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Speaker 1: It's time to get inside the Giants Huddle on Giants

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Speaker 1: dot Com, the Giants Mobile, the Giants Podcast Network. Welcome

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Speaker 1: to the Giants Huddle Podcast. I'm Bob Papa, And on Sunday,

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Speaker 1: the Giants will retire number ten. Eli mannings number ten

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Speaker 1: and Eli joins us here on the podcast and uh, Eli,

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Speaker 1: obviously there's a lot of excitement for what's going to

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Speaker 1: happen on Sunday. Um, as it gets closer, are you

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Speaker 1: getting nervous at all for this? Uh? No, I'm not nervous.

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Speaker 1: I'm excited. I'm excited to uh you know, see some

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Speaker 1: of my old teammates and uh, you know, just be

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Speaker 1: there and kind of have one uh final farewell on

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Speaker 1: the field and to give a thank you to all

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Speaker 1: the people, um, you know that had an impact on

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Speaker 1: my my career with the Giants and there's so many

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Speaker 1: people who think and so I'm just excited to share

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Speaker 1: that with my friends, teammates and family that will be

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Speaker 1: be there to celebrate with me. Obviously, the franchise has

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Speaker 1: been around since ninety five. Your jersey becomes the twelfth

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Speaker 1: jersey to be retired, the first one since Phil Simms

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Speaker 1: Number eleven. Uh in But there's another jersey that's retired

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Speaker 1: and it's a number forty two and it belongs to

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Speaker 1: Charlie Connerley, a proud Old Miss player as well. Can

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Speaker 1: you talk about sort of the symmetry of all this

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Speaker 1: with the fact that you and Charlie Connolly, with these

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Speaker 1: forever ties, will both have your jerseys retired by the Giants. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's really it's really special for me. And um, you know,

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Speaker 1: I didn't remember Charlie Connolly, he was before my time,

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Speaker 1: but my dad, you know, grew up in Mississippi and

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Speaker 1: and loved Charlie Connolly at Old Miss, and he used

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Speaker 1: to listen to games on the radio of the Giants

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Speaker 1: playing and you know his his dad loved Charlie Connolly.

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Speaker 1: So you know, when I was in Mississippi, there's a

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Speaker 1: at Old Miss, there's a Charlie Connorley Award that's given

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Speaker 1: to the best UH football player in the state of Mississippi,

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Speaker 1: which I won two times and got the really out

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Speaker 1: to former relationship with his wife, Perry Anne, who just

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Speaker 1: passed away a few months ago. But um, you know

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Speaker 1: she would come up to a Giants game every year.

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Speaker 1: I used to see her and just to kind of

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Speaker 1: hear her stories about being in New York. And I've

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Speaker 1: read her book of Backseat Quarterback, and so I think

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Speaker 1: it's you know, I love love watching old footage of

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Speaker 1: him with the Giants and him and old Miss and

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Speaker 1: I think especially we both had long careers. I think

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Speaker 1: Charlie played fifteen years. I played sixteen years for the

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Speaker 1: Giants and quarterbacks from old myths and uh, he's just

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Speaker 1: a great story and and and you know, a great

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Speaker 1: human being and so, um, you know, it's an honor

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Speaker 1: to be to be in that same fraternity of jerseys

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Speaker 1: retired with him. Eli. Obviously, this career that you had

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Speaker 1: with the Giants has been remarkable. Um. But you know,

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Speaker 1: the way the game is, you know, the business of

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Speaker 1: the game now in the National Football League. We understand

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Speaker 1: about salary caps, we understand about you know, team drafting

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Speaker 1: quarterbacks behind them. How important is it or was it

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Speaker 1: for you to never wear another uniform? You know, it

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Speaker 1: was important for me. And that's something I think when

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Speaker 1: you get drafted to an organization and you come in

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Speaker 1: and I think that's always your goal. You always say, hey,

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Speaker 1: you know I started here. I'd love to, you know,

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Speaker 1: finish my career here. Um, unfortunately doesn't happen all that

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Speaker 1: often just because of everything going on, and you kind

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Speaker 1: of have to make those decisions whether you want to

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Speaker 1: keep playing or or or stop it. I just got to,

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Speaker 1: you know, it was fortunate enough I got to the

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Speaker 1: end of my time with the Giants and I was

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Speaker 1: I was ready to be done. I didn't want to

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Speaker 1: go play for another organization. I love the Giants organization,

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Speaker 1: love um the fans and the ownership and and everything

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Speaker 1: that I've been able to accomplish here and built here,

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Speaker 1: and so it wasn't important for me to end my

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Speaker 1: career here with the Giants. And um, you know, I

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Speaker 1: just you know, you kind of see people go do it,

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Speaker 1: other quarterbacks over the years, kind of do it the

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Speaker 1: later at the end of their career. It usually doesn't

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Speaker 1: work out all that well. Um, you know, my brother

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Speaker 1: did it, Payton did it, but his is a little

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Speaker 1: different head of injury. He wanted to keep playing. You know,

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Speaker 1: he had four more years. I did not have four

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Speaker 1: more years of playing football left in the tank. And so, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, so I was at such an honor to

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Speaker 1: be able to say I only played for one organization

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Speaker 1: and that organization be the New York Giants. You know,

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Speaker 1: one of the most remarkable things about your career is availability,

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Speaker 1: and if you take a look at even some of

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Speaker 1: the top quarterbacks that are still playing right now, injuries

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Speaker 1: play a factor. You never missed a game in your

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Speaker 1: Giant's career due to an injury. Um, now that it's

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Speaker 1: all said and done, how many times were you close

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Speaker 1: to maybe not being able to make it? Uh? There

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Speaker 1: there's definitely a couple a couple of close calls. Um.

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Speaker 1: You know, especially two thousand seven, I separated my right

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Speaker 1: shoulder in the first game of the season against the Cowboys. UM.

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Speaker 1: You know, so that was that was a close you know,

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Speaker 1: the next few weeks, Um, it was a painful experience

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Speaker 1: and practice and and and uh um, but you know

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Speaker 1: it kind of made it work. And you know, maybe

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Speaker 1: two thousand and ten, I ruptured my plan or fascia

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Speaker 1: in the bottom of my right foot, which, uh, which

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Speaker 1: is pretty painful. So you know that's that's why you

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Speaker 1: know a lot of that um to the trainers. I

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Speaker 1: remember on both injuries, you know, doctors say, well, he's

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Speaker 1: probably out three to four weeks. I remember looking at

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Speaker 1: Ronnie Barnes and Lee Weiss, and I said, you know,

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Speaker 1: we got we got six days to get me ready

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Speaker 1: for this game. So whatever it's gonna take. Uh, that's

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Speaker 1: that's my mentality. And so I said, I gotta you know,

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Speaker 1: I got a good tip for you at the end

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Speaker 1: of season. We can make this work. And so, you know,

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Speaker 1: we just kind of I would come in early, i

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Speaker 1: would stay in late. I'd come in at lunch and

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Speaker 1: just do as much rehab and do everything possible to

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Speaker 1: to get ready. So just that was always the mindset.

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Speaker 1: And if and and and after six days I couldn't play,

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Speaker 1: then then I knew I did everything possible, but we

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Speaker 1: were all is able to get it, get it right

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Speaker 1: and and get you know well enough to be out there.

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Speaker 1: And that was always important for me, just to be

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Speaker 1: there for my teammates and to be accountable and be

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Speaker 1: available and to you know them knowing that, hey, I'm

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Speaker 1: I want to be there. I'm gonna do everything possible

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Speaker 1: to be out there with them, and it's gonna be

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Speaker 1: painful at times. But you know, always thought my my

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Speaker 1: you know, teammates around me responded to that, always thought

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Speaker 1: my lineman were blocked a little harder for me that

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Speaker 1: following week, just knowing, hey, he's hurting back there. We

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Speaker 1: gotta keep him up right. You know. They took pride

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Speaker 1: in kind of keeping me, keeping me healthy, you know.

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Speaker 1: I obviously one of the things that you're known for

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Speaker 1: is your ability to lead the team back, whether the

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Speaker 1: game was tied or you're trailing in the fourth quarter.

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Speaker 1: Some quarterbacks have the knack. Some quarterbacks it just doesn't

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Speaker 1: always work out. For when when you took over late

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Speaker 1: in the game and you knew you had to drive

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Speaker 1: your team down to win, what would you say are

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Speaker 1: some of the keys to as why you were so

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Speaker 1: successful in doing it when others are not. You know,

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Speaker 1: you know, I didn't think that was the time you

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Speaker 1: had to give a big raw Ross speech. You know,

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Speaker 1: if your team's not fired up in a fourth quarter

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Speaker 1: for a two minute drive to go win the game,

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Speaker 1: that there's something wrong with you. You know that. And

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Speaker 1: I think the mentality was, um, you know during those moments,

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Speaker 1: this is not the time to be nervous. This is

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Speaker 1: not the time to be scared about losing. It's the opposite.

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Speaker 1: This is the time to be excited for the fact

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Speaker 1: that we're about to go win a football game. We're

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Speaker 1: on the field, we have, the opportunity is in our hands.

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Speaker 1: Let's go do it. And so that's something we worked

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Speaker 1: really hard on, you know, with with coach Coughlin. Every

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Speaker 1: Thursday to im practice was a two minute drill and

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Speaker 1: so only the only time we really went live against

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Speaker 1: the starting defense, so they were kind of, you know,

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Speaker 1: running their defense and we were running our offense. But

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Speaker 1: you know, it was, you know, every time, it's a

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Speaker 1: different situation. Sometimes we need a touchdowns, sometimes we need

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Speaker 1: a field goals. Sometimes we had time outs or no

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Speaker 1: time out. It was always different, and it was the

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Speaker 1: most competitive part and if you if we did succeed,

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Speaker 1: you kind of feel like you lost practice. And we

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Speaker 1: would always watch it as a group and watch it

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Speaker 1: with the receivers and Lyne and just kind of go

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Speaker 1: over what we could have done better, and we studied

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Speaker 1: with coaches and when to take time out and what

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Speaker 1: plays we like, and so, you know, we just felt

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Speaker 1: good in those situations, and as you do more of them,

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Speaker 1: you just feel confident. You're like, you know, all of

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Speaker 1: a sudden, you're going out for those drives. You're saying,

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Speaker 1: just you know, you got everybody's thinking, Hey, you know

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Speaker 1: we're about to We're about to go win this game.

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Speaker 1: This is this is where we want to be. We

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Speaker 1: want the opportunity to win and and you know, and

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Speaker 1: and luckily unfortunately we had two opportunities and Super Bowls

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Speaker 1: were we had the ball with around two minutes left

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Speaker 1: and needed a score, uh to win a championship. And

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Speaker 1: in those situations, we felt comfortable and we're able to

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Speaker 1: go out there and get it done. You know you're

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Speaker 1: gonna have obviously, your family is going to be there

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Speaker 1: on Sunday as the number ten gets retired. Uh, and

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Speaker 1: your mom and dad are gonna be there, And um,

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Speaker 1: I think that's a really cool thing to have them there.

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Speaker 1: You know, people say, now you got Peyton and you've

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Speaker 1: Eli and their dad was a quarterback in the National

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Speaker 1: Football League. You know it was condestined. But can you

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Speaker 1: just talk about because you know, as someone who's coaching

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Speaker 1: youth sports and has coached youth sports, Um, can you

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Speaker 1: talk about the role that your father played in helping

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Speaker 1: you develop by not being a football guy but just

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Speaker 1: being that. Yeah. I think before before I'll go to

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Speaker 1: my dad, I will give my mom the credit. She deserves.

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Speaker 1: She kind of doesn't get a whole lot of recognition

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Speaker 1: because he stays in the background. But you know, my

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Speaker 1: poor mom has been the more sporting events than any

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Speaker 1: you know, mothers should have to go to just from

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Speaker 1: from us in little leagues and now you know, watching watching, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, her two sons and Peyton I played through

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Speaker 1: college and NFL and my dad through his you know,

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Speaker 1: college and NFL career. So she has been kind of

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Speaker 1: the rock and the supporter and is always there for

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Speaker 1: a hug. And you know, never never word anything about football,

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Speaker 1: just what only I only cared about if we were

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Speaker 1: safe and happy and and those things. But my dad,

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Speaker 1: I think just the way he um, you know, it

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Speaker 1: was never his his goal to raise a couple of

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Speaker 1: quarterbacks and and create NFL quarterbacks. He wanted to raise

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Speaker 1: good kids. And I don't remember my dad as a

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Speaker 1: football player. He retired. I was four years old, and

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Speaker 1: so I just remember how he treated people. How you know,

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Speaker 1: people came up and asked for an autograph, He signed

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Speaker 1: the autographs, he took picture, he shook the hands, and

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Speaker 1: so I learned more from my dad just and how

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Speaker 1: he handled that spotlight, how he treated people and just uh,

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Speaker 1: just how sincere and nice he is as as a person,

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Speaker 1: and he he kind of put it on us my

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Speaker 1: daddy's He never, um, you know, said hey, we're going

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Speaker 1: to throw balls to day, or we're going to shoot hoops.

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Speaker 1: You gotta you know, you know, hit fifty free throws

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Speaker 1: before we can have dinner. That was never his style.

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Speaker 1: He wanted us to take responsibility for for our own athletics.

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Speaker 1: And we had to go to him and say, Dad,

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Speaker 1: you know, can you come run you know, ten slant

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Speaker 1: routes for me? I missed one in the game. Can

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Speaker 1: you do that? And he would always drop what he

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Speaker 1: was doing and go do whatever we asked him to do.

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Speaker 1: But it had to come from us asking him. Eli. Obviously,

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Speaker 1: in wrapping it up, you've been heavily involved in the

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Speaker 1: community with Tackle Kids Cancer. Now you've branched out in

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Speaker 1: uh broadcaster with Monday Night Football. Are you finding your

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Speaker 1: footing now? Um, now that you're a year removed from

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Speaker 1: being out of the game. I am, you know, I

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Speaker 1: enjoy um, you know, kind of getting back into football

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Speaker 1: and and I enjoy the prep forward and getting to

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Speaker 1: watch and watch film and analyzed games. I always enjoyed

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Speaker 1: that part of it while I was playing. And now

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Speaker 1: to get to watch you know, Monday night football with

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Speaker 1: with my big brother and Peyton, for us to tell

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Speaker 1: stories and um, you know, get to hang out with them.

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Speaker 1: I don't know, I can't remember. It has been over

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Speaker 1: you know, twenty southern years and we'd probably watch the

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Speaker 1: Monday night football together. Now we get to do it,

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Speaker 1: you know, ten times uh, every year. And so just

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Speaker 1: enjoying that process, but also enjoy being home. Enjoy um,

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Speaker 1: you know, not not waking up on on Monday morning

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Speaker 1: sore and you know after taking hits. So uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: I enjoy going to Giants games and rooting on the

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Speaker 1: Giants and being a fan and and going there with

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Speaker 1: my kids and my wife and making that a new

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Speaker 1: tradition in our household. Well, Eli, obviously you've given fans

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Speaker 1: tremendous thrills. Uh, it's been a lot of fun watching

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Speaker 1: you play. Um. Just one final thing for those who

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Speaker 1: can't be there on Sunday, uh, And for those Giants

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Speaker 1: fans that live around the world that go to Giants

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Speaker 1: dot Com and the Giants media platforms to watch Giant content.

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Speaker 1: A message for Giants fans yeah, you know, just just

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Speaker 1: a big thank you, thank you for all your support. Uh,

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Speaker 1: during my sixteen years would not be possible about you,

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Speaker 1: you know, cheering cheering force on Sundays and always having

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Speaker 1: our back after the tough losses. And y'all were tough

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Speaker 1: but fair, i'd say, in your style of being a fan.

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Speaker 1: And y'all y'all expected great things and you expected us

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Speaker 1: to compete and play hard and and uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: and I think that's that's what fans should be. But

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Speaker 1: you were always very knowledgeable about the game and and uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, demanded great things from us, and we tried

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Speaker 1: to give that to you. So thank you for all

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Speaker 1: the support to being there, and uh, this kid can't

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Speaker 1: thank you enough. Eli, thank you so much for joining

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Speaker 1: us and enjoy Sunday. Thanks a lot about That's Eli

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Speaker 1: Manning here on the Giants Huddle podcast