Eli has always been shadowed under his big brother, always being known as "Peyton's little brother." However, Manning has made his case in the playoffs, already knocking down Tom Brady twice.
But Manning cleared the air: he's not better than No. 18.
“I correct them very quickly,” Eli told Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports on people saying he's better than Peyton.
Manning was the No. 1 overall pick like Manning seven years ago, but has been more successful as far as winning is concerned so far in his career, with already two Super Bowls under his belt. However, Eli has never tried to compete with his big brother.
“I’ve never tried to compete with Peyton,” Eli said. “I never tried to say I need to be better than him. I’ve accepted at times that I wasn’t maybe as good as him because he was the No. 1 high school player in the country. In college, he was going to be the first pick in the draft, so if I tried to go out there and be the same person and be better than him or the same person as him, I’m going to drive myself crazy. I’m going to go out and be the best quarterback I can be and get the most out of my potential. If that’s better than him, great. If it’s not, so be it.”
Instead, Eli sees Manning as a role model for quarterbacking.
“I think there’s always an approach growing up where you say, ‘Hey, I want to just get to Peyton’s level of player where he’s at,’” Eli said. “I admire Peyton and watching him on film and the throws he makes and the mechanics, I still watch in awe. He’s still at that top level as far as what he has done with the football. We have a great relationship and it’s a total support [system]. I call him or he calls me, like during the season last year. Especially during the playoff stretch, he would call me and just have little tidbits and pieces of advice a quarterback can talk about that you cherish.”
Good to see respect out there.
Josh Dhani is the founder of FootBasket. You can read more about him at his website. Follow him on Twitter @joshdhani.
