Professional sports is a business, first and foremost. It's difficult for hard core fans to remember sometimes, but it's the truth. It's hard for fans to accept because we believe in the nobility of fair play and teamwork. We see honest, hard fought competition as character building, as well as being a sign of intestinal fortitude. We watch because we are awed by seeing the best athletes in the world perform at the highest level. Shrines are built for the athletes of various sports who have stood out above the rest. The records compiled by hall of fame players are the impeachable witnesses that vouch for their secular canonization. Extreme fans will pour over players’ statistics like an economist analyzing financial trends. They will argue over who the best quarterback or pitcher in the league is as if world peace depended on the answer. All this belies the fact that pro sports is a business. Even the players themselves aren't immune from this peculiar naïveté. In 1965 Joe Namath was scandalized when Leah Ray Werblin, wife of then Jets owner Sonny, who had been a professional singer, welcomed the rookie sensation to "show business.” He still held to the ideal that this was about athletic excellence, but in a few short years Broadway Joe came to realize that she was right.
Because pro sports is both business and entertainment, we shouldn't be surprised when teams make decisions for financial or marketing reasons. The desire to put a competitive team on the field certainly underlies the vast majority of the decisions made, but there are quite often other considerations at work as well. In 1994 Phil Simms was coming off a bounce back season with the Giants, having made the Pro Bowl after a couple of inconsistent years, when he was unceremoniously cut by the team to make salary cap room. Wellington Mara, the team's legendary owner and father figure wept, but let it happen nonetheless. It's wasn't personal, as Michael Corleone might have said, it was strictly business. Simms retired rather than try to start over with another team. It would be a decade before the Giants developed another franchise QB, and his name was Eli Manning.
Twenty-three years later the New York Football Giants once again face a crossroads involving a long time starting quarterback. Eli Manning is 36 years old and on the back end of his career. The troubles of this dismal Giants 2017 season don't fall primarily on Manning's shoulders, not by a long shot, but most agree that he's not the player he once was. The press was already formulating potential Manning exit strategies the organization might take, since a high draft choice, with the promise of a blue chip QB, is in the offing. Of all the possibilities, benching Eli, after 210 consecutive starts (2nd all time) with five games left in a lost season, and no heir apparent on the roster, wasn't one of them. This makes no sense from a sports, business or entertainment stand point.
Eli Manning won two Super Bowl titles, and was named the game's MVP both times. In both cases he beat the best organization with the best quarterback of this or possibly any era, The Bill Belichick-Tom Brady New England Patriots, while demonstrating in both games why he was one of the best two minute drill QBs around. Eli was never the best quarterback in the league. He always lived in the shadow of the likes of Brady, Drew Brees, Aaron Rogers and his own brother Payton. What made Eli special was that he thrived under pressure on the biggest stages, and rarely disappointed. In those championship runs he led the team to road victories in frozen Green Bay (twice), Dallas, and San Francisco, before earning the right to face the Patriots - not a task for the faint of heart. But this is strictly business; it's all about what have you done for me lately. Those accomplishments don't matter when evaluating the state of the team now and into the future. I actually agree with this. But the past should dictate how the transfer of power behind center happens for the man who led those teams. This was the wrong way to say goodbye.
It makes no sense from a sports standpoint because the Giants have no heir waiting in the wings to take over. Neither Geno Smith nor Davis Webb are the QBs of the future. Smith, a five year vet, is a known quantity. Webb, a rookie, could come in and surprise people, but a few garbage time snaps would have been sufficient to get a head start on training camp. Even if you thought either one was a possible long term replacement for Manning, do you really want them to try to prove themselves behind this questionable offensive line, throwing to this injury depleted receiver corps? If you really thought one of these guys was the answer to what's ailing the Giants you might have tried the switch when the team was still 0-3 or 0-4, with a chance to salvage the season. I'm not sure that would have been the right move, but at least it would have made some sense. This is just baffling.
It makes no sense from a marketing or entertainment standpoint. Eli is still popular with fans, who do remember his accomplishments. New York fans are also smart fans. They know the deficiencies of this team and that, while Manning isn't the player he once was, he isn't the main reason the team is 2-9. I know people who already gave up on the Giants or the NFL in general because of this dismal season and the other controversies that the league has suffered lately. This move is only alienating fans even further. It will be very interesting to see how ratings in the New York market will be this weekend.
It doesn't even make sense from a business standpoint. If they wanted to save money they could have traded Manning, making a deal with another team on how much salary they would have to eat. As it is they still still have to pay Eli for holding a clipboard. Short of trading him now, it would have made more sense to wait and see what the draft produces, then either cut or trade him in '18. You might have him stick around next year to break in the newbie, letting him go after that. It all could have been done in a far more dignified way that would have also made business sense.
In the end this move is simply perplexing. If anything, it looks like a beleaguered coach and front office trying to deflect blame for a cluster bomb of a season. I made the joke to a friend that the coach is coming off like a disgruntled employee who knows his days at the company are numbered, so he's breaking the furniture and stealing the staplers on the way out the door.
Over the last few years I'll been less and less interested in pro sports. I still keep one eye on the standings, but in general I'm caring less and less. It's just not a diversion anymore when all the talk is about PEDs, collective bargaining agreements and domestic violence reports. I believe in the First Amendment, and players are citizens too, but I pay plenty of attention to politics. I don't watch sports to keep up on whats happening in the world. Little escapes are healthy, and sports is one that's little by little being taken way from us.
I like the live experience of going to the stadium, but the cost is incredible. An NFL game has for a long time been out of reach for the working person (at least in big markets like New York or Washington), but all the major sports feature overpriced tickets and jacked up concessions. So I stay home, except for the periodic freebee that lands in my lap via a generous benefactor.
Then there is the constant marketing. When I watch on TV they're constantly trying to sell me jackets and hats I don't need. There was a commercial that ran incessantly during the baseball playoffs of tweens talking about what great fans they are. They then looked in the camera, striking an intimidating pose, challenging the viewer to prove their fan cred by buying a T-shirt. There was a time when a fan proved himself by knowing his team's lineup, and who the backup shortstop that just got called up from Pawtucket was. And what his AAA batting average was. The kids who wore shirts were posers if they didn't know the stats. The fancier the jersey, the phonier the pose.
I could go on, but I'll only sound more like an old man. I'll finish up with saying that pro sports has always been about business and entertainment. Eli Manning isn't the first superstar to be rudely treated when his usefulness to the organization was over. Babe Ruth finished up with the Boston Braves. Joe Montana went out with the Chiefs. Both of them were worn-out legends riding into the sunset. Tom Sever, known to Met fans simply as The Franchise, was traded to the Reds when he still had good seasons and a no hitter left in his arm, over a salary dispute (the hurt was felt so deep in New York that even Yankee fans were appalled).
So if these hall of famers could be pushed aside, anything is possible. But there is a way to do these things, which usually involves giving the player a chance to bow out gracefully, or the opportunity to play out the string in another town. The thanks Eli is getting is the chance to stand on the sidelines with a headset and clipboard waiting for the hatchet to fall once the season is over: a shabby way to go out. I've already thought that pro-sports had become overly commercialized and greedy. Now the masters of the athletic universe are proving themselves clueless on top of it all.
No, this isn't the reason I'm slowly walking away from pro sports, but its one more straw applied to the camel's already straining back.
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