Eli Manning Has a Beer Hook-Up at Every NFL Stadium
Eli knows a guy
In 16 years with the Giants, Eli Manning has always seemed like a lovable dope. His aw-shucks personality isn’t what you’d expect from a guy who was at times the most notable athlete in New York. You got the impression that when he wasn’t playing football he’d be settled down in a leather chair doing the crossword and drinking hot tea with lemon.
But as he approaches the likely end of his career (or at least the end of his time with the Giants), a different image of Eli is starting to emerge. He is, as Kawhi Leonard would put it, a fun guy.
First there were the videos of Manning and his replacement Daniel Jones out on the town after beating the Redskins last week, playing flip cup together in a Hoboken bar. And now there’s this anecdote from ESPN’s Ian O’Connor.
Eli Manning always drank beer on the team bus. It was a Broadway Joe kind of thing to do, and a fact that might run counter to an image Manning spent absolutely no time crafting. But win, lose or draw, Manning would find someone on the road to buy him a six-pack or 12-pack that he would carry to the back of the bus, on ice, and share with some veterans as they discussed the game on the ride to the airport.
Even then, Manning's consistency stunned his New York Giants teammates. "It was unbelievable," said Lawrence Tynes, the kicker who won two championships with the quarterback. "He had a guy in every f---ing stadium in the league to get him that beer."
Leave it to Eli, author of four playoff fourth-quarter comebacks, to come up in the clutch no matter the situation and acquire those postgame beers.
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