Speaker 1: Okay, so full disclosure. When I was a kid boy,
Speaker 1: I really didn't follow sports at all. I followed rock
Speaker 1: and roll, and for some reason, those two things were
Speaker 1: not going hand in hand for me. But as I've
Speaker 1: grown older, I've become more and more of a sports fan.
Speaker 1: It was kind of moving to New York and I
Speaker 1: think falling in love with the New York Knicks, and
Speaker 1: I now really do both enjoy it and admire the
Speaker 1: people that do it incredibly well. A lot of it
Speaker 1: is because I just look at it and go, man,
Speaker 1: that's something I just can't do and never will be
Speaker 1: able to. So it's very exciting to me today to
Speaker 1: get a chance to speak to our next guest, the
Speaker 1: great two time Super Bowl champion quarterback of the New
Speaker 1: York Giants, Eli Manning. I think you're going to enjoy
Speaker 1: our conversation, and I think I think you'll be surprised
Speaker 1: at his guest.
Speaker 2: So lean in.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you're here. Well, thank you the great Eli
Speaker 1: Manning for being here with me today. You are our
Speaker 1: first celebrity from the world of sport as they say
Speaker 1: in the UK, or sports as you would know it
Speaker 1: in this country. You know it's there's so much There's
Speaker 1: so many things that are so fun about this conversation
Speaker 1: to me, one of which is that you're doing one
Speaker 1: of those jobs that like I look at that and
Speaker 1: I go, there is no chance I would make it
Speaker 1: through five minutes of that job. The amount of training,
Speaker 1: the amount of concentration, the way that you you know,
Speaker 1: put your body on the line all the time. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know the funny thing about being an actor is
Speaker 1: that you know, for inside, just give you an example,
Speaker 1: like I've played I think four Marines, okay, And so
Speaker 1: sometimes people will come up to me and say, boy,
Speaker 1: you really seem like a marine. And I'll say, let
Speaker 1: me tell you something that I could never be a marine.
Speaker 1: I've met marines and I've seen what they do, and
Speaker 1: and I am. I am actor boy. So what does
Speaker 1: that feel like to, uh, you know, make those kind
Speaker 1: of sacrifices with your body.
Speaker 2: Day in and day out. I think I think you
Speaker 2: just get used to it. You start doing it at
Speaker 2: such a young age I was. I mean, I played
Speaker 2: flag football growing up. I really didn't start tackled till
Speaker 2: eighth grade, and you just get used to hitting as
Speaker 2: the quarterback. I think a lot of your hits are
Speaker 2: after a throw. That's kind of when you're your most vulnerable.
Speaker 2: You're kind of throwing your in a bad position. Someone
Speaker 2: comes hits you, but at that moment, you're so focused
Speaker 2: on wondering what happened after the throw. You're trying to
Speaker 2: look in between cracks of linemen and people. Sometimes you're
Speaker 2: just listening to the crowd. You know, if you're at
Speaker 2: home and you hear tears, you know, all right, that
Speaker 2: was completed. If you hear kind of nothing, or who's
Speaker 2: maybe you know, incomplete, if you hear you know, booze
Speaker 2: or you know, real silence, you know, maybe interceptions. So
Speaker 2: I think you're so you're so focused and on those
Speaker 2: things that you don't have time to think about the pain.
Speaker 2: It's really the next the next morning after the game
Speaker 2: is where you you know, you know you're gonna have
Speaker 2: some bumps and bruises. But as I've as I've retired
Speaker 2: from football, watching it and having been gone, you know,
Speaker 2: been out of it for three years, I like see
Speaker 2: the hits and I think the same thing. I'm like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, there's no way this guy's getting up
Speaker 2: after that hit. And they you know, most of the
Speaker 2: times get up and they're on to the next place.
Speaker 2: So having been away for for a little bit, it
Speaker 2: looks a lot worse, uh now than then I remember it.
Speaker 2: When I was playing, I think you just got to
Speaker 2: put it. You just don't even think about It's like, oh,
Speaker 2: that's just part of the game, and and you don't
Speaker 2: worry about the big hits. But uh, they look they
Speaker 2: look more painful now that I remember.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, it's funny because you led me right
Speaker 1: into two things. One was one was you know, talking
Speaker 1: about the next day, and I'll never forget.
Speaker 2: I think the.
Speaker 1: Movie was North Dallas forty and Nick Nolty climbs into
Speaker 1: the ice bath after the game, and I remember looking
Speaker 1: at that and going, oh, I don't care how hurt
Speaker 1: I was. I'm not climbing into a bath, a bath
Speaker 1: full of ice cubes and unless there's you know, it's
Speaker 1: filled with vodka and all of But you know, I
Speaker 1: just I just found that. I just found that so powerful,
Speaker 1: that that image from that movie. And I didn't grow
Speaker 1: up as an athlete. I'm terrible with ball sports. We
Speaker 1: played on the street, We played Grumphilly and we played
Speaker 1: on the street and played you know, stickball, and and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, football in the street, you know, tag whatever,
Speaker 1: But but I definitely didn't have like the high school,
Speaker 1: you know, and to this day, I'm an awful, awful athlete.
Speaker 1: But the other thing that you I was I wanted
Speaker 1: to ask you about this and you mentioned, you know,
Speaker 1: you're in the middle of taking a hit and you've
Speaker 1: thrown the ball and you don't know what happens to it.
Speaker 1: And so for those of you that haven't seen the
Speaker 1: helmet catch, uh to David Tyree, you have to watch this,
Speaker 1: uh this replay on YouTube because it's just amazing of
Speaker 1: one of them, I'd say it's certainly one of the
Speaker 1: most famous plays in Giant's history, I would think, and
Speaker 1: probably one of the most famous you know throws and catches.
Speaker 1: And Eli is completely surrounded and miraculously about to be
Speaker 1: thrown to the ground and he lets the ball go
Speaker 1: and then the camera goes off of him. And what
Speaker 1: I thought to myself was he didn't even get to
Speaker 1: watch see this catch, like, like what you must have
Speaker 1: been on the ground already, right, I mean, you did
Speaker 1: you even? I mean, was it that thing that you
Speaker 1: mentioned just before where you're like I hear whether or
Speaker 1: not people are booing me or cheering.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, and and I, uh, I kind of got hit.
Speaker 2: I didn't get all the way knocked down to the ground,
Speaker 2: and that went so but it was still crowded, and
Speaker 2: David was kind of Rodney Harrisimmons, the defender. He's hanging
Speaker 2: all over him, and I see him go to the
Speaker 2: ground and they, you know, they call for the catch,
Speaker 2: but at that moment, you know, you never know, like
Speaker 2: you're trying to maybe run up there and spike it
Speaker 2: real quick so they can't review it. But we had
Speaker 2: to call a time out under that situation. So and
Speaker 2: they're they're they're gonna review it. And I remember going
Speaker 2: up to David. I'm like, hey, did you did you
Speaker 2: catch it? And He's like, yeah, I caught it. And
Speaker 2: I've been lied to by receivers. These receivers that they
Speaker 2: may tell you, they tell you they're open, and then
Speaker 2: you watch the film they were the double teemed and
Speaker 2: on the ground they tell you they caught it. I'm
Speaker 2: rather through one to Plexico Burus and you know it's
Speaker 2: like a third and it was a second and ten,
Speaker 2: so and you call it the first down, and you know,
Speaker 2: you're kind of hey, did you catch it so we
Speaker 2: can start thinking about when we will run on third
Speaker 2: down or what our first down? Please? Yeah, I caught it.
Speaker 2: And you see the replay in the bounced like three
Speaker 2: times before it got there. I'm like, why are you
Speaker 2: lying to me. It's not going to make the call
Speaker 2: any different.
Speaker 1: Videotape.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's video. There's a video. They're going to analyze it.
Speaker 2: They're going to get the right call. So David, you know,
Speaker 2: it's like, no, don't lie to me. Did you really
Speaker 2: catch it? And said, I promise you the ball never
Speaker 2: touched the ground. I had it on my helmet, and
Speaker 2: that was kind of the first time I was like, really,
Speaker 2: you caught it off your helmet.
Speaker 1: And uh, you did not see the catch live? You
Speaker 1: had you had to go to the video. I had
Speaker 1: to go to video, and I kind of watched it.
Speaker 1: Watch it up there and you see it, you know,
Speaker 1: real quickly, and you know and touching the ground.
Speaker 2: Never touches the ground. But we really didn't have time
Speaker 2: to analyze like what a great catch it was at
Speaker 2: that moment, just because hey, we we still had to
Speaker 2: go score a touchdown and try to win the Super Bowl.
Speaker 2: Great catch, but it almost if we don't win the game,
Speaker 2: then that great play probably is not talked about as much,
Speaker 2: or is it, you know, become the great play because
Speaker 2: it has to lead to the win of winning a
Speaker 2: Super Bowl, which makes it special. And sure I remember
Speaker 2: after the game, maybe it was like after the game,
Speaker 2: you know, you have an after party. Obviously you're celebrating
Speaker 2: your friends and family. I get back to the hotel
Speaker 2: with my wife at you know, three in the morning,
Speaker 2: and we had an early press conference next morning, so
Speaker 2: I at like a six o'clock wake up, Paul, and
Speaker 2: I'm gone, well, I haven't seen like the replay yet.
Speaker 2: I want to see the highlights. I got to go
Speaker 2: watch ESPN, and I want to see like the the
Speaker 2: David Tyree catch again and see see how good it was.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's amazing to me. And you know, speaking of which,
Speaker 1: as as as you know, as we know, you did
Speaker 1: go on to win that Super Bowl, and that was
Speaker 1: the first one, right, that was the yeah, two thousand
Speaker 1: and eight, and and you know, it was quite as
Speaker 1: a spectacular moment. And actually the scoring touchdown was sort
Speaker 1: of like the polar opposite catch, right, because it was
Speaker 1: just like a just a nice little toss and you
Speaker 1: just kind of went up, I got the ball and
Speaker 1: we just wanted to right.
Speaker 2: It was wide open, Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: It was with drama. There was there was no drama
Speaker 1: in that catch at all. So it was a great contrast.
Speaker 1: When you become an actor, you know, you you go
Speaker 1: out there and you go, well, I'm gonna make this movie. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, and I'm not even going to entertain this thought,
Speaker 1: but way sometimes in the back of your mind you're thinking,
Speaker 1: this is going to be a breakout hit, or this
Speaker 1: is going to be an Oscar winner, or this is
Speaker 1: going to take me to the next level or whatever
Speaker 1: it happens to be. You know, you sometimes have these
Speaker 1: like kind of overreaching fantasies, delusions of grandeur. But it
Speaker 1: takes a long time to find out what the upshot
Speaker 1: is of the of the project that you've done. And
Speaker 1: and you know, sometimes a year or so after after
Speaker 1: you've made it, the film comes out when you're the
Speaker 1: middle of a football season. Uh, you're constantly in the
Speaker 1: in the moment. My question is when you start out,
Speaker 1: do you uh, do you keep in the back of
Speaker 1: your mind the idea that you could win a Super
Speaker 1: Bowl and that stranger things have happened, or do you
Speaker 1: have to just kind of go game the game, the game,
Speaker 1: the game and put that out of your head.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you really, you really got to go
Speaker 2: game the game, the game. And I think once you
Speaker 2: even you know, you go through stretches where you're playing
Speaker 2: great football. We went through stretches where we you know,
Speaker 2: we won six games in a row, and you feel like, oh,
Speaker 2: we can't you know, we can't lose, like we're playing
Speaker 2: great And once you start thinking that, usually you get
Speaker 2: humbled real quickly and you just got to have one
Speaker 2: of those games where nothing goes right and you and
Speaker 2: you get beat quickly and badly, and it kind of
Speaker 2: gets you. All right, let's get back to the basics.
Speaker 2: Let's get back to focusing on doing you know, what
Speaker 2: we need to do. Make sure we're preparing correctly all
Speaker 2: week and and because if you don't, if you don't
Speaker 2: go out there and and and like do the little
Speaker 2: things really well and pay attention to the details and
Speaker 2: have great you know, everybody you know has to have
Speaker 2: great weeks of preparation and work, then then you get embarrassed.
Speaker 2: And so it's not just one person, it's I mean,
Speaker 2: it's all twenty two guys, eleven guys on offense, eleven
Speaker 2: guys on defense that you know, they all have to
Speaker 2: do their job. If one person, you know it has
Speaker 2: an off week where they don't prepare well, they don't
Speaker 2: know the assignments, it's a it's on a script. You know,
Speaker 2: the each play does not have a chance if even
Speaker 2: one person is doing something wrong or or just not
Speaker 2: doing it at a high level. And so it's you
Speaker 2: got to everybody has to buy in, uh to the idea.
Speaker 2: It's just one week at a time. It's about this week,
Speaker 2: how we perform, how are we gonna go out there
Speaker 2: and prepare and let's go play hard and worry about
Speaker 2: this one and just getting into the playoffs. It's about
Speaker 2: it's about finding a way to get to the playoffs.
Speaker 2: And then there that's when really anything can happen, and
Speaker 2: you can get hot at the right time and and
Speaker 2: you know, play a team that might be better than
Speaker 2: you and they might beat you ninety nine at one
Speaker 2: hundred times, but that one day you might catch the breaks.
Speaker 2: You might you know, just you know, find a guy
Speaker 2: who's struggled, or you know, ball bounce in certain ways
Speaker 2: where you can win that certain day and that's what
Speaker 2: you're playing for.
Speaker 1: M Now, going back, your dad, Archie Manning, was a
Speaker 1: great player in his own right and you know, had
Speaker 1: a you know, fantastic career.
Speaker 2: You and.
Speaker 1: Your brother Peyton, but also your other brother. We're all
Speaker 1: of players, all football players. Was there any a moment, ever,
Speaker 1: a moment where one of you was thinking, I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe dental school or or I don't interior design anything that.
Speaker 1: Were there ever any other options there? Or was it
Speaker 1: all it? Did it have to be football?
Speaker 2: It didn't have to be football? But we we definitely
Speaker 2: were into sports. And I mean I played basketball pla basketball, Yeah,
Speaker 2: through high school, all through through high school. So what
Speaker 2: I think a lot of people maybe assume my dad
Speaker 2: had this master plan of creating NFL quarterbacks as he
Speaker 2: was an NFL quarterback, And nothing could really be further
Speaker 2: from the truth. Uh, you know, we had we did
Speaker 2: well in school, but we played, We played a lot
Speaker 2: of sports. He just thought, you know, sports were great, Uh,
Speaker 2: you know, great way to learn life lessons and dedication
Speaker 2: and hard work and commitment. Uh, dealing with losses, dealing
Speaker 2: with success, in handling all those things. Uh, you know,
Speaker 2: just the team work that goes into it, and so,
Speaker 2: uh he wanted us to play sports, but he never
Speaker 2: got too involved in our sports. Uh he He kind
Speaker 2: of always said, hey, I live my sports dream. You know,
Speaker 2: if you want to get into it, I'm here to
Speaker 2: support you. But I'm never going to be the guy saying, hey,
Speaker 2: you got to go out and work out, or you know,
Speaker 2: I'm going to put you in this drill. You know,
Speaker 2: he just wanted us to make our own decisions, for
Speaker 2: us to find our own path, and it just so
Speaker 2: happened just from an early age. I don't know why.
Speaker 2: We could just throw the football pretty well. So I
Speaker 2: mean even like in fifth grade at recess at school,
Speaker 2: you know, I mean you've quickly learned if whatever team
Speaker 2: we were all on and playing quarterback, we usually won
Speaker 2: that game. And so eventually I just became the permanent
Speaker 2: quarterback on both sides. To make it fair, I mean.
Speaker 1: Steady steady we call it. We would play with a steady.
Speaker 2: Yeah, steady. So I remember after a while, I was like, hey,
Speaker 2: I want to try something else. I want to play receiver.
Speaker 2: I want to catch it touched down, And I quickly
Speaker 2: learned that I'm not very fast. I don't catch the
Speaker 2: ball very well, and so I wasn't getting fall that often,
Speaker 2: and I was like, this is this is worse. I'll
Speaker 2: go back to play steady and being able to permanent QB.
Speaker 1: All right, Oh wow, that's that's fascinating. And what about
Speaker 1: your mom? I mean, did she did she have moments
Speaker 1: of like, I'm I'm sending my little boys out here,
Speaker 1: you know, to get sacked.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that was that was hard. I feel
Speaker 2: I feel for my mom. She she has had to
Speaker 2: watch way too many football games where you have I
Speaker 2: think with the with my dad, it wasn't too hard
Speaker 2: if he got hit, but with their with their little
Speaker 2: boys and her kids, you know, just getting getting hit,
Speaker 2: getting sacked a bunch you know, losses. So all she
Speaker 2: cared was us coming out of the game healthy and
Speaker 2: she was always there for a big hug afterwards, win
Speaker 2: or lose, and just wanted us to be you know,
Speaker 2: be safe, be healthy. And but she's watched, she's watched
Speaker 2: a lot of football games. She's had to deal with
Speaker 2: a lot of losses. But uh, you know, we got
Speaker 2: a couple of championships to to be happy about as well.
Speaker 1: I love what what what your dad was pointing out about,
Speaker 1: uh learning to deal with successes and failures, because I
Speaker 1: really feel like that is you know, I have two
Speaker 1: kids that they're not athletes, but they are in in
Speaker 1: uh my son's a musician and my daughter's an actor.
Speaker 1: And and you know, you are thrown into this world
Speaker 1: where you don't have a steady gig. The the success
Speaker 1: or failure of your of your career trajectory is all
Speaker 1: on on wins and losses, and like that's a real
Speaker 1: kind of seesaw sort of life to have to live
Speaker 1: and uh and the idea that in order to uh
Speaker 1: accomplish those successes you have to be part of a
Speaker 1: team are really really good messages I think for for
Speaker 1: young people. And and you know, we but like I said,
Speaker 1: they don't they were not playing sports. But I think
Speaker 1: that we've tried to kind of you know, pound that
Speaker 1: into them. Uh that both but both of those concepts
Speaker 1: teamwork and also you know, don't don't get too happy,
Speaker 1: don't get too full of yourself when it when you
Speaker 1: when you have a win, because you know, you know
Speaker 1: things are going to change down the road and and
Speaker 1: you know when you have a when when things don't
Speaker 1: work out, you know, are you in it for the
Speaker 1: long haul? Are you going to let this this one,
Speaker 1: you know, knock you knock you down forever? So so
Speaker 1: those are those are great messages I've had to I've
Speaker 1: not had to.
Speaker 2: I have.
Speaker 1: I luckily have a band with my brother that we've
Speaker 1: had since nineteen ninety five. And there's two things about
Speaker 1: you know, I'm constantly trying to find things that, as
Speaker 1: I said at the beginning of the podcast, it's very
Speaker 1: hard for me to relate to this, to you and
Speaker 1: the life that you've had and the and the gig
Speaker 1: that you do. But so I'm trying to find these
Speaker 1: kind of you know, connections, which is about this what
Speaker 1: this podcast is about. You know, I get this question
Speaker 1: all the time, and I find it ultimately, I find
Speaker 1: it sort of irritating. But you work with your brother
Speaker 1: in you know, multiple capacities, whether it's commercials or your
Speaker 1: or your broadcast together, and how how is that working relationship?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 1: Basically there's a lot of rock bands that have ended
Speaker 1: up literally taking a swing at each other on stage.
Speaker 1: Who are brothers?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 1: I mean there's like that's a face like the Everly's
Speaker 1: hate each other. You know, the Kinks, the Oasis. It's
Speaker 1: like the list just goes on and on and on.
Speaker 1: So everybody always says to me and Michael, you guys,
Speaker 1: how can you play together? You must hate each other.
Speaker 1: Uh So I'm curious about about I'm sending this dumb
Speaker 1: question back your way.
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, I think I think Peyton and I are
Speaker 2: fortunate that for our broadcast, I'm in New Jersey doing
Speaker 2: it and he's in Denver, so we're not even in
Speaker 2: the same room. So okay, no punches can be thrown,
Speaker 2: and we definitely take shots at each other, and that's
Speaker 2: we're both uh uh. You know, I think it's a
Speaker 2: football player just deal with the media, deal with the
Speaker 2: locker room. Like our number one rule is you can't
Speaker 2: be sensitive. There's no sensitivity in here because if you
Speaker 2: if people find that out, then they'll they just come
Speaker 2: at you even more. And so we just you know,
Speaker 2: we're we kind of go. You know, we're gonna take
Speaker 2: you know, if you mess up, it actually works out
Speaker 2: better I think and broadcasting. If you mess up, if
Speaker 2: I say something wrong, I you know, pronounce a name
Speaker 2: incorrectly or make a wrong call, Peyton's gonna call me
Speaker 2: out before the media has the opportunity to call me
Speaker 2: out because he's gonna be a media and if I'm
Speaker 2: gonna get called out by somebody, rather really be for
Speaker 2: my brother. But we definitely take shots at each other.
Speaker 2: And I think it's also good that we don't do
Speaker 2: every game. We kind of we'll do maybe two or
Speaker 2: three in a row, and then we need a break,
Speaker 2: and usually during that break for a week or two,
Speaker 2: like we don't even talk to each other. It's like,
Speaker 2: all right, I need I need a full time from you.
Speaker 2: I don't want to talk to you. I don't have
Speaker 2: to see that often. But we we have a good relationship,
Speaker 2: and I think it's I think it's because, uh, he's
Speaker 2: five years older than me, so growing up, we never
Speaker 2: really competed against each other. It's always been a support deal.
Speaker 2: It's always been, you know, him kind of helping me
Speaker 2: through high school or helping me through college. And then
Speaker 2: we got to the NFL. We competed against each other
Speaker 2: three times, and then it didn't work that well for
Speaker 2: me at three against some so I didn't I didn't
Speaker 2: have much to fight about or to argue.
Speaker 1: Did your mom take him aside and say, can you
Speaker 1: just let Eli win one come on.
Speaker 2: This one time. There's one time. Yeah, because I am
Speaker 2: the baby, I am I am mom's favorite, of course,
Speaker 2: of course, and so I think she probably did try
Speaker 2: to try to do that. But we've always just tried
Speaker 2: to help each other out and really support each other.
Speaker 2: So I think that's kept us kept us close. And
Speaker 2: and again we don't have to be around each other
Speaker 2: too much, and that keeps us. I think that keeps
Speaker 2: us close.
Speaker 1: Also, Yeah, you know, it's so funny. That's that it's
Speaker 1: a pretty much word for word at what our answer is,
Speaker 1: and that is that we don't live together. You know,
Speaker 1: we don't even really talk necessarily that much, but then
Speaker 1: we come together to play the show, you know, and
Speaker 1: we do the show and then the show is great.
Speaker 1: But but we don't but it's not it's not like
Speaker 1: we're you know, checking in. And the other thing is
Speaker 1: that I you know, I don't know what it is,
Speaker 1: but if you get a little bit for us it's
Speaker 1: nine years, if you get some some space in between
Speaker 1: the two ages, it definitely helps. And I'm the youngest
Speaker 1: of six, so it's a it's a you know, it's
Speaker 1: a you know, kind of a similar situation. You know,
Speaker 1: there there was a funny connection that I that I
Speaker 1: thought of, you know, because of the whole goofy you know,
Speaker 1: six degrees thing. But uh, you know, you had a show.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's on any more. College Both Is
Speaker 1: that still long? The College Bowl reboot Bowl?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, papers got hosted. I was just like an
Speaker 2: executive producer whatever that means on the show. But yeah,
Speaker 2: College Ball it's I don't know if they're doing another season.
Speaker 2: They've had two seasons of it so far. Two seasons, right.
Speaker 1: I did a movie called Diner many many years ago,
Speaker 1: and in that movie, it took place in the I
Speaker 1: think nineteen sixty one. I am sitting there all alone
Speaker 1: in my apartment. There's a scene where I'm sitting there
Speaker 1: all alone in my apartment and I'm watching College Bowl.
Speaker 1: And that just shows you how long that show has
Speaker 1: been on the air. The movie, it was a period
Speaker 1: piece and I'm yelling at the television and saying, you
Speaker 1: get the wrong answer. I like, this character gets the
Speaker 1: answer before everybody else. And it was just this weird
Speaker 1: thing where, you know, I never really understood the scene.
Speaker 1: I didn't understand and like why it was why people
Speaker 1: liked it, but people had this great reaction to it
Speaker 1: because they felt like it showed that the character was
Speaker 1: smart and that you didn't really get that and any
Speaker 1: of the other scenes. So how did you do?
Speaker 2: Were you?
Speaker 1: Were you a contestant or were I never?
Speaker 2: I never went all. This was kind of for college
Speaker 2: college kids, uh, and an opportunity for them to earn
Speaker 2: some you know, scholarships and for them to compete against
Speaker 2: each other in a in like a quiz show type deal.
Speaker 2: So I just, uh, it was actually fun being both
Speaker 2: my brothers were on it together and I just got
Speaker 2: to I got to watch and analyze and to tell
Speaker 2: tell them my thoughts. So now that's what was good
Speaker 2: or bad. So I don't know if they listened to
Speaker 2: any of them, but it was fun critiquing my two
Speaker 2: older brothers in a show and you know, talking about
Speaker 2: what they did wrong or their mistakes.
Speaker 1: Nice.
Speaker 2: I like it.
Speaker 1: Well, you mentioned that in the broadcast you get to
Speaker 1: stay in at home and your brother stays at home
Speaker 1: or stays where he lives. Did what was the road
Speaker 1: like for you? Because how many years were you? Were
Speaker 1: you in the NFL?
Speaker 2: Sixteen years?
Speaker 1: Sixteen years?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 1: I mean that's sixteen years of being on the road,
Speaker 1: and I'm just curious, like for a lot of reasons,
Speaker 1: the just the toil of you know, like like I
Speaker 1: can tell you, you know, in certain terms, that hotels no
Speaker 1: longer hold any kind of interest to me. The first
Speaker 1: time I ever went in one, I was like, this
Speaker 1: is the greatest thing. You know, I don't have to
Speaker 1: do my laundry or whatever it is. You know, somebody
Speaker 1: makes the bed. But now I there's no romance left
Speaker 1: for me in terms of that, And so I'm just
Speaker 1: wondering what that's like for sixteen years and on your
Speaker 1: your family and the whole thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I think I think football is different than
Speaker 2: a lot of other sports. Is really our weeks are
Speaker 2: exactly the same every week, and it really really difference.
Speaker 2: If you're if you're at home, you stay at a
Speaker 2: hotel Saturday night and you have to be there, you know,
Speaker 2: around six or seven o'clock, and you play the game
Speaker 2: the next day and you're you know, you're kind of
Speaker 2: back home with your family around you know, four thirty
Speaker 2: five o'clock and you get to be with them. If
Speaker 2: you're if you're on away game, you leave, you know,
Speaker 2: you have practice Saturday morning, you leave around one o'clock
Speaker 2: and you basically come back right after the game on Sunday,
Speaker 2: so you know, you're on you're a gone really Saturday
Speaker 2: night of the week, and the rest of the week
Speaker 2: is you know, very schedule your practice at the same
Speaker 2: time every day you meet. You're kind of home around
Speaker 2: the same time for dinner. So it's a pretty good,
Speaker 2: uh family life situation. I mean, you're you're you're gone
Speaker 2: during the day and you're still going on the weekends
Speaker 2: a little bit. But your family is can you know,
Speaker 2: come come to the game and watch you on Sunday,
Speaker 2: which is exciting. So uh, it's different from baseball or basketball,
Speaker 2: where you might have these two week road trips. Right
Speaker 2: you're traveling around and really away from the family. So uh,
Speaker 2: training camp is the only time training camp you're you're
Speaker 2: you You go away for like a you know, three
Speaker 2: weeks to a month. A lot of times you're in
Speaker 2: a dorm room and you're together in trade binding. That
Speaker 2: was kind of the hardest time. Once you start having
Speaker 2: young kids and and you know, tell the life all right,
Speaker 2: I'll see I'll see in a month. Good good luck,
Speaker 2: all right, you know you can figure it out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well except for the fact that, I mean, you're
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to go and live some place where
Speaker 1: you get drafted, and that, right is that's kind of
Speaker 1: a fascinating thing. You don't, I don't. I don't see
Speaker 1: people talking about that that much. I mean, I'm sure
Speaker 1: that I don't know, is there is there what? What
Speaker 1: would you say is a stronger pull the place, uh
Speaker 1: or the team or the conference or the or the
Speaker 1: legacy or what what? What? What? Or where?
Speaker 2: What?
Speaker 1: What are the what are the what where the coach?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 2: It's tough. Yeah, I mean I think you like, as
Speaker 2: you said, you don't have a choice, like you get
Speaker 2: you get drafted, you go wherever you're going. I think
Speaker 2: you know you're excited to play play football. For me,
Speaker 2: I was excited to come to the to the Giants
Speaker 2: just because they're a you know, just a great organization,
Speaker 2: been on the original teams, they've been around for so long,
Speaker 2: great ownership. You know. I knew coach Coughlin was gonna
Speaker 2: be the head coach. He was coming into his first year,
Speaker 2: so I just I knew a lot about the history
Speaker 2: of the Giants and what they stood for and and
Speaker 2: you know, really was excited to come to this organization,
Speaker 2: come to New York. But you know it is different
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, you know, yeah, you're twenty three
Speaker 2: years old. You're like, all right, you're moving to New
Speaker 2: Jersey where they practice. You can you know, go go
Speaker 2: find an apartment, go figure it out and start your life.
Speaker 2: And so, you know, lucky to have my mom. My
Speaker 2: mom was very helpful in that. Like I was like, well,
Speaker 2: what just finding a place to live. I was all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, you come up here and I'm like,
Speaker 2: I'm in practice all day. I'm trying to learn this playbook.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to, you know, figure out how to be
Speaker 2: a quarterback at this level. I don't have time to
Speaker 2: figure out, you know, where am I, Where am I
Speaker 2: going to live? How do I get a bed? How
Speaker 2: do I you know, get a sofa and TV? So
Speaker 2: fortunately have my mom come up and kind of you know,
Speaker 2: handle handle that for me and listen. You know, I
Speaker 2: think you try to do so much as a young
Speaker 2: player where you can just focus on football and focus
Speaker 2: on trying to you know, you's got drafted a lot
Speaker 2: of pressure're you know, first first picking the draft, You're
Speaker 2: coming to this, you'll be the quarterback. You You've got
Speaker 2: these you know, these great athletes and and you Michael
Speaker 2: straighthand and Tiki Barber and these guys that you you
Speaker 2: don't want to disappoint them. And you've got to try
Speaker 2: to raise your level play real quickly to get where
Speaker 2: you can be successful and win games and and and
Speaker 2: you know, uh kind of please the crowd and the organization,
Speaker 2: and so you want to you know, be totally committed
Speaker 2: to that and and not have to worry about anything
Speaker 2: outside of football.
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Speaker 1: We have the great coach Tom Coughlin with us today,
Speaker 1: which is absolute honor. Tom. Thank you so much for
Speaker 1: joint You guys know each other, right, Oh yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've got some great stories for you too, Kevin
Speaker 3: fire Away, coach. I gotta tell you this because I
Speaker 3: get a video. I think Archie's son it to me,
Speaker 3: it might have been Eli's sonate to me one time.
Speaker 3: This tells you how Eli grew up. So the video goes,
Speaker 3: Archie's got the camera and you had Cooper and Peyton
Speaker 3: out by the basketball who you know, threw the throw
Speaker 3: the basketball up and horse and around with each other
Speaker 3: and they're just little guys. Out comes Olivia with Eli's
Speaker 3: just a little baby. He's a few months old. So
Speaker 3: the next thing you see, Archie's got the camera and
Speaker 3: the two brothers are even Eli back and forth.
Speaker 1: They're dropping and passing.
Speaker 3: Are you kidding me?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 3: The next day ringing up to Eli, you know, wait
Speaker 3: a few years ago or whenever this happened, and he goes, yeah,
Speaker 3: I wanted to thank my dad for how we got
Speaker 3: the out yard and he's the camera man, and these
Speaker 3: guys are even me around the parking lot.
Speaker 1: Oh god, did they put it? Did they at least
Speaker 1: put a helmet on them?
Speaker 2: Or no? No, no helmet, no helmet. H I remember
Speaker 2: telling my dad was like, hey, Dad, you did think
Speaker 2: about maybe putting the camera down for a little bit
Speaker 2: as I'm being tossed around between two people, was like, no, no,
Speaker 2: this was this could be in a documentary one day.
Speaker 2: Let me need to catch this live footage, like it's
Speaker 2: not this is great stuff.
Speaker 1: And where can we see that footage?
Speaker 2: Coach?
Speaker 1: Do you do you have that footage? Can you share
Speaker 1: it with us?
Speaker 2: Please?
Speaker 3: You have to dig that out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh that is amazing. So but that's interesting. So, uh,
Speaker 1: you were already aware of him from his infancy when
Speaker 1: when he came to the Giants?
Speaker 2: Is that correct?
Speaker 3: Well, I didn't see that picture till after.
Speaker 1: Oh it wasn't until after. Oh I thought maybe you were.
Speaker 1: You were in communication with Archie from from from the beginning.
Speaker 2: Now okay, well no, not quite.
Speaker 1: Ok Had you been tracking his career? Is his college career?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah absolutely? Uh yeah, hey his career at all?
Speaker 3: Miss but Ernie Corsi, who actually drafted Eli, Ernie, he
Speaker 3: followed him troums from day one, and I'll never forget.
Speaker 3: We went to New Orleans or his for Eli's workout, Okay,
Speaker 3: and it was at the Saints indoor facility.
Speaker 2: And this is the.
Speaker 3: Difference between Bade and Eli. Archie telling me the store
Speaker 3: so Archie says, yeah, he gets a hold of Eli. Supposedly,
Speaker 3: maybe the workouts at one o'clock and the whole NFL
Speaker 3: is that the whole place is full enough. But scouts,
Speaker 3: head coaches, general managers, everybody's there waiting to watch this
Speaker 3: guy work out. So you get, this is Archie telling
Speaker 3: me the store. He said, I give I'm looking around.
Speaker 3: I don't see Eli. So I called Eli on the
Speaker 3: phone and I said, this is Eli, this is Archie.
Speaker 3: Where are you? Where the heck are you Elio? It's
Speaker 3: twelve thirty at a one o'clock workout, he said, Dan,
Speaker 3: the workouts at one. I stopped to have something to
Speaker 3: eat before it came to don't work.
Speaker 2: They said, of Peyton.
Speaker 3: If it was Peyton, Ayton would have been there selling program.
Speaker 3: It was at ten o'clock the morning. But that's that
Speaker 3: was the difference.
Speaker 1: That was the difference.
Speaker 2: Everybody not Lad.
Speaker 3: He's he's hungry, he's starving. Yeah, I'm watching. And he
Speaker 3: gets to the place and he's got four or five
Speaker 3: guys that he was working out with as receivers, and
Speaker 3: he comes in and you know, he's a little shy,
Speaker 3: and he's kind of he throws a couple of passes
Speaker 3: on the sideline, he goes out. He puts on the
Speaker 3: best demonstration of passing that I had ever been around.
Speaker 3: Everything he can imagine, with a bunch of guys he
Speaker 3: didn't play with, but he worked out a little bit.
Speaker 3: These guys may have caught the ball for him.
Speaker 2: That's happening.
Speaker 3: That was Eli's pro debut, this pro workout.
Speaker 1: Can you tell me, Eliu, because I want to throw
Speaker 1: a ball like that? What did you have for lunch?
Speaker 1: Do you remember him?
Speaker 2: Sort of? Yeah, probably I was down in New Orleans,
Speaker 2: so probably like a big old shrimp poe boy. It's
Speaker 2: really it really sits well, you know, a bunch of
Speaker 2: private food and bread. When you're when you're twenty two
Speaker 2: years old, you don't think about you know, at that
Speaker 2: you know, twenty twenty some id years ago, you didn't
Speaker 2: think about diet or eating something you know that might
Speaker 2: affect your performance. But yeah, so things would change a
Speaker 2: little bit. But yeah, New Orleans probably, Yeah, I think
Speaker 2: a shrimp poe boy from Don Alisis is probably they
Speaker 2: go to there you go.
Speaker 1: I love hearing that, so it brings up a good
Speaker 1: question for both of you. You mentioned, you know, the
Speaker 1: first thing I thought of when you had a shrimp
Speaker 1: Poe boy, was that that would be a situation where
Speaker 1: I would certainly be nervous. I mean, it is essentially,
Speaker 1: you know, an audition, right, It is essentially a It's
Speaker 1: it's like it's like the audition for the big show
Speaker 1: or the big movie. You're meeting the big director, and
Speaker 1: I'm wondering, coach, do you, if you're looking at a player,
Speaker 1: do you look at nerves as being part of the
Speaker 1: skill set of how to handle the nerves being part
Speaker 1: of what you need to play in the NFL?
Speaker 3: Absolutely, in this situation, it's how do you handle the
Speaker 3: circumstances that you're in? Yeah, you know, you've got the
Speaker 3: whole NFL there. It's a like you say, it's a
Speaker 3: big deal now, you know. Maybe you go away saying,
Speaker 3: if you're looking at a quarterback, you know, he didn't
Speaker 3: throw the outcut very well, the comeback was a strained
Speaker 3: throw for him, or you know, he didn't seem to
Speaker 3: react well after. You know, he missed a couple of
Speaker 3: balls and so on and so forth. So you're watching,
Speaker 3: You're watching all this, you're taking it all in. You
Speaker 3: know what kind of an athlete, does he how does
Speaker 3: he work with people that he really just barely knows
Speaker 3: these guys, you know, how does he handle that? How
Speaker 3: do they react? You know, the whole deal. He gets
Speaker 3: a little time with people afterwards to talk to them,
Speaker 3: so you get a little bit more information out of them.
Speaker 3: But in general, how does he approach it? How does
Speaker 3: he handle it? And then you know, when when it's
Speaker 3: time to go, when it's time to start, what do
Speaker 3: you have to prove yourself?
Speaker 2: How do you do m right?
Speaker 1: Fascinating? I guess you just get a chance to let's
Speaker 1: kind of look at those signs and and and just
Speaker 1: try to get a read on that. I mean, I again,
Speaker 1: I keep thinking about you know, sometimes I've been on
Speaker 1: the other side of the camera and you know, looking
Speaker 1: at actors and auditions and trying to get past the
Speaker 1: fact that it is an auditioned situation and that maybe
Speaker 1: there's something that's there that I'm not seeing because they
Speaker 1: are somehow you know, uh, nervous or shooting themselves in
Speaker 1: the foot. But on the other on the other hand,
Speaker 1: this is the big moment, so they got to be
Speaker 1: able to step up. So it's a it's a it's
Speaker 1: a it's a it's a confusing kind of thing. What
Speaker 1: was how would you guys categorize your working incredibly successful
Speaker 1: working relationship during the time that you were at the
Speaker 1: Giants With the.
Speaker 3: Giants, Well, first of all, Eli was great with studying.
Speaker 3: You know, he would while other people are off on
Speaker 3: a Tuesday, he'd be in there already getting a head
Speaker 3: start on the opponent. What the opponent. And that's basically
Speaker 3: what I'm all about. The work ethic is very very
Speaker 3: important to me because I want to know. I want
Speaker 3: to know if you're willing to buy into an act
Speaker 3: as if you own or possess the franchise. This is
Speaker 3: what I want. I want you to I want you
Speaker 3: to take ownership of what you're doing. I want to see,
Speaker 3: I want to see that it's really important to you.
Speaker 3: I want to see that you make the little sacrifices
Speaker 3: in order to be the best that you can be.
Speaker 3: And that's really what you know, what what I was
Speaker 3: all about was trying to get people to be the
Speaker 3: very best thing that they could be. And you've already
Speaker 3: mentioned a couple of things. You know, teamwork, it's all
Speaker 3: about team. It's not about the individual. It's never about
Speaker 3: the individual. It's always about the team because football, with
Speaker 3: eleven people on the field, you put your trust to
Speaker 3: that guy next to you and he puts his trust
Speaker 3: in you. Are you going to let him down? Are
Speaker 3: you going to let everybody down? Because you didn't prepare properly.
Speaker 3: So that's and it's not easy. You know, try it
Speaker 3: over a seventeen eighteen week period where on Monday, you know,
Speaker 3: these guys are, they're beat up. This is this is
Speaker 3: not a game for the feint of heart. You know,
Speaker 3: you want to stand on the sidelines and listen to this.
Speaker 3: It's it's like whoa, It gets your attention. I mean,
Speaker 3: it is all about the physicality of the game, even
Speaker 3: from the quarterback position. So those are the kind of
Speaker 3: things that that people must be able to to send
Speaker 3: you those kind of vibes. Their consistency, their work ethic,
Speaker 3: you know, the study as she goes. Because as I said,
Speaker 3: it's it's not a game of you know, it's not
Speaker 3: a marathon. It's not a sprint. It's a marathon.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, it's let's go ahead, Eli.
Speaker 2: I was just gonna say, Kevin, I learned quickly, you
Speaker 2: know what what I had to do to be a
Speaker 2: quarterback under under coach Coaulfland. And there's the first first week.
Speaker 2: I was not the starter of Kurt Warners, the starter
Speaker 2: my rookie year. And he said, you know, after that
Speaker 2: first game, he says, all right, every blitz at this,
Speaker 2: you know, we played the egos, every blitz that the
Speaker 2: Eagles did versus I want you to draw up those
Speaker 2: blitzes versus our five main protections that we have in
Speaker 2: past game and how you protect them and and do it.
Speaker 2: And so they did, you know, maybe eight to ten blitzes,
Speaker 2: and I drew up first each you know, for each
Speaker 2: each protect So it's like kind of fifty drawings, and I,
Speaker 2: you know, have it, have it out there, and I
Speaker 2: handed into coach Cofflin. He graded it, and so all
Speaker 2: of a.
Speaker 1: Sudden, this was after the game.
Speaker 2: This was after the game, after the game, kind of
Speaker 2: after that next week, just so I learned about how
Speaker 2: to set protections, how to do things. So the next
Speaker 2: week we have another says I want you to do
Speaker 2: it again. And so I just did it for that
Speaker 2: second gig, you know that, or I just didn't in
Speaker 2: preparation of the team we're about to play. And no, no,
Speaker 2: you have to do both the games that they've played.
Speaker 2: So I now I had to do one hundred, you know,
Speaker 2: I did do. All of a sudden, it's like week eight,
Speaker 2: I'm handed in a four hundred you know, drawing deal
Speaker 2: to coach golf, and in a few of them, I
Speaker 2: kind of said, well, I can relax. He's like, there's
Speaker 2: no way he's reading through all these protecting He's got
Speaker 2: to worry about the starting quarterback. He's got to worry
Speaker 2: about everything else going on being the head coach. Like
Speaker 2: I'll kind of just like, you know, scribble through a
Speaker 2: few of these and not do it. All of a sudden,
Speaker 2: you know, he calls me in the office and it's like,
Speaker 2: you know, what the hell is this? Like what is that?
Speaker 2: This is not? This is yes, this is terrible, Like
Speaker 2: what are you doing? So I learned quickly that, you know,
Speaker 2: preparation was very important to him. Being five minutes early
Speaker 2: was number one. Deal had to be five minutes early,
Speaker 2: be well prepared, And you got to love what you're doing.
Speaker 2: You gotta love the game of football. You have to
Speaker 2: love you know that you know, do those things. If
Speaker 2: you do those three things, you can play for this
Speaker 2: man for a long time and you'll be on the
Speaker 2: same page. And as a as an athlete, in a
Speaker 2: professional athlete, that should be pretty easy. You think that'd
Speaker 2: be pretty easy to handle those three things. And you
Speaker 2: think if you amazin, how how you know some people
Speaker 2: have a hard time have a hard time doing that.
Speaker 1: Well, Coach Coaughlin, I can tell you that I was
Speaker 1: before you signed in. I was struck with the fact
Speaker 1: that I think, probably maybe for the first time since
Speaker 1: I've been doing this podcast, somebody actually showed up early.
Speaker 1: And Eli told us that if he wasn't there five
Speaker 1: minutes before, he was afraid you were going to find him.
Speaker 2: I'm afraid I was that I get fined.
Speaker 1: No, I mean today's no, I mean today, And I
Speaker 1: don't know what the rate would be adjusted for inflation,
Speaker 1: but I'm guessing it would probably be pretty hefty.
Speaker 2: At this point, five hunder bucks that's the fine. Okay,
Speaker 2: that's yeah, one minute later if I'm not five minutes early.
Speaker 1: So, speaking of charity, Coach tell us about the J
Speaker 1: fun Foundation and about how the story behind it.
Speaker 3: Jay Fund was founded in nineteen ninety six in the
Speaker 3: spirit and the name of j McGillis. J McGillis was
Speaker 3: a strong safety for me. When I was the head
Speaker 3: coach of Boston College, Jay unfortunately came down with leukemia
Speaker 3: and we played, actually played in Syracuse. Came home after
Speaker 3: the game, Fraighter came to me and said, I don't
Speaker 3: think Jay can play this week, and I said why not?
Speaker 3: He said, well, he's you know, his throw a swollen
Speaker 3: and he so on. I said, well, let's let's get
Speaker 3: the doctor in here, less, get him, get him. Well,
Speaker 3: it wasn't a sore throat, it wasn't some form of virus.
Speaker 3: It was leukemia, and it was a ravaging form of leukemia.
Speaker 3: By watching what Jay went through and what is family
Speaker 3: went through, and going through that whole process, my wife,
Speaker 3: Judy and I looked at each other and said, if
Speaker 3: we ever get a chance to give back, it's going
Speaker 3: to be in the name and the spirit of j McGillis.
Speaker 3: And the way it came about is in the spring
Speaker 3: of that year before Jay passed, one of my linebackers
Speaker 3: came to me and said, Coach, we've got to do
Speaker 3: something to help the McGillis family. And I said, well,
Speaker 3: sit down, Mike. It was Mike Panels. Sit down, Mike,
Speaker 3: let's talk about it, and Mike was very close to
Speaker 3: the family. What happens when you're given those words, those
Speaker 3: terrible words, Your child has cancered. The family no longer
Speaker 3: is able to function as they would want. If there
Speaker 3: are two income family, one one parent has to withdraw
Speaker 3: off from the job so that they can be the caretaker.
Speaker 3: But in watching this, both parents were not working, bills
Speaker 3: were being paid, you know, expenses were mounting, and the
Speaker 3: McGillis family was going to be in trouble. So Mike
Speaker 3: and I talked it through. We decided we would have
Speaker 3: what we called a liftathon. The players went out into
Speaker 3: the community, they got pledges or in those days we
Speaker 3: max lift at the end of spring practice. So we
Speaker 3: had power clean, we had bench, we had squat and
Speaker 3: they all went out and got pledges. And when they
Speaker 3: came back and went through their lifts to conclude the
Speaker 3: spring season, they had raised fifty thousand dollars and at
Speaker 3: the spring game we presented the McGillis family with a
Speaker 3: check for fifty thousand dollars. Now that started the wheels
Speaker 3: in motion for me that if I could find a family,
Speaker 3: if a family was in trouble, that I could help
Speaker 3: a family who had a child with cancer that I
Speaker 3: could help. We were going to do it, and I
Speaker 3: was going to do it in in a practical way.
Speaker 3: We're all about. The Jfund is about a roof over
Speaker 3: their heads, food on their table, ass in their tank,
Speaker 3: taking care of all the things that a family function
Speaker 3: breaks down on when you have to be there for
Speaker 3: the child. And I know this for a fact. The child,
Speaker 3: no matter how old he or she is, knows when
Speaker 3: a parents and a family is stressed, and when they're stressed,
Speaker 3: they cannot give the attention that's needed to the child
Speaker 3: so that the child heals. So that's what we have done.
Speaker 3: Since nineteen ninety six, we have directly impacted over five thousand,
Speaker 3: seven hundred families at twenty four million dollars of payments
Speaker 3: to them just so that they can take care of
Speaker 3: the necessities of life the other siblings. Who means so
Speaker 3: many of these kids have two and three brothers and
Speaker 3: sisters that quite frankly get a little bit ignored because
Speaker 3: the whole attention has to go to the sick child. Well,
Speaker 3: this is where we come in too. We have sibling
Speaker 3: programs and caregiver programs, all kinds of things that we
Speaker 3: do throughout the course of the year to help the
Speaker 3: entire family fight this tragic disease and get the child
Speaker 3: to a point where the disease is cured. We know
Speaker 3: it's not that way for life. You're always impeded in
Speaker 3: some way because of the treatments. But you you get
Speaker 3: past the actual cancer.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. That's amazing, that's great. That that that that
Speaker 1: you took that moment and turned it into that. I
Speaker 1: want to ask both of you, that's the that's the
Speaker 1: super specific story. Is there anything Let me put it
Speaker 1: this way. You could have had that experience and then gone, wow,
Speaker 1: that's so sad, Okay, what's next, and not taken this
Speaker 1: moment and created this foundation. You know, Eli, You've done
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of different levels of giving back in
Speaker 1: the course of your life and during your career in
Speaker 1: the NFL. I know, I've often said for myself that
Speaker 1: when I started out, the last thing I wanted to
Speaker 1: think about was anything other than KB. I was so
Speaker 1: just completely self focused on my career, on getting ahead
Speaker 1: on all these kinds of things. And then there's kind
Speaker 1: of becomes whether it's a single moment or or something
Speaker 1: that's the groundwork is laid in your childhood, or you
Speaker 1: have an event or something, sometimes people start moving in
Speaker 1: another direction in terms of some of their time and
Speaker 1: their resources and their fame and their power and all
Speaker 1: the kind of thing. And that's really what this this
Speaker 1: podcast has focused on. So, but I'm wondering from both
Speaker 1: of you, starting with you, Eli, was there something early
Speaker 1: on that laid the groundwork for you now having this
Speaker 1: desire to do something positive in the world.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it was. It was when I was
Speaker 2: in college. I was that old miss and we actually
Speaker 2: had a you know, a team function where he said, Hey,
Speaker 2: we're you know, ahole teams that go visit a children's
Speaker 2: hospital or the hospital there and be kids there. And
Speaker 2: I remember, you know, going in and it was just
Speaker 2: me as like an eight year old kid. And I
Speaker 2: go in there and I see him and he's, you know,
Speaker 2: not feeling well. He's going through chemo therapy and has
Speaker 2: cancer and the kid was just real quiet, and I
Speaker 2: was in there. I didn't quite know what to say.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to, you know, ask him what he likes,
Speaker 2: if he plays any sports, with his favorite TV shows.
Speaker 2: I'm not I'm just not getting much. I'm getting these
Speaker 2: little word work answers. And I remember kind of leaving
Speaker 2: and going that didn't that didn't help. Like I think
Speaker 2: the kid feels worse that I was in there, like
Speaker 2: you know he did I signed an autograph for me,
Speaker 2: you know, did it? You didn't seem really excited for
Speaker 2: And I remember it was like a week later and
Speaker 2: I saw one of the nurses that I didn't remember
Speaker 2: seeing her, but she came up to me just so
Speaker 2: as I was around campus or in downtown and oftor Misissippi,
Speaker 2: and she says, you know that little boy that you visit,
Speaker 2: he's been talking about what a great visit that was.
Speaker 2: Every doctor that's come into his room. He's got a
Speaker 2: big smile to him about Eli Mannings, you know, signed
Speaker 2: this autograph for me, showed me this picture. We talked
Speaker 2: about sports and you know, my sisters and my brother
Speaker 2: and our family, and he just she said, his spirit
Speaker 2: and his attitude was completely different that next week. And
Speaker 2: so right then it just hit me that you can
Speaker 2: make a difference and and and not just on that,
Speaker 2: but just some how you treat people and shaking a hand,
Speaker 2: having a conversation with a child, but a sick child,
Speaker 2: just you know, showing that you want to be there
Speaker 2: with them, that you're you know, there's people out there
Speaker 2: that care about them, that are thinking about them, that
Speaker 2: are praying for can have a huge impact just their
Speaker 2: out look and and their their mindset. And so that
Speaker 2: was kind of the start of what, I need to
Speaker 2: do this more and I need to go see, you know,
Speaker 2: help out more. When I got up here to the
Speaker 2: Giants and and I said, I need to make an
Speaker 2: impact in this community and want to help out kids
Speaker 2: that are dealing with cancer and just help lift their spirits.
Speaker 2: And that was kind of the beginning of it. And
Speaker 2: then it says, well, now I want to I want
Speaker 2: to raise money for it. I want to try to
Speaker 2: find you know, make sure we're finding curious to heal
Speaker 2: these kids, to make sure if they get cancer, they're
Speaker 2: getting back home to their families, they're getting back to
Speaker 2: their friend back to school, that they're gonna be kids again.
Speaker 2: And that was kind of the start of of tackling
Speaker 2: Kids cancer and getting that going, and that initiative is
Speaker 2: just really raising money for for pediatric cancer research, UH
Speaker 2: to get these kids back healthy.
Speaker 3: And coach, I'll tell you all the impact, how how
Speaker 3: the people like Eli impact and I have I have,
Speaker 3: I have a story. So when I was with the Giants,
Speaker 3: even here, when I was with the Jaguars, in the spring,
Speaker 3: we would have we call Sunday Blitz, and it would
Speaker 3: mean that we would bring the cancer kids over through
Speaker 3: the facility and their parents and their siblings come to
Speaker 3: the facility and spend what a mouse to an afternoon
Speaker 3: with us, and we would have them in the training
Speaker 3: room and the trainers would tape the kids up, you know,
Speaker 3: and we would take them the weight room. We'd have
Speaker 3: some rookies performed for them in weight programs, and we
Speaker 3: would take them in the in the facility and if
Speaker 3: we if they could go through some obstacle courses and
Speaker 3: do some things, we would do that, and then we
Speaker 3: would take them down to the cafeteria. We'd have ice
Speaker 3: cream Sundays and hamburgers and hot dogs and whatever. So
Speaker 3: this one particular year, I was aware of the fact
Speaker 3: that there was a young boy who you know, was
Speaker 3: very very sick, he was close to dying, and he
Speaker 3: had one desire in life, and that was to be
Speaker 3: with Eli Manning. So the day of the Sunday Blitz,
Speaker 3: the young man and his dad he was sick and
Speaker 3: he was in the hospital, and we didn't think he
Speaker 3: was going to get out of the hospital to be
Speaker 3: at the Sunday Blitz. So the afternoon went by and
Speaker 3: Eli was helping, you know, as we had players help
Speaker 3: with all this. Eli was helping. But it came the
Speaker 3: end of the day was five in the afternoon. Eli
Speaker 3: went home. So I'm walking from the indoor facility over
Speaker 3: to the main office facility and up comes the dad
Speaker 3: with his son, and he's carrying his son. They were
Speaker 3: in the hospital. He gets his son out of the hospital.
Speaker 3: He brings the little guy to the offices. But really
Speaker 3: the afternoon is over. I pick up the phone. I
Speaker 3: call Eli. He had gone home. So Eli gets in
Speaker 3: his car, he drives back. He spends about a half
Speaker 3: an hour with this little boy and his dad, and
Speaker 3: about a week later, the little boy passes away. I
Speaker 3: get a letter from his dad telling me the greatest
Speaker 3: thing that ever happened to this little guy in his
Speaker 3: life was spending half an hour with Eli Manning. And
Speaker 3: that's what it means to these kids.
Speaker 1: When I tell them they're special.
Speaker 3: They are special because if the average kid can't have
Speaker 3: what what we're gonna do for you. We're gonna we're
Speaker 3: gonna expose you to a lot of things the average
Speaker 3: kid can't. But the idea of spending time that Eli
Speaker 3: Manning and a lot of our guys would spend time
Speaker 3: with these kids makes a huge impact on them.
Speaker 1: That is a beautiful, beautiful story. I would love to
Speaker 1: at this point hear the call to action? How can people.
Speaker 2: Help out?
Speaker 1: How can where do people go? Any uh any plugs
Speaker 1: that anybody wants to make for any thing at this moment,
Speaker 1: I'm Mike, is yours?
Speaker 3: Well, we talk about this, show us your team, Tackle
Speaker 3: Kids Cancer, the TCJ Fund. We're in this together. We
Speaker 3: complement each other very well. Eli and his foundation, as
Speaker 3: he said, we're they're trying to put an end to cancer,
Speaker 3: which we all want. Okay, the J Fund is of
Speaker 3: practical nature, and we work together and complement each other
Speaker 3: very well. But in so doing and talking about this,
Speaker 3: there's no doubt it's the t at TCJ Fund at
Speaker 3: Tackle Kids Cancer. And you know, contributions are what this
Speaker 3: is all about. It's about being able to be in
Speaker 3: a position to help. And so I would leave you
Speaker 3: with that thought.
Speaker 1: Well, I hope that people listening to this will certainly
Speaker 1: be moved by the work that both you were doing.
Speaker 1: You know, children are everything, Uh, you know, and and
Speaker 1: you know, help out, donate, check out the check out
Speaker 1: the work, give what you can and uh and I
Speaker 1: want to thank you guys so much for being here today.
Speaker 1: It's been fascinating conversation. It's not that often that we have, uh,
Speaker 1: two celebrities. Generally we have one celebrity and then the
Speaker 1: on the unsung hero who is running the foundation. But
Speaker 1: to have two major New York heroes is a very
Speaker 1: very is really an honor. And I'll just ask you this.
Speaker 1: We could cut this out. Was there ever a moment
Speaker 1: during those years where uh, you you just we're afraid
Speaker 1: to go to Boston.
Speaker 2: I don't get up there much even now, even now,
Speaker 2: I have a feeling I'm not going to get a
Speaker 2: warm welcome if I go up there. Coach, how about you?
Speaker 3: You know I was I was an assistant at Boston
Speaker 3: College for three years and the head coach for three years.
Speaker 1: Oh that's right, of course, that's of course.
Speaker 3: I had a chance to be around Boston a little bit,
Speaker 3: but and still have many many friends of many connections
Speaker 3: and and my son in law played at Boston College.
Speaker 3: My daughter Kate went to Boston College, so no, I have.
Speaker 1: Even worse, even worse. Do you ever pick up the
Speaker 1: phone coach and try to book a room there and
Speaker 1: for some reason there's no there's no rooms in the
Speaker 1: available in the entire Boston area. Thank you guys so much.
Speaker 2: For being here.
Speaker 1: I've had a blast, and everybody help help out if
Speaker 1: you can't.
Speaker 2: Thanks Devin.
Speaker 1: Hey, guys, thanks for listening to another episode of Six
Speaker 1: Degrees with Kevin Bacon. I enjoyed that. I hope you
Speaker 1: did too. If you want to learn more about the
Speaker 1: Tom Coughlin Jfund and all the work that they are
Speaker 1: up to, head to their website tcjfund dot org. That's
Speaker 1: tcjfund dot org. You can find all the links in
Speaker 1: our show notes, and if you want to hear more,
Speaker 1: make sure you subscribe to the show and tune into
Speaker 1: the rest of the episodes. You can find Six Degrees
Speaker 1: with Kevin Bacon on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts support wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts. See you next time.