Raiders' Tracy Porter makes history with pick-six of Eli Manning

The Mannings have seen Tracy Porter before -- and they're not generally happy when they do. (MCT via Getty Images) Oakland Raiders cornerback Tracy Porter

Doug Farrar | Nov 10, 2013

Raiders' Tracy Porter makes history with pick-six of Eli Manning /

The Mannings have seen Tracy Porter before -- and they're not generally happy when they do. (MCT via Getty Images)

Oakland Raiders cornerback Tracy Porter managed to do something nobody else in the NFL has ever done. When he was with the New Orleans Saints, Porter brought back an interception of a Peyton Manning pass in Super Bowl XLIV, breaking open a game that had been 24-17 in New Orleans' favor by jumping a ball intended for Reggie Wayne and running 74 yards the other way.

Eli Manning got to see the same thing when he threw a pass in the general vicinity of receiver Victor Cruz late in the first half, but Porter was in front of it, and he brought the ball back 43 yards for the score.

"It was just zone coverage and reading the quarterback," Porter said after the game. "He settled to get the ball to Cruz. I just made a good read and he let the ball go and I made a great break and I ran it back for a touchdown."

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It was the 12th interception of Porter's career, and the third touchdown -- he also had a 43-yard pick-six against Ben Roethlisberger of the Steelers when he was with the Denver Broncos in September 2012. He was given the AFC Defensive Player of the Week award for that game, in which he also had eight tackles and five passes defensed.

That was Porter's first game with the Broncos, and it was also the first game for Denver's new quarterback -- some guy by the name of Peyton Manning.

“Yeah, he was doing his workout and I was touring the facility and ran into him," Porter said of Manning when he agreed to terms with the Broncos as a free agent in April 2012. "He knew who I was, I knew who he was and we had a brief conversation about the things we wanted to try to achieve here. We were on the same page.”

They did not, however, talk about the interception. Should the Giants ever sign Porter, that subject may be off-limits with the other Manning quarterback as well.

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Published Nov 10, 2013

DOUG FARRAR

SI.com contributing NFL writer and Seattle resident Doug Farrar started writing about football locally in 2002, and became Football Outsiders' West Coast NFL guy in 2006. He was fascinated by FO's idea to combine Bill James with Dr. Z, and wrote for the site for six years. He wrote a game-tape column called "Cover-2" for a number of years, and contributed to six editions of "Pro Football Prospectus" and the "Football Outsiders Almanac." In 2009, Doug was invited to join Yahoo Sports' NFL team, and covered Senior Bowls, scouting combines, Super Bowls, and all sorts of other things for Yahoo Sports and the Shutdown Corner blog through June, 2013. Doug received the proverbial offer he couldn't refuse from SI.com in 2013, and that was that. Doug has also written for the Seattle Times, the Washington Post, the New York Sun, FOX Sports, ESPN.com, and ESPN The Magazine. He also makes regular appearances on several local and national radio shows, and has hosted several podcasts over the years. He counts Dan Jenkins, Thomas Boswell, Frank Deford, Ralph Wiley, Peter King, and Bill Simmons as the writers who made him want to do this for a living. In his rare off-time, Doug can be found reading, hiking, working out, searching for new Hendrix, Who, and MC5 bootlegs, and wondering if the Mariners will ever be good again.