Philip Rivers and Eli Manning will always be linked. They were traded for one another on Draft day in 2004 and have been two of the sturdiest quarterbacks in NFL history.
They are also both known as genuinely nice guys who are, for the most part, well-respected around the league. So when the Giants made the decision to bench Manning in favor of Geno Smith for their next game against the Raiders, snapping Manning’s streak of 210 straight starts regular season (2nd-longest in NFL history), Rivers was asked his feelings about it.
“I honestly thought it was pathetic,” said Rivers at his weekly media session. “He's been out there 210 straight games with no telling how many bumps and bruises and injuries for his team. He won two Super Bowl MVP’s. You feel like the guy has earned the opportunity, if they are, in fact, deciding to go another direction … he's earned the opportunity to finish it off these last five weeks."
Rivers now owns the NFL’s longest active streak of starts by a QB. He’s been out there for 187 in a row in the regular season.
The Giants are in the midst of an awful 2-9 season and considering either trying to trade or outright releasing Manning in the off-season. What’s interesting is the way they handled the decision. The Giants have long been known as one of the classier organizations in the NFL.
But head coach Ben McAdoo tried to pass off the decision to bench Manning as a way to see if they have another guy on the roster (Smith or 3rd round pick Davis Webb) moving forward and expected everyone to just be OK with it. The team grossly underestimated the impact of ripping a starting job from the guy who’s been their most steady player for more than a decade.
Once he saw the backlash, Giants co-owner John Mara expressed regret with the way the decision was made, saying “Maybe the timing of it could have been a little different.”
The way the Giants went about this, completely whiffing on public opinion and the impact the decision would have on the team and the fan base … well they handled it like we expect the Chargers to handle it. And that is about the worst way you can handle something.
