Eli Manning made a bold decision during the 2004 NFL Draft, making it clear he wouldn’t play for the then-San Diego Chargers to force a trade to the New York Giants.
At the time, many believed Archie Manning – Eli’s father – influenced his son’s decision. However, the younger Manning insists that wasn’t the case.
Eli Manning explained in a recent appearance on the “Bussin’ With The Boys” podcast that his father was actually against the decision he reached ahead of the 2004 NFL Draft.
“My parents really weren’t supportive. My dad didn’t like the idea,” Manning said. “Now, he came to my defense and like supported me after everything was going down, but … he didn’t like that. And afterwards he took the brunt of a lot of the criticism because he came to my defense and people were saying, ‘Oh, you played in New Orleans all those years you didn’t win, so you’re trying to dictate like where your son’s going.’ And and he just bit his tongue and said, ‘Hey, this is what Eli wants to do and I support him’ and he did some media to try to save me from doing all the media and taking the hits.”
While Manning seemingly didn’t have the full support of his parents when it came to the decision, agent Tom Condon was in agreement with him about San Diego being the wrong landing spot.
Manning made it clear that it had nothing to do with the city of San Diego, and he even praised coach Marty Schottenheimer and some of the players the Chargers had at the time.
That said, he also noted that he saw “friction” between Schottenheimer and the Chargers’ front office and ownership during a meeting in New Orleans. That led him to conclude that he “didn’t really want to go there” to start his NFL career.
“I just didn’t feel like they were the most committed team to winning at the time,” Manning said.
Manning also outlined that Condon told him the Chargers were going to trade him to the Cleveland Browns, but he also didn’t want to play there. Eventually, the Chargers agreed to trade Manning to the Giants for a package of picks that became quarterback Philip Rivers, linebacker Shawne Merriman and kicker Nate Kaeding.
The trade worked out well for both parties. Manning led the Giants to two Super Bowl victories and a 117-117 record across 16 seasons with the team while completing 60.3% of his career passes for 57,023 yards, 366 touchdowns and 244 interceptions.
And while Rivers didn’t ever win a Super Bowl, he became the Chargers’ all-time leader in passing yards (59,271) and passing touchdowns (397) while posting a 123-101 record across 16 seasons with the team.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Eli Manning explains why he forced trade away from Chargers, to Giants