By
America Today Sports
The Manningcast is great because it’s just two guys who know a thing or two about talking football. It’s loose, unscripted, fun.
And sometimes it involves having a little harmless fun with the team, the player, the coach, whoever.
Eli Manning did just that regarding the performance of the Broncos offense on Monday night Russell Wilson at quarterback. One night after the Denver Panthers Corliss Waitman He hit the ball 10 times, Eli said during the broadcast, “They should have paid $235 million for that putter instead of Russell.”
A day later, Eli was retreating.
Eli told FrontOfficeSports.com’s Michael McCarthy that Eli wasn’t taking a shot at Wilson.
“I don’t think we’re trying to criticize.” said Turtle. “I think we always try to support the guys in the game. Sometimes I think, ‘Hey, it’s live TV.’ I’ve never tried to take a real shot at somebody. I think that was a really bad joke — because one guy had 10 points. Nothing on Russell. It works great.”
But Eli didn’t say they had to pay the panther in addition to Wilson. Eli said they should pay “Punter” instead of Wilson.
This is the truth. People who say what needs to be said in a way that is acceptable to the audience sometimes make people angry. And there’s a political game that Peyton and Eli need to play, whether it’s to get the right guests for the right games or, ultimately, to convince the game’s best players to be offered a Pro Bowl option, which happens to be Omaha. Production of the product.
Eli is trying to have it both ways. He wants to have fun on ManningCast, but he also doesn’t want to burn bridges. Sometimes he’s on the wrong side of that line. When he is, he is alone and he has to move on. And if he has to do some personal damage control after the fact, so be it. But it shouldn’t be that he didn’t really say what he said.
And if he’s too concerned with saying things others don’t like, Manningcast will be a lot less convincing and entertaining than he was.
