After struggling to find a topic on Tuesday I have one today and it has to do with a professional athlete who will likely be more appreciated in retirement then he was during his playing career.

Barring injury Eli Manning has likely played his last game as the quarterback of the New York Giants as on Tuesday the team announced that rookie Daniel Jones will be the starter this Sunday in Tampa and you can assume for the rest of this season and hopefully for many years to come.

The move while somewhat surprising after just two games is really just the Giants way of saying this season is now all about building for the future because the present is not very good.

The 38-year old Manning took over for Hall of Famer Kurt Warner midway through his rookie season in 2004 and except for one game has been the starter ever since.  He’s led the team to a pair of Super Bowl titles and was named MVP in both and has broken every Giants career record for quarterbacks.

He has been a model player on the field and person off the field and in 2016 received the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year award.

Many have taken to social media expressing their displeasure over the way the Giants have handled what is now the end of a career that will send Manning to the Hall of Fame whether he retires at the end of the season or pursues another opportunity.

In truth, every one of us would like to write the script that ends our professional career whether we were a teacher, lawyer, plumber, civil servant or even a tired old so-called radio personality. But often it does not work that way and this was likely not the ending Eli had in mind.  However, before you shed a tear for him let me leave you with this.

At the end of this season, Manning will have earned over $250 million playing football (not counting endorsements) and he leaves having never suffered a major injury.  He is married to his college sweetheart and they have three healthy daughters.  That’s an ending to be celebrated and not disregarded.

 

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