How Eli Manning transformed from buttoned-up Giants Super Bowl hero to playful pitchman

LAS VEGAS — A question no one has asked the past four years: Whatever happened to Eli Manning?

The former Giants quarterback is not omnipresent, but he is seen in many places and it is hard to miss him, that’s for sure.

For 16 seasons as a player, Manning kept his head down, arrived early and departed late from the team facility, doing his best to keep his personality under wraps as much as possible.

Sure, we heard about his prowess as a practical joker — flipping the cell phones of his teammates from English to Chinese was a favorite prank — and every once in a while, he would display his dry sense of humor. When he did, though, that was it. He would get off a good line and then pivot back to the professional blandness that suited him for so long.