Once upon a time, when they were Giants teammates, Tiki Barber described Eli Manning’s leadership attempts as “comical,” but those days are long gone. And today Manning is not afraid to stand up and call on each and every one of his do-good NFL brothers to help wash away the stain left on their league by Adrian Peterson and Ray Rice.
Because as the little brother of living legend Peyton, as the son of Saints legend Archie, Eli Manning is part of NFL royalty, and for the NFL to remain king of sports, he knows the domestic violence and child-abuse issues that have paralyzed Roger Goodell’s league must cease and desist immediately.
The mind-blowing reports that surfaced Wednesday that Cardinals running back Jonathan Dwyer had been arrested for domestic violence only added new relevance and importance to Eli’s Enough Is Enough address.
“Obviously those are serious issues. … We can’t accept that as players, we can’t accept that from our teammates and around the league,” Manning said. “The message is out that you can’t mess with domestic violence, and everybody should know that. Hopefully, things get cleared up and cleaned up and guys can learn from this, and we don’t make these mistakes, and the NFL can learn from this, and we can go on and start getting back to football. Our team hasn’t been having to deal with that issue personally, but when it’s on TV every day obviously you’re aware of it.
“And we don’t like when the NFL gets a black eye on anything.”
Manning, like his big brother, is part of the greater majority that represents their league the right way.
He is pained by the battering the NFL image has taken, from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s grievous errors in judgment, moral and otherwise, to the broad brush that is used on the players by a distrustful public.
“When you’re a football player and you play in the NFL, anything that happens amongst other players, gets reflected upon everybody, that’s just the way it goes,” Manning said. “That’s unfortunate, because it’s a small number of people that this is happening to. … As players, we gotta be aware of what’s going on, and learn from situations, and we still gotta do our job, be good citizens in our community, be good people, and try to reflect our image and the New York Giants in a positive way.”
Manning has two daughters, Ava, 3, and Lucy, 1.
“You hate to see a child being hurt. … You don’t like seeing those things or hearing about ’em,” he said. “But try to go home and hug your own children. It makes you want to hopefully not put them in harm’s way.”
It is the Mannings and the Victor Cruzes and the Antrel Rolles and the Mathias Kiwanukas who willingly carry the NFL banner inside the Giants’ locker room.
“It’s up to the leaders of these teams to keep their teammates in check,” Cruz said.
What has been lost recently is that there are many more pros than cons in an image-battered league.
“Obviously it creates that stigma for the rest of the league,” Cruz said, “but it’s gotta be guys like myself, guys like Eli Manning, Antrel Rolle, guys that have a positive image, that do positive things in their communities that have to come to the light, and have to shed light on those things, and we have to be able to put those things on the forefront. And I think it’s up to us and guys like that to create that energy and create that kind of atmosphere for everyone, not just on our team but around the league.”
Cruz and fiancée Elaina have a 2 ¹/₂-year-old daughter, Kennedy.
“Obviously with my family and my daughter, you have to look at people that count on you each and every day,” Cruz said. “It is important that you have a good image out there and are a good role model for those people, because you know that they are looking at you and watching you, and as soon as one thing happens that is negative, it is a downfall for your entire family. It is hard to come back from certain things like that. You just want to be able to keep positive things out there and be a good role model for these children.”
Peterson, whose victim is his 4-year-old son, and Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy, who is embroiled in a domestic-abuse mess, have taken what the better-late-than-never league is calling voluntary leaves of absence. Rice has been suspended indefinitely for the infamous elevator punch-out of the woman who agreed to marry him once she regained consciousness.
“It is going to take more than a couple of incidents to enforce the label as a bad league,” Rolle said. “I think there are a lot of guys doing a lot of positive things. Just so happens that negative things are what get the attention. It drives the media and that’s what sells, but like I said, this league is far from being tainted. It is going to happen no matter what league you are in, there is going to be certain things that take place … certain individuals. As an entirety, no, I am not worried about the image.”
His quarterback’s call to arms is aimed at making certain that no one has to worry about it anymore.