 300 yards and a career high four touchdowns against the Rams at Giants stadium in a 44-24 romp. Two games later, he led a brilliant last-minute drive against the Broncos to secure a 24-23 victory for the Giants. The drive culminated in a two yard touchdown to Amani Toomer. The following week, Manning overcame a weak first half at San Francisco to help his team to their first official road victory of the season, 24-6. Despite a poor performance at home against the Vikings, throwing four interceptions, he again led his team back to tie the game in the final minutes before Minnesota won on a late field goal.
The one knock on Eli during his first full season was his completion percentage. Manning completed just 52.8% of his passes, leading many to harp on this area of concern. He showed the effects of going through an NFL season for the first time, as he visibly wore down late in the season. His play fell off, culminating in a bad performance in the playoffs against Carolina.
Following the winning streak, key injuries including one to receiver Amani Toomer began Manning's swoon. Against the Bears, he started well, but the offense was derailed by the loss of left tackle Luke Petigout to a broken leg, and Manning was held to only 141 yards passing and two interceptions. Petigout's loss left a gaping hole at the crucial left tackle position, and Manning was unable to repeat his first half success. He struggled the next week at Jacksonville and a costly interception helped to culminate a huge collapse at Tennessee, with the Giants losing a 21-point fourth quarter lead. Manning improved the following week against the, throwing for 270 yards and two touchdowns, but the Giants lost again. Regaining momentum, he threw three touchdowns in a win at Carolina, but then stumbled badly in the final three games. He threw two interceptions against the Eagles and tallied only 73 passing yards in a game against the Saints. Although the Giants battled back to 8-8 the following week at Washington, Manning completed only 12 of 26 passes for 101 yards and one touchdown. The Giants qualified for the postseason and met the Eagles again. Although he was significantly better this time around as compared to the 2005 showing, completing 16 of 27 passes and two touchdowns, the Giants lost on a last second field goal.
For the year, Manning threw for 3,244 yards, 24 touchdowns and 18 interceptions. He completed 57.7 percent of his passes, a five point improvement from 2005, but again, struggled badly in the second half of the season. With the offseason signing of running back Reuben Droughns and the potential of Brandon Jacobs leading the Giants, New York will try to take some pressure off of Eli by going back to old-school, smash-mouth football.
The NFL scheduled the Giants' away game with the Miami Dolphins for October 28, 2007, in London's Wembley Stadium. In the game, Manning scored a touchdown on a 10-yard run; this was the first touchdown scored in an NFL regular season game that was played outside of North America. |
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