6-Feb-2012 - Giants’ Manning Endures Under the Pressure

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It was a scary sequence and, at first, Cooper, who was about 10, and Peyton, about 8, just stared. “We didn’t know what to do,” Cooper said last week. “But then Eli just sort of got up, looked around for a minute and ran off to play. And I remember Peyton and I talking about how he didn’t cry at all.” Cooper laughed. “It was,” he said, “without a doubt the toughest thing I’ve ever seen.” Impressive as that toddler’s topple might have been, however, until recently that word — tough — was not often associated with the older Eli Manning, the one who is the Giants quarterback. Running backs were tough. Linemen were tough. Big, burly quarterbacks who hobbled around on damaged ankles like Ben Roethlisberger were tough. Manning was not. Or so, at least, it seemed. “Early in his career, you didn’t see it,” Phil Simms, the former Giants quarterback and current analyst for CBS, said in an interview. “You saw the guy in the pocket, the guy who made the faces when things weren’t going his way. You didn’t necessarily see Eli and think ‘tough.’ ” But, Simms continued, as the NFL jersey supply Giants weaved through this inconsistent season of failure and well-timed flourishing, Manning displayed a personal grit that most Giants fans had not necessarily seen before. The sour faces were mostly gone, Simms said, replaced by a steely determination from Manning that carried the Giants to this lofty perch: set to face the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl on Sunday. Manning had plenty of opportunities to buckle along the way. There was the forced chemistry that comes with new linemen and unproven receivers. There was the increased — and unexpected — focus on the passing game. There was the heightened pressure to score as the defense labored through injuries. And there was, at times, the pounding — particularly in the N.F.C. championship game — that might have leveled a weaker player. Ultimately, though, there was a toughness from Manning, mentally and physically, that may have seemed novel to some but was altogether familiar to those close to him. “When he was growing up, I never heard Eli complain about anything,” Manning’s father, Archie, said in a telephone interview. “I never heard him whine. He was always a pretty tough kid. When it came to football, I think he knew there might be some tough collisions and he knew he would have to deal with it.” Still, Manning’s appearance — he is 6 feet 4 inches and about 220 pounds but is not particularly broad or bulky — may have contributed to the perception that he lacked toughness. Unlike, MLB jerseys say, Roethlisberger or Carolina’s Cam Newton, Manning is not an imposing presence. He has shown his teammates, though, that his toughness is more internal. “We give him a lot of grief about his dorky appearance, and he doesn’t look like he has been in a weight room ever,” defensive end Justin Tuck said. “But that guy is tough. He is like the Energizer bunny. He keeps firing.” Tuck added: “He is the leader of this football team because of that.” Manning’s performance against the San Francisco 49ers two weeks ago in the N.F.C. championship game was the most recent example, and maybe the most emblematic. With the soggy Candlestick Park turf making for treacherous footing, the Giants’ offensive line struggled NBA jerseys to protect Manning. He was crushed, over and over, with the 49ers recording 18 hits on Manning, including 6 sacks. Several hits were from the blindside, the type of brutal collision in which the quarterback prepares to throw and suddenly his body is folded, like a piece of origami, as a defender blasts him from behind. Those hits can often be the most violent and “some of those shots, you even cringe,” center David Baas said. The backup quarterback David Carr said that “with those, you’re usually on the ground, your chin strap is up your nose and you don’t know which way is up.”

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