0:00

Okay, so full disclosure. When I was

0:02

a kid boy, I really didn't

0:05

follow sports at all. I followed

0:07

rock and roll, and for some reason,

0:10

those two things were not going

0:13

hand in hand for me. But as

0:16

I've grown older, I've become more

0:19

and more of a sports fan. It

0:21

was kind of moving to New York and

0:24

I think falling in love with the New York Knicks,

0:26

and I now really

0:29

do both enjoy

0:31

it and admire the people

0:33

that do it incredibly well.

0:36

A lot of it is because I just look at it and go,

0:38

man, that's something I just can't

0:40

do and never will be able

0:43

to. So it's very exciting to

0:45

me today to get a

0:47

chance to speak to our next

0:50

guest, the great two time Super

0:52

Bowl champion quarterback of

0:54

the New York Giants, Eli Manning. I

0:56

think you're going to enjoy our conversation,

0:59

and I think I think you'll be surprised at

1:01

his guest.

1:02

So lean in.

1:03

I'm glad you're here.

1:13

Well, thank you the

1:15

great Eli Manning for

1:18

being here with me today. You

1:21

are our first

1:24

celebrity from the world of sport

1:26

as they say in the UK, or

1:29

sports as you would know it in this country. You

1:33

know it's there's so much

1:35

There's so many things that are so fun about this conversation

1:38

to me, one of which is that you're

1:41

doing one of those jobs that

1:44

like I look at that and I go, there

1:47

is no chance I would make

1:49

it through five minutes of

1:51

that job. The amount

1:54

of training, the amount of

1:56

concentration, the way

1:59

that you you know, put your body

2:02

on the line all the time. I mean,

2:04

you know the funny thing about being an actor

2:06

is that you know, for inside, just give you an example,

2:09

like I've played I think four Marines,

2:11

okay, And so sometimes

2:14

people will come up to me and say, boy,

2:17

you really seem like a marine. And I'll say,

2:19

let me tell you something that I

2:21

could never be a marine. I've

2:24

met marines and I've seen what they do,

2:27

and and I am. I am actor

2:29

boy. So what does that feel like to,

2:32

uh, you know, make those kind of sacrifices

2:35

with your body.

2:36

Day in and day out. I think

2:38

I think you just get used to it. You start

2:41

doing it at such a young age I was. I mean, I

2:43

played flag football growing up. I really didn't start tackled

2:46

till eighth grade, and you just get used

2:48

to hitting as the quarterback. I

2:50

think a lot of your hits are after a throw.

2:52

That's kind of when you're your most vulnerable.

2:55

You're kind of throwing your in a

2:57

bad position. Someone comes hits you, but

3:00

at that moment, you're so focused on wondering

3:02

what happened after the throw. You're trying

3:04

to look in between cracks of linemen

3:06

and people. Sometimes you're just listening

3:08

to the crowd. You know, if

3:11

you're at home and you hear tears, you know, all

3:13

right, that was completed. If you hear kind

3:15

of nothing, or who's maybe

3:17

you know, incomplete, if you hear you

3:19

know, booze or you know, real

3:21

silence, you know, maybe interceptions. So I

3:23

think you're so you're so focused and on

3:26

those things that you don't have time to think

3:28

about the pain. It's really the next the next

3:30

morning after the game is where you

3:32

you know, you know you're gonna have some bumps and bruises.

3:34

But as I've as I've retired

3:36

from football, watching it and having

3:39

been gone, you know, been out of it for three years,

3:41

I like see the hits and I think the same thing. I'm

3:43

like, oh my god, there's no way this guy's getting up after

3:46

that hit. And they you know, most of the times get up

3:48

and they're on to the next place. So having

3:50

been away for for a little bit, it looks

3:52

a lot worse, uh now

3:54

than then I remember it. When I was playing, I think

3:56

you just got to put it. You just don't even

3:58

think about It's like, oh, that's just part of the game,

4:01

and and you don't worry about the big hits.

4:03

But uh, they look they look

4:05

more painful now that I remember.

4:07

Well, you know, it's funny because you led me right

4:09

into two things. One was one was

4:12

you know, talking about the next day, and I'll never forget.

4:14

I think the.

4:14

Movie was North Dallas forty

4:17

and Nick Nolty climbs into the ice

4:19

bath after the game, and

4:21

I remember looking at that and going, oh,

4:24

I don't care how hurt I

4:26

was. I'm not climbing into a bath,

4:29

a bath full of ice cubes and unless

4:31

there's you know, it's filled with vodka and all

4:33

of But you know, I

4:35

just I just found that. I just found that

4:37

so powerful, that that image

4:40

from that movie. And I didn't grow up as

4:42

an athlete. I'm terrible with ball

4:45

sports. We played on

4:47

the street, We played Grumphilly and we played

4:49

on the street and played you know, stickball,

4:52

and and uh, you know, football

4:54

in the street, you know, tag whatever, But

4:57

but I definitely didn't have like the high school,

5:00

you know, and to this day, I'm

5:02

an awful, awful athlete. But

5:06

the other thing that you I was I

5:08

wanted to ask you about this and you mentioned, you

5:12

know, you're in the middle of taking

5:14

a hit and you've thrown the ball and

5:16

you don't know what happens to it. And so

5:19

for those of you that haven't seen the

5:22

helmet catch, uh to

5:25

David Tyree, you have to

5:27

watch this, uh this replay

5:30

on YouTube because it's just amazing

5:32

of one of them, I'd say it's

5:35

certainly one of the most famous plays in Giant's

5:37

history, I would think, and probably

5:40

one of the most famous you know throws

5:42

and catches. And Eli is

5:45

completely surrounded and

5:47

miraculously about to be

5:49

thrown to the ground and he lets the ball go and then

5:51

the camera goes off of him. And

5:53

what I thought to myself was he didn't

5:55

even get to watch see this catch, like,

5:58

like what you must have been on the ground

6:00

already, right, I mean, you did you even? I mean,

6:03

was it that thing that you mentioned just before where

6:05

you're like I hear whether or not people

6:07

are booing me or cheering.

6:09

Yeah, exactly, and and I, uh,

6:11

I kind of got hit. I didn't get all the way knocked down

6:13

to the ground, and that went so but it was still

6:15

crowded, and David was kind of

6:18

Rodney Harrisimmons, the defender. He's hanging

6:20

all over him, and I see him go to the

6:23

ground and they, you know, they call for the

6:25

catch, but at that

6:27

moment, you know, you never know, like you're

6:29

trying to maybe run up there and spike

6:32

it real quick so they can't

6:34

review it. But we had to call a time out under

6:36

that situation. So and they're

6:39

they're they're gonna review it. And I remember going up to

6:41

David. I'm like, hey, did you did

6:43

you catch it? And He's like, yeah, I caught it. And

6:45

I've been lied to by receivers. These

6:47

receivers that they may tell you, they

6:49

tell you they're open, and then you watch the film they

6:51

were the double teemed and on the ground they tell

6:54

you they caught it. I'm rather through one to Plexico

6:56

Burus and you know it's like a third and

6:58

it was a second and ten, so and you

7:00

call it the first down, and you know, you're kind

7:02

of hey, did you catch it so we can start thinking

7:04

about when we will run on third down or what our

7:06

first down? Please? Yeah, I caught it. And you see the replay in the

7:08

bounced like three times before it got there. I'm

7:10

like, why are you lying to me. It's not going to make

7:13

the call any different.

7:15

Videotape.

7:16

Yeah, there's video. There's a video. They're

7:18

going to analyze it. They're going to get the right call. So

7:20

David, you know, it's like, no, don't lie to me.

7:22

Did you really catch it? And said, I promise you the ball never

7:25

touched the ground. I had it on my helmet, and that

7:27

was kind of the first time I was like, really,

7:29

you caught it off your helmet.

7:30

And uh, you

7:33

did not see the catch live?

7:35

You had you had to go to the video.

7:38

I had to go to video, and I kind of watched

7:40

it. Watch it up there and

7:42

you see it, you know, real quickly, and

7:45

you know and touching the ground.

7:46

Never touches the ground. But we

7:49

really didn't have time to analyze like what a great

7:51

catch it was at that moment, just because hey,

7:54

we we still had to go score a touchdown and try to win

7:56

the Super Bowl. Great catch, but it

7:58

almost if we don't win the game,

8:01

then that great play probably is not talked

8:03

about as much, or is it, you know, become

8:06

the great play because it has to lead

8:08

to the win of winning a Super Bowl, which

8:11

makes it special. And sure I

8:13

remember after the game, maybe it

8:15

was like after the game, you know, you have an after

8:17

party. Obviously you're celebrating your friends

8:19

and family. I get back to the hotel with

8:21

my wife at you know, three in the morning, and

8:24

we had an early press conference next morning,

8:26

so I at like a six o'clock wake up, Paul, and I'm gone,

8:29

well, I haven't seen like the replay yet. I want

8:31

to see the highlights. I got to go watch ESPN,

8:33

and I want to see like the the David

8:36

Tyree catch again and see see

8:38

how good it was.

8:39

Yeah, that's amazing to me. And

8:41

you know, speaking of which, as as as

8:44

you know, as we know, you

8:47

did go on to win that Super Bowl,

8:49

and that was the first one, right,

8:51

that was the yeah, two thousand

8:53

and eight, and and you

8:56

know, it was quite as a spectacular

9:00

moment. And actually the scoring

9:03

touchdown was sort of like the polar

9:05

opposite catch, right, because it

9:07

was just like a just a nice

9:09

little toss and you just kind of went up, I got the

9:11

ball and we just wanted to right.

9:13

It was wide open, Yeah, it

9:15

was.

9:15

It was with

9:19

drama. There was there was no drama in that

9:21

catch at all. So it was a great contrast.

9:30

When you become an actor, you

9:32

know, you you go out there and you go,

9:35

well, I'm gonna make this movie. Uh,

9:39

you know, and I'm not even

9:41

going to entertain this thought, but

9:43

way sometimes in the back of your mind

9:46

you're thinking, this is going

9:48

to be a breakout hit, or

9:50

this is going to be an Oscar winner, or

9:53

this is going to take me to the next level

9:55

or whatever it happens to be. You know, you sometimes

9:58

have these like kind of overreaching fantasies,

10:00

delusions of grandeur. But

10:04

it takes a long time to

10:08

find out what the upshot is of the

10:10

of the project that you've done. And and you

10:12

know, sometimes a year or so after

10:14

after you've made it, the film comes out when you're the middle of a football

10:17

season. Uh, you're

10:19

constantly in the in

10:22

the moment. My question is when

10:25

you start out,

10:28

do you uh,

10:31

do you keep in the back of your mind the idea

10:33

that you could win

10:35

a Super Bowl and that stranger things have happened,

10:38

or do you have to just kind of go game

10:41

the game, the game, the game and put that out of your head.

10:43

Yeah, I think you really, you really got to go game the game,

10:46

the game. And I think once you even you

10:48

know, you go through stretches where you're playing great football.

10:50

We went through stretches where we you know, we won six

10:53

games in a row, and you feel

10:55

like, oh, we can't you know, we can't lose,

10:57

like we're playing great And once you start

10:59

thinking that, usually you get humbled real

11:01

quickly and you just got to have one of those games where

11:04

nothing goes right and you and you get beat

11:06

quickly and badly, and it kind

11:08

of gets you. All right, let's get back to the basics.

11:11

Let's get back to focusing on doing you

11:13

know, what we need to do. Make sure we're preparing

11:16

correctly all week and and because

11:18

if you don't, if you don't go out there and

11:20

and and like do the little things really well

11:23

and pay attention to the details and have great

11:25

you know, everybody you know has to have great

11:27

weeks of preparation and work, then

11:30

then you get embarrassed. And so it's

11:32

not just one person, it's I mean, it's all twenty

11:34

two guys, eleven guys on offense, eleven guys on

11:36

defense that you know, they all have to do

11:39

their job. If one person, you

11:41

know it has an off week where they don't

11:43

prepare well, they don't know the assignments,

11:45

it's a it's on a script. You know, the each

11:47

play does not have a chance if even

11:50

one person is doing something wrong

11:52

or or just not doing it at a high level.

11:55

And so it's you got to everybody

11:57

has to buy in, uh to the idea.

12:00

It's just one week at a time. It's about this week,

12:02

how we perform, how are we gonna go out

12:04

there and prepare and let's go play hard and

12:06

worry about this one and just getting

12:08

into the playoffs. It's about it's about finding

12:11

a way to get to the playoffs. And then there that's

12:13

when really anything can happen, and you can get

12:15

hot at the right time and

12:17

and you know, play a team that might be better than

12:19

you and they might beat you ninety nine at

12:21

one hundred times, but that one day you might

12:23

catch the breaks. You might you know, just

12:26

you know, find a guy who's struggled, or you

12:28

know, ball bounce in certain ways where you can win

12:30

that certain day and that's what you're playing for.

12:33

M Now, going

12:35

back, your

12:38

dad, Archie Manning, was a

12:40

great player in his own right and

12:44

you know, had a you know, fantastic

12:46

career.

12:47

You and.

12:49

Your brother Peyton, but also your other

12:51

brother. We're all of

12:54

players, all football players. Was

12:57

there any a moment, ever, a moment where one of

12:59

you was thinking, I don't know, maybe dental school

13:02

or or I don't interior

13:04

design anything that. Were there ever

13:07

any other options there? Or was it all it? Did

13:09

it have to be football?

13:10

It didn't have to be football? But we

13:13

we definitely were into sports.

13:15

And I mean I played basketball pla

13:17

basketball, Yeah, through high school, all

13:19

through through high school. So what I

13:21

think a lot of people maybe assume my dad

13:24

had this master plan of creating

13:26

NFL quarterbacks as he was an NFL quarterback,

13:29

And nothing could really be further from the

13:31

truth. Uh, you know, we had we did

13:33

well in school, but we played, We played a lot

13:35

of sports. He just thought, you know, sports

13:37

were great, Uh, you know,

13:40

great way to learn life lessons and dedication

13:43

and hard work and commitment. Uh,

13:45

dealing with losses, dealing

13:47

with success, in handling all those

13:49

things. Uh, you know, just the team work

13:51

that goes into it, and so, uh

13:54

he wanted us to play sports, but he

13:56

never got too involved in our sports. Uh

13:58

he He kind of always said, hey, I live

14:01

my sports dream. You know, if you want to

14:03

get into it, I'm here to support you. But I'm

14:05

never going to be the guy saying, hey, you got to go

14:08

out and work out, or you know, I'm going to put

14:10

you in this drill. You know, he just

14:12

wanted us to make our own decisions, for us to

14:14

find our own path, and it just so happened

14:17

just from an early age. I don't know

14:19

why. We could just throw the football pretty

14:21

well. So I mean even like in fifth

14:23

grade at recess at school,

14:26

you know, I mean you've quickly learned if

14:28

whatever team we were all on and playing

14:31

quarterback, we usually won

14:33

that game. And so eventually I

14:35

just became the permanent quarterback on both

14:37

sides. To make it fair, I mean.

14:40

Steady steady we call it. We

14:42

would play with a steady.

14:43

Yeah, steady. So I remember after a while, I was like,

14:45

hey, I want to try something else. I want to play receiver.

14:48

I want to catch it touched down, And I quickly

14:50

learned that I'm not very fast. I

14:52

don't catch the ball very well, and

14:54

so I wasn't getting fall that often, and

14:56

I was like, this is this is worse. I'll

14:59

go back to play steady and being able

15:01

to permanent QB.

15:02

All right, Oh wow, that's that's fascinating.

15:05

And what about your mom? I mean, did she did

15:07

she have moments of like, I'm I'm

15:10

sending my little boys out here, you

15:12

know, to get sacked.

15:14

Yeah, I think that was that was hard. I

15:16

feel I feel for my mom. She she has

15:19

had to watch way too many football

15:21

games where you have I think with the

15:23

with my dad, it wasn't too hard if he got hit,

15:25

but with their with their little boys and her kids,

15:28

you know, just getting getting hit, getting

15:31

sacked a bunch you know, losses. So

15:33

all she cared was us coming

15:35

out of the game healthy and she was always there

15:37

for a big hug afterwards, win or lose, and

15:40

just wanted us to be you know, be safe, be healthy.

15:42

And but she's watched, she's watched a lot

15:45

of football games. She's had to deal with a lot of losses.

15:47

But uh, you know, we got a couple of

15:49

championships to to be happy about as well.

15:52

I love what what what your dad

15:54

was pointing out about, uh

15:56

learning to deal with successes and failures,

15:59

because I really feel like that

16:02

is you know, I have two kids that they're

16:04

not athletes, but they are in in uh

16:07

my son's a musician and my daughter's an actor. And and

16:11

you know, you are thrown

16:13

into this world where you

16:15

don't have a steady

16:17

gig. The the success

16:20

or failure of your of

16:23

your career trajectory is all

16:25

on on wins and losses,

16:27

and like that's a real kind of

16:29

seesaw sort of life

16:32

to have to live and uh

16:35

and the idea that in

16:38

order to uh accomplish

16:41

those successes you have to be

16:43

part of a team are really really good

16:46

messages I think for for

16:48

young people. And and you know, we

16:51

but like I said, they don't they were

16:53

not playing sports. But I think that

16:56

we've tried to kind of you know, pound

16:58

that into them. Uh that both

17:01

but both of those concepts teamwork

17:03

and also you

17:06

know, don't don't get too

17:08

happy, don't get too full of yourself

17:10

when it when you when you have a win, because

17:12

you know, you know things are

17:14

going to change down the road and

17:17

and you know when you have a when when

17:19

things don't work out, you know, are

17:21

you in it for the long haul? Are you going to let this this

17:23

one, you know, knock you knock you

17:26

down forever? So so those are

17:28

those are great messages I've had to

17:31

I've not had to.

17:32

I have.

17:34

I luckily have a band with my brother that

17:36

we've had since nineteen ninety

17:38

five. And there's two things about

17:40

you know, I'm constantly trying to find

17:43

things that, as I said at the beginning

17:45

of the podcast, it's very hard for me to relate

17:47

to this, to you and the life that you've had and the

17:49

and the gig that you do. But so

17:52

I'm trying to find these kind of you know, connections,

17:54

which is about this what this podcast is about.

17:57

You know, I get this question

17:59

all the time, and I find it ultimately,

18:02

I find it sort of irritating.

18:04

But you work with your

18:06

brother in

18:09

you know, multiple capacities,

18:12

whether it's commercials or your

18:14

or your broadcast together, and

18:19

how how is that working relationship?

18:22

You know?

18:22

Basically there's a lot of rock bands

18:25

that have ended up literally taking a

18:27

swing at each other on stage. Who

18:29

are brothers?

18:30

You know?

18:30

I mean there's like that's a face like the Everly's

18:32

hate each other. You know, the Kinks,

18:34

the Oasis. It's like the list

18:37

just goes on and on and on. So everybody always says to

18:39

me and Michael, you guys, how

18:41

can you play together? You must hate each other. Uh

18:44

So I'm curious about about I'm

18:47

sending this dumb question back your way.

18:50

Yeah. No, I think I think Peyton

18:52

and I are fortunate that for our broadcast,

18:55

I'm in New Jersey doing it and he's in Denver,

18:57

so we're not even in the same room. So okay,

19:00

no punches can be thrown, and

19:03

we definitely take shots at each other, and that's

19:06

we're both uh uh.

19:08

You know, I think it's a football player

19:10

just deal with the media, deal with the locker room.

19:12

Like our number one rule is you can't be sensitive.

19:15

There's no sensitivity in here because if you

19:18

if people find that out, then they'll they

19:20

just come at you even more. And so

19:24

we just you know, we're we kind of go. You

19:26

know, we're gonna take you know, if you mess up,

19:28

it actually works out better I think and broadcasting.

19:31

If you mess up, if I say something

19:33

wrong, I you know, pronounce a name incorrectly

19:36

or make a wrong call, Peyton's

19:38

gonna call me out before the media

19:40

has the opportunity to call me out because he's gonna be a media

19:43

and if I'm gonna get called out by somebody, rather really

19:45

be for my brother. But we definitely take shots at each

19:47

other. And I think it's also good that we

19:49

don't do every game. We kind of we'll

19:51

do maybe two or three in a row, and then

19:53

we need a break, and usually during that break for a

19:56

week or two, like we don't even talk to each other.

19:58

It's like, all right, I need I need a full time from

20:00

you. I don't want to talk to you. I don't

20:02

have to see that often. But we

20:05

we have a good relationship, and I think it's

20:07

I think it's because, uh,

20:10

he's five years older than me, so growing up, we

20:12

never really competed against each other. It's

20:14

always been a support deal.

20:17

It's always been, you know, him kind

20:19

of helping me through high school or helping me through

20:21

college. And then we got to the NFL.

20:23

We competed against each other three times,

20:25

and then it didn't work that well for me at

20:27

three against some so I didn't I didn't have much

20:30

to fight about or to argue.

20:32

Did your mom take him aside and say, can you

20:34

just let Eli win one come

20:37

on.

20:37

This one time. There's one time. Yeah,

20:41

because I am the baby, I am I am mom's

20:43

favorite, of course, of course, and

20:45

so I think she probably did try to try

20:47

to do that. But we've always just tried to help

20:49

each other out and really support each other. So

20:52

I think that's kept us kept us

20:54

close. And and again we don't have to

20:56

be around each other too much, and that

20:58

keeps us. I think that keeps us close.

21:00

Also, Yeah, you know, it's so funny. That's

21:02

that it's a pretty much word for word

21:05

at what our answer is, and that is

21:07

that we don't live together. You know, we

21:09

don't even really talk necessarily

21:12

that much, but then we come together to play the

21:14

show, you know, and we do

21:16

the show and then the show is great. But

21:19

but we don't but it's not it's

21:22

not like we're you know, checking

21:24

in. And the other thing is that I you know, I

21:26

don't know what it is, but if you get

21:28

a little bit for us it's nine years,

21:30

if you get some some space in

21:33

between the two ages,

21:35

it definitely helps. And I'm the youngest of six,

21:38

so it's a it's a you know, it's a you know,

21:40

kind of a similar situation.

21:45

You know, there there was a funny

21:49

connection that I that I thought of, you

21:51

know, because of the whole goofy you

21:53

know, six degrees thing. But uh,

21:56

you know, you had a show. I don't think it's

21:58

on any more. College Both Is that still long? The

22:01

College Bowl reboot Bowl?

22:03

Yeah? Yeah, papers got hosted. I

22:05

was just like an executive producer whatever

22:08

that means on the show. But yeah, College Ball it's

22:11

I don't know if they're doing another season. They've had two seasons

22:13

of it so far. Two seasons, right.

22:16

I did a movie called

22:18

Diner many many years ago,

22:21

and in that movie, it took place

22:23

in the I think nineteen sixty

22:26

one. I am

22:29

sitting there all alone in my apartment. There's a scene

22:31

where I'm sitting there all alone in my apartment and I'm

22:33

watching College Bowl. And

22:36

that just shows you how long that show has

22:38

been on the air. The movie,

22:41

it was a period piece and I'm

22:43

yelling at the

22:45

television and saying, you get the

22:47

wrong answer. I like, this character gets

22:49

the answer before everybody else. And

22:52

it was just this weird thing where, you know, I

22:56

never really understood the scene. I

22:59

didn't understand and like why

23:01

it was why people liked

23:04

it, but people had this great reaction to

23:06

it because they felt like it

23:08

showed that the character was

23:11

smart and that you didn't

23:13

really get that and any of the other scenes.

23:18

So how did you do?

23:19

Were you?

23:20

Were you a contestant or were I

23:22

never?

23:22

I never went all. This was kind of for college college

23:25

kids, uh, and an opportunity

23:27

for them to earn some you know, scholarships and

23:29

for them to compete against each other in a in

23:31

like a quiz show type deal. So I

23:34

just, uh, it was actually fun being

23:36

both my brothers were on it together

23:38

and I just got to I got to watch and

23:40

analyze and to tell tell

23:42

them my thoughts. So now that's what was good

23:45

or bad. So I don't know if they listened to

23:47

any of them, but it was fun critiquing my

23:49

two older brothers in a show and

23:51

you know, talking about what they did wrong or

23:54

their mistakes.

23:55

Nice.

23:55

I like it.

23:56

Well, you mentioned that in the broadcast you

23:58

get to stay in at home and

24:02

your brother stays at home or stays

24:05

where he lives. Did what

24:07

was the road like for you? Because how

24:09

many years were you? Were you in the NFL?

24:12

Sixteen years?

24:13

Sixteen years?

24:14

Right?

24:14

I mean that's sixteen years of

24:16

being on the road, and I'm just curious,

24:18

like for a lot

24:21

of reasons, the just

24:24

the toil of you

24:26

know, like like I can tell you, you

24:29

know, in certain terms, that hotels

24:32

no longer hold any kind of interest

24:34

to me. The first time I ever went in one,

24:36

I was like, this is the greatest thing. You know, I

24:38

don't have to do my laundry or whatever it is.

24:40

You know, somebody makes the bed. But

24:43

now I there's

24:45

no romance left for

24:47

me in terms of that, And so I'm

24:49

just wondering what that's like for

24:51

sixteen years and on your your family

24:54

and the whole thing.

24:55

Yeah, So I think I think football is

24:58

different than a lot of other sports. Is really

25:00

our weeks are exactly the same

25:03

every week, and it really really difference. If you're

25:05

if you're at home, you stay at a hotel

25:07

Saturday night and you have to be there, you

25:09

know, around six or seven o'clock, and you play the

25:11

game the next day and you're you know, you're kind of back

25:13

home with your family around you know, four thirty

25:16

five o'clock and you get to be with them. If you're

25:18

if you're on away game, you

25:20

leave, you know, you have practice Saturday morning, you leave around

25:22

one o'clock and you basically come back right

25:24

after the game on Sunday, so you

25:27

know, you're on you're a gone really Saturday

25:29

night of the week, and

25:31

the rest of the week is you know, very schedule

25:34

your practice at the same time every day you meet.

25:36

You're kind of home around the same time for

25:38

dinner. So it's a pretty good, uh

25:41

family life situation. I

25:43

mean, you're you're you're gone during the day

25:46

and you're still going on the weekends a little

25:48

bit. But your family is can you know, come come to the

25:50

game and watch you on Sunday, which is exciting.

25:52

So uh, it's different from baseball

25:55

or basketball, where you might have these two week road

25:57

trips. Right you're traveling around and really

25:59

away from the family. So uh,

26:02

training camp is the only time training camp

26:04

you're you're you You go away for like a you know,

26:06

three weeks to a month. A lot of times you're

26:09

in a dorm room and you're together in trade binding.

26:12

That was kind of the hardest time. Once you start having

26:14

young kids and and you know,

26:16

tell the life all right, I'll see I'll see

26:18

in a month. Good good luck, all right,

26:20

you know you can figure it out.

26:22

Yeah, well except for the fact that, I mean, you're

26:26

you're gonna have to go and live some

26:29

place where you get drafted,

26:31

and that, right is that's kind

26:34

of a fascinating thing. You don't, I don't. I

26:36

don't see people talking about

26:38

that that much. I mean, I'm sure that I

26:41

don't know, is there is there what? What

26:43

would you say is a stronger pull the

26:46

place, uh or

26:49

the team or

26:51

the conference or the or

26:53

the legacy or what what? What?

26:55

What? Or where?

26:56

What?

26:57

What are the what are the what where the

26:59

coach? You know?

27:02

It's tough. Yeah, I mean I think you like,

27:04

as you said, you don't have a choice, like you

27:06

get you get drafted, you go wherever

27:08

you're going. I think you know you're excited to play

27:11

play football. For me, I was excited to come

27:13

to the to the Giants just because they're a you

27:16

know, just a great organization,

27:18

been on the original teams, they've been

27:20

around for so long, great ownership. You

27:23

know. I knew coach Coughlin was gonna

27:25

be the head coach. He was coming into his first year,

27:27

so I just I knew

27:30

a lot about the history of the Giants

27:32

and what they stood for and

27:34

and you know, really was excited to come to

27:36

this organization, come to New York. But

27:39

you know it is different all of a sudden, you know, yeah,

27:41

you're twenty three years old. You're like,

27:43

all right, you're moving to New

27:45

Jersey where they practice. You can you know, go

27:48

go find an apartment, go figure it out and start

27:50

your life. And so, you know, lucky

27:52

to have my mom. My mom was very

27:54

helpful in that. Like I was like, well, what

27:58

just finding a place to live. I was all of

28:00

a sudden, you come up here and I'm like, I'm in practice

28:02

all day. I'm trying to learn this playbook. I'm trying

28:04

to, you know, figure out how to be a quarterback

28:06

at this level. I don't have time

28:09

to figure out, you know, where am I, Where am I going

28:11

to live? How do I get a bed? How

28:13

do I you know, get a sofa and TV?

28:15

So fortunately have my mom come

28:17

up and kind of you know, handle

28:19

handle that for me and listen. You

28:22

know, I think you try to do so much as

28:24

a young player where you can just focus on football

28:26

and focus on trying to you know, you's

28:28

got drafted a lot of pressure're you know, first

28:31

first picking the draft, You're coming to this, you'll be the

28:33

quarterback. You You've got these you know,

28:35

these great athletes and

28:37

and you Michael straighthand and Tiki

28:39

Barber and these guys that you you don't

28:41

want to disappoint them. And you've got to try to

28:43

raise your level play real quickly to get

28:46

where you can be successful and win games

28:48

and and and you know, uh kind

28:50

of please the crowd and the organization,

28:53

and so you want to you know, be totally

28:55

committed to that and and not have to worry about

28:57

anything outside of football.

29:05

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29:07

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29:09

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29:11

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29:37

We have the great coach

29:40

Tom Coughlin with us today, which

29:42

is absolute honor. Tom. Thank

29:44

you so much for joint

29:47

You guys know each other, right, Oh yeah.

29:49

Yeah, I've got some great stories for

29:51

you too, Kevin fire Away,

29:54

coach. I gotta tell you this because I

29:58

get a video. I think Archie's son it

30:00

to me, it might have been Eli's sonate to me one

30:02

time. This tells you how Eli

30:04

grew up. So the video goes,

30:07

Archie's got the camera and

30:09

you had Cooper and Peyton out

30:12

by the basketball who you know, threw the

30:14

throw the basketball up and horse and around

30:16

with each other and they're just little guys. Out

30:19

comes Olivia with Eli's

30:22

just a little baby. He's a few months old. So

30:25

the next thing you see, Archie's got

30:27

the camera and the two brothers are

30:30

even Eli

30:32

back and forth.

30:33

They're dropping and passing.

30:37

Are you kidding me?

30:38

You know?

30:39

The next day ringing up to Eli, you know, wait

30:42

a few years ago or whenever this happened,

30:45

and he goes, yeah, I wanted to thank my dad

30:47

for how we

30:49

got the out yard and he's

30:51

the camera man, and these guys are even

30:54

me around the parking lot.

30:55

Oh god, did they put it? Did they at least put a helmet

30:57

on them?

30:58

Or no? No, no

31:00

helmet, no helmet. H I

31:02

remember telling my dad was like, hey, Dad, you did think

31:04

about maybe putting the camera down

31:06

for a little bit as I'm being tossed around

31:09

between two people, was like, no, no, this was this

31:11

could be in a documentary one day. Let me need to

31:13

catch this live footage, like it's not this

31:16

is great stuff.

31:17

And where can we see that footage?

31:19

Coach?

31:19

Do you do you have that footage? Can you share it with us?

31:21

Please?

31:23

You have to dig that out.

31:24

Yeah, oh that is amazing. So

31:27

but that's interesting. So, uh,

31:29

you were already aware of him

31:31

from his infancy when when

31:33

he came to the Giants?

31:35

Is that correct?

31:36

Well, I didn't see that picture till after.

31:38

Oh it wasn't until after. Oh I thought

31:40

maybe you were. You were in communication with Archie

31:43

from from from the beginning.

31:44

Now okay, well no, not quite.

31:46

Ok Had you been tracking his career?

31:49

Is his college career?

31:50

Oh yeah absolutely? Uh yeah,

31:53

hey his career at all? Miss but

31:55

Ernie Corsi, who actually

31:57

drafted Eli, Ernie,

32:00

he followed him troums from day

32:02

one, and I'll never forget.

32:05

We went to New Orleans or his for

32:07

Eli's workout, Okay, and

32:10

it was at the Saints indoor facility.

32:13

And this is the.

32:14

Difference between Bade

32:16

and Eli. Archie telling me the store so

32:19

Archie says, yeah, he gets a

32:21

hold of Eli. Supposedly, maybe

32:23

the workouts at one o'clock and the whole

32:26

NFL is that the whole place is full enough.

32:28

But scouts, head coaches,

32:31

general managers, everybody's there waiting

32:33

to watch this guy work out. So

32:36

you get, this is Archie telling

32:38

me the store. He said, I

32:40

give I'm looking around. I don't see

32:43

Eli. So I called Eli on

32:45

the phone and I said, this

32:47

is Eli, this is Archie. Where

32:50

are you? Where the heck are you Elio? It's

32:52

twelve thirty at a one o'clock workout, he

32:54

said, Dan, the workouts at one. I

32:57

stopped to have something to eat before it came

32:59

to don't work.

33:02

They said, of Peyton.

33:03

If it was Peyton, Ayton would

33:05

have been there selling program. It was at ten o'clock

33:09

the morning. But that's that was

33:11

the difference.

33:12

That was the difference.

33:15

Everybody not Lad.

33:17

He's he's hungry,

33:20

he's starving. Yeah, I'm watching.

33:23

And he gets to the place and he's

33:25

got four or five guys that he was working out

33:27

with as receivers, and he

33:29

comes in and you know, he's a little shy,

33:32

and he's kind of he throws

33:34

a couple of passes on the sideline, he

33:36

goes out. He puts on the

33:38

best demonstration of passing that

33:40

I had ever been around. Everything he can imagine,

33:43

with a bunch of guys he didn't play with, but he

33:45

worked out a little bit. These guys may have caught the ball

33:47

for him.

33:48

That's happening.

33:49

That was Eli's pro debut,

33:52

this pro workout.

33:53

Can you tell me, Eliu, because

33:56

I want to throw a ball like that? What did you have

33:58

for lunch? Do

34:01

you remember him?

34:01

Sort of? Yeah, probably I was down in New Orleans,

34:04

so probably like a big old shrimp poe boy. It's

34:06

really it really sits well, you know, a bunch of

34:08

private food and bread. When you're when

34:10

you're twenty two years old, you don't think about

34:12

you know, at that you know, twenty twenty some

34:15

id years ago, you didn't think about diet

34:17

or eating something you know that might

34:19

affect your performance. But yeah,

34:22

so things would change a little bit. But yeah,

34:24

New Orleans probably, Yeah, I think a shrimp poe boy

34:26

from Don Alisis is probably they

34:28

go to there you go.

34:30

I love hearing that, so it

34:32

brings up a good question for both

34:34

of you. You mentioned,

34:37

you know, the first thing I thought of when

34:39

you had a shrimp Poe boy, was

34:42

that that would be a situation where

34:45

I would certainly be nervous. I mean, it is

34:48

essentially, you know, an audition,

34:50

right, It is essentially a It's

34:53

it's like it's like the audition for the big

34:55

show or the big movie. You're meeting the big

34:57

director, and I'm wondering,

35:01

coach, do you, if

35:04

you're looking at a player, do

35:07

you look at nerves

35:09

as being part of

35:13

the skill set of how to handle the nerves

35:15

being part of what you

35:17

need to play in the NFL?

35:20

Absolutely, in this situation,

35:23

it's how do you handle the circumstances

35:25

that you're in? Yeah, you

35:28

know, you've got the whole NFL there. It's

35:30

a like you say, it's a big deal now, you

35:33

know. Maybe you go away saying,

35:35

if you're looking at a quarterback, you know, he

35:37

didn't throw the outcut very well, the comeback

35:39

was a strained throw for him,

35:41

or you know, he didn't seem to react well

35:44

after. You know, he missed a couple of balls

35:46

and so on and so forth. So you're watching, You're

35:49

watching all this, you're taking it all in. You

35:51

know what kind of an athlete, does he how does he work

35:53

with people that he really just

35:56

barely knows these guys, you know, how

35:58

does he handle that? How do they react? You

36:00

know, the whole deal. He gets a little

36:02

time with people afterwards to talk to

36:05

them, so you get a little bit more information

36:07

out of them. But in general, how

36:09

does he approach it? How does he

36:11

handle it? And then you know, when

36:14

when it's time to go, when it's time

36:16

to start, what do you have to prove yourself?

36:18

How do you do m right?

36:20

Fascinating? I guess you just get a

36:23

chance to let's kind of look

36:25

at those signs and and

36:27

and just try to

36:29

get a read on that. I mean, I

36:32

again, I keep thinking about

36:35

you know, sometimes I've been on the other side of the camera

36:37

and you know,

36:39

looking at actors and auditions and

36:42

trying to get past the fact

36:45

that it is an auditioned situation and

36:47

that maybe there's something that's

36:49

there that I'm not seeing because

36:52

they are somehow you

36:54

know, uh, nervous or shooting themselves

36:56

in the foot. But on the other on the other hand, this

37:00

is the big moment, so they got to be able

37:02

to step up. So it's a it's a it's a it's

37:04

a it's a confusing kind of thing.

37:07

What was how would you guys categorize

37:09

your working incredibly

37:13

successful working relationship during

37:15

the time that you were at the Giants

37:17

With the.

37:17

Giants, Well, first of all,

37:20

Eli was great with studying. You

37:22

know, he would while other people are off

37:24

on a Tuesday, he'd be in there already

37:27

getting a head start on the opponent.

37:29

What the opponent. And that's basically what

37:31

I'm all about. The work ethic

37:34

is very very important to me because

37:36

I want to know. I want to know

37:39

if you're willing to

37:41

buy into an

37:43

act as if you own or

37:46

possess the franchise. This is what I want. I

37:48

want you to I want you to take ownership of

37:50

what you're doing. I want to see, I

37:52

want to see that it's really important to you. I

37:54

want to see that you make the little sacrifices

37:57

in order to be the best that you

37:59

can be. And that's really what you

38:01

know, what what I was all about

38:04

was trying to get people to be the very

38:06

best thing that they could be. And you've already

38:08

mentioned a couple of things. You know, teamwork,

38:11

it's all about team. It's not about the individual.

38:14

It's never about the individual. It's always

38:16

about the team because football, with

38:18

eleven people on the field, you put

38:20

your trust to that guy next to you and he

38:22

puts his trust in you. Are you going to let

38:24

him down? Are you going to let everybody

38:26

down? Because you didn't prepare properly.

38:29

So that's and it's not easy.

38:32

You know, try it over a seventeen

38:34

eighteen week period where

38:37

on Monday, you know, these

38:39

guys are, they're beat up. This is this

38:41

is not a game for the feint of heart. You

38:44

know, you want to stand on the sidelines

38:46

and listen to this. It's it's

38:48

like whoa, It gets your attention. I

38:51

mean, it is all about the physicality

38:53

of the game, even from the quarterback position.

38:56

So those are the kind of things

38:58

that that people must be able

39:00

to to send you those kind

39:02

of vibes. Their consistency, their

39:05

work ethic, you know, the study

39:07

as she goes. Because as I said,

39:10

it's it's not a game of you

39:12

know, it's not a marathon. It's

39:14

not a sprint. It's a marathon.

39:18

Yeah, you know, it's let's go ahead, Eli.

39:20

I was just gonna say, Kevin, I

39:23

learned quickly, you

39:25

know what what I had to do to be

39:27

a quarterback under under coach Coaulfland.

39:30

And there's the first first

39:32

week. I was not the starter of Kurt Warners,

39:35

the starter my rookie year. And

39:37

he said, you know, after that first game,

39:39

he says, all right, every blitz at

39:41

this, you know, we played the egos, every blitz

39:43

that the Eagles did versus I want

39:45

you to draw up those blitzes versus

39:47

our five main protections that we have

39:50

in past game and how you protect them and

39:52

and do it. And so they did, you know, maybe

39:55

eight to ten blitzes, and I drew up first each

39:58

you know, for each each protect So

40:00

it's like kind of fifty drawings, and I, you know,

40:02

have it, have it out there, and I handed into coach Cofflin.

40:05

He graded it, and so all

40:07

of a.

40:07

Sudden, this was after the game.

40:08

This was after the game, after the game, kind of after

40:10

that next week, just so I learned about how to

40:13

set protections, how to do things. So the next

40:15

week we have another says I want you to do it again.

40:17

And so I just did it for that second gig,

40:20

you know that, or I just didn't in preparation

40:23

of the team we're about to play. And

40:25

no, no, you have to do both the games that they've

40:27

played. So I now I had to do one hundred, you

40:29

know, I did do. All of a sudden, it's like week eight,

40:31

I'm handed in a four hundred you know, drawing

40:34

deal to coach golf, and in a few of them, I

40:36

kind of said, well, I can relax. He's like, there's

40:39

no way he's reading through all these protecting

40:41

He's got to worry about the starting quarterback.

40:44

He's got to worry about everything else going on being

40:46

the head coach. Like I'll kind of

40:48

just like, you know, scribble through a few of these

40:50

and not do it. All of a sudden, you

40:52

know, he calls me in the office and it's like, you

40:54

know, what the hell is this? Like what is

40:57

that? This is not? This is yes,

40:59

this is terrible, Like what are you doing?

41:01

So I learned quickly that,

41:04

you know, preparation was very important

41:06

to him. Being five minutes early

41:09

was number one. Deal had to be five minutes

41:11

early, be well prepared, And

41:14

you got to love what you're doing. You gotta love the game of

41:16

football. You have to love you know that

41:18

you know, do those things. If you do those three things,

41:21

you can play for this man for a long time and

41:24

you'll be on the same page. And as

41:26

a as an athlete, in

41:28

a professional athlete, that should be pretty

41:30

easy. You think that'd be pretty easy to handle those

41:33

three things. And you think if you amazin, how

41:35

how you know some people have a hard time

41:38

have a hard time doing that.

41:40

Well, Coach Coaughlin, I can tell you that

41:43

I was before you signed

41:45

in. I was struck with the fact

41:47

that I think, probably

41:49

maybe for the first time since I've been doing this podcast,

41:52

somebody actually showed up early. And Eli

41:54

told us that if he wasn't there five minutes

41:57

before, he was afraid you were going to find him.

42:00

I'm afraid I was that I get fined.

42:02

No, I mean today's no, I mean today,

42:05

And I don't know what the rate would be adjusted

42:07

for inflation, but I'm guessing it would probably be

42:09

pretty hefty.

42:10

At this point, five hunder bucks

42:12

that's the fine. Okay,

42:14

that's yeah,

42:17

one minute later if I'm not five minutes early.

42:20

So, speaking of charity, Coach

42:23

tell us about the J fun Foundation and about

42:26

how the story behind it.

42:29

Jay Fund was founded in nineteen ninety

42:31

six in the spirit and the

42:34

name of j McGillis. J McGillis was

42:36

a strong safety for me. When I was the head

42:38

coach of Boston College, Jay

42:41

unfortunately came down with leukemia and

42:44

we played, actually played in Syracuse.

42:47

Came home after the game, Fraighter came

42:49

to me and said, I don't think Jay can play this week, and

42:51

I said why not? He said, well, he's you

42:53

know, his throw a swollen and he so

42:55

on. I said, well, let's let's get the doctor in here,

42:57

less, get him, get him. Well, it wasn't

43:00

a sore throat, it wasn't some form of virus.

43:03

It was leukemia, and it was

43:05

a ravaging form of leukemia. By

43:07

watching what Jay went through and

43:10

what is family went through, and

43:12

going through that whole process,

43:16

my wife, Judy and I looked at each other and

43:19

said, if we ever get a chance to give back,

43:21

it's going to be in the name and the spirit

43:24

of j McGillis. And the way it

43:26

came about is in the spring

43:29

of that year before Jay passed,

43:32

one of my linebackers came to me and

43:34

said, Coach, we've got to do something to

43:36

help the McGillis family. And I said,

43:38

well, sit down, Mike. It was Mike Panels. Sit down,

43:41

Mike, let's talk about it, and Mike

43:43

was very close to the family. What happens

43:45

when you're given those words, those terrible

43:48

words, Your child has cancered. The

43:50

family no longer

43:54

is able to function as they would want. If

43:56

there are two income family, one one

43:58

parent has to withdraw off from the job

44:00

so that they can be the caretaker. But

44:03

in watching this, both parents were not

44:05

working, bills were being paid, you

44:07

know, expenses were mounting,

44:10

and the McGillis family was going to be in

44:12

trouble. So Mike and

44:14

I talked it through. We decided we would have what

44:16

we called a liftathon. The players went

44:18

out into the community, they got pledges

44:21

or in those days we max lift

44:23

at the end of spring practice. So we

44:25

had power clean, we had bench, we

44:28

had squat and they all went out and got

44:30

pledges. And when they came back and went

44:32

through their lifts to conclude the spring

44:35

season, they had raised fifty

44:37

thousand dollars and at the spring

44:40

game we presented

44:42

the McGillis family with a check for fifty

44:45

thousand dollars. Now that started

44:48

the wheels in motion for me that

44:50

if I could find a family, if a

44:52

family was in trouble, that I could

44:54

help a family who had a child

44:57

with cancer that I could help. We were going

44:59

to do it, and I was going to do it in

45:01

in a practical way. We're

45:03

all about. The Jfund is about a

45:06

roof over their heads, food

45:08

on their table, ass in their

45:10

tank, taking care of all the

45:12

things that a family function

45:15

breaks down on when you

45:17

have to be there for the child. And I

45:19

know this for a fact. The child, no

45:21

matter how old he or she is, knows

45:25

when a parents and a family is

45:27

stressed, and when they're stressed,

45:29

they cannot give the attention

45:31

that's needed to the child

45:34

so that the child heals. So that's

45:36

what we have done. Since nineteen

45:38

ninety six, we have directly

45:42

impacted over five thousand,

45:45

seven hundred families at twenty

45:47

four million dollars of payments

45:49

to them just so that they can take

45:52

care of the necessities of life

45:54

the other siblings. Who means so many

45:56

of these kids have two and three brothers

45:58

and sisters that quite frankly

46:01

get a little bit ignored because

46:03

the whole attention has to go to the sick

46:05

child. Well, this is where we come

46:08

in too. We have sibling programs and caregiver

46:10

programs, all kinds of things that

46:12

we do throughout the course of the year to

46:15

help the entire family fight

46:18

this tragic disease and get

46:20

the child to a point where the

46:22

disease is cured. We know it's

46:24

not that way for life. You're always

46:27

impeded in some way because of the

46:29

treatments. But you you get past

46:32

the actual cancer.

46:34

That's amazing. That's amazing, that's great.

46:37

That that that that you took

46:39

that moment and turned it into that. I

46:41

want to ask both of you, that's

46:45

the that's the super specific story.

46:48

Is there anything Let

46:50

me put it this way. You could have had

46:52

that experience and then gone,

46:55

wow, that's so sad, Okay,

46:58

what's next, and not taken

47:00

this moment and created this foundation.

47:04

You know, Eli, You've done a whole bunch of different

47:08

levels of giving back in the course of your life

47:10

and during your career in the NFL. I

47:14

know, I've often said for myself that

47:17

when I started out,

47:19

the last thing I wanted to think about was anything

47:22

other than KB. I

47:24

was so just completely self

47:26

focused on my career,

47:29

on getting ahead on all these kinds of things.

47:31

And then there's kind of becomes whether it's

47:33

a single moment or or

47:35

something that's the groundwork is laid

47:38

in your childhood, or

47:41

you have an event or something, sometimes

47:44

people start moving in

47:46

another direction in terms of some of

47:48

their time and their

47:50

resources and their fame

47:52

and their power and all the kind of thing. And that's

47:54

really what this this podcast has

47:56

focused on. So, but I'm wondering from both

47:58

of you, starting with you, Eli, was

48:01

there something early

48:03

on that laid

48:05

the groundwork for you now

48:08

having this desire to

48:10

do something positive in the world.

48:12

Yeah, I think it was. It was when I

48:14

was in college. I was that old miss and we

48:16

actually had a you know, a team function where he said,

48:18

Hey, we're you know, ahole teams that go visit

48:21

a children's hospital or the hospital

48:23

there and be kids there. And I remember, you

48:25

know, going in and it was just me as like

48:27

an eight year old kid. And I go

48:30

in there and I see him and he's, you know, not

48:32

feeling well. He's going through chemo therapy and

48:34

has cancer and the kid was just

48:36

real quiet, and I was in there. I didn't quite know

48:38

what to say. I'm trying to, you know, ask

48:40

him what he likes, if he plays any sports,

48:42

with his favorite TV shows. I'm not I'm just not

48:44

getting much. I'm getting these little word work answers.

48:48

And I remember kind of leaving and going

48:51

that didn't that didn't help. Like I think the kid

48:53

feels worse that I was in there, like you

48:55

know he did I signed an autograph

48:57

for me, you know, did it? You didn't seem really excited

48:59

for And I remember it was like

49:01

a week later and I saw one

49:04

of the nurses that I didn't remember seeing her,

49:06

but she came up to me just so as I was around

49:08

campus or in downtown and oftor

49:10

Misissippi, and she says,

49:13

you know that little boy that you visit, he's

49:15

been talking about what a great visit

49:18

that was. Every doctor that's come into his

49:20

room. He's got a big smile to him about

49:22

Eli Mannings, you know, signed this autograph

49:24

for me, showed me this picture. We talked about

49:26

sports and you know, my sisters

49:29

and my brother and our family, and

49:31

he just she said, his spirit and his

49:33

attitude was completely different

49:36

that next week. And so right then it

49:38

just hit me that you can make a

49:40

difference and and

49:42

and not just on that, but just

49:44

some how you treat people and shaking a hand, having

49:46

a conversation with a child, but a sick

49:49

child, just you know, showing that

49:51

you want to be there with them, that you're you know, there's

49:53

people out there that care about them, that are thinking

49:55

about them, that are praying for can have

49:57

a huge impact just their out

50:00

look and and their their

50:02

mindset. And so that was kind of the start of what,

50:04

I need to do this more and I need to go see,

50:07

you know, help out more. When I got up here to the

50:09

Giants and and I said, I need

50:11

to make an impact in this community and want

50:13

to help out kids that are dealing with cancer

50:15

and just help lift their spirits. And that

50:18

was kind of the beginning of it. And then it says, well, now

50:20

I want to I want to raise money for it. I want to try

50:22

to find you know, make sure we're finding curious

50:24

to heal these kids, to make sure if they get

50:26

cancer, they're getting back home to their families, they're

50:29

getting back to their friend back to school,

50:31

that they're gonna be kids again. And that was

50:33

kind of the start of of tackling Kids

50:35

cancer and getting that going, and that

50:38

initiative is just really raising money

50:40

for for pediatric cancer research, UH

50:42

to get these kids back healthy.

50:46

And coach, I'll tell you all the impact,

50:48

how how the people like Eli

50:51

impact and I have I have, I have a story.

50:54

So when I was with the Giants, even here,

50:56

when I was with the Jaguars, in the

50:58

spring, we would have we call Sunday Blitz,

51:01

and it would mean that we would bring the cancer kids

51:04

over through the facility

51:06

and their parents and their siblings come

51:08

to the facility and spend

51:11

what a mouse to an afternoon with us, and we would

51:13

have them in the training room and the trainers

51:15

would tape the kids up, you know, and

51:18

we would take them the weight room. We'd have some

51:20

rookies performed for them in

51:23

weight programs, and we would take them

51:26

in the in the facility and if

51:28

we if they could go through some obstacle

51:30

courses and do some things, we would do

51:32

that, and then we would take

51:35

them down to the cafeteria. We'd have ice cream

51:37

Sundays and hamburgers and hot dogs

51:39

and whatever. So this one particular

51:41

year, I was aware of the fact that there was

51:44

a young boy who

51:46

you know, was very very sick, he

51:51

was close to dying, and

51:53

he had one desire in

51:55

life, and that was to be with Eli Manning.

51:58

So the day of the Sunday Blitz, the

52:02

young man and his dad he was sick and

52:04

he was in the hospital, and we didn't

52:06

think he was going to get out of the hospital to

52:08

be at the Sunday Blitz. So

52:11

the afternoon went by and Eli

52:13

was helping, you know, as we had players

52:15

help with all this. Eli was helping.

52:17

But it came the end of the day was five

52:19

in the afternoon. Eli went home.

52:22

So I'm walking from the indoor facility

52:24

over to the main office facility

52:27

and up comes the dad with

52:30

his son, and he's carrying his son. They

52:32

were in the hospital. He gets his son

52:35

out of the hospital. He brings the little guy

52:38

to the offices.

52:40

But really the afternoon is

52:42

over. I pick up the phone.

52:45

I call Eli. He had gone home. So

52:48

Eli gets in his car, he drives

52:50

back. He spends about a

52:52

half an hour with this little boy and his dad,

52:56

and about a week

52:58

later, the little boy passes away. I

53:01

get a letter from his dad telling

53:03

me the greatest thing that

53:05

ever happened to this little guy

53:08

in his life was

53:10

spending half an hour with Eli

53:12

Manning. And that's what it means

53:14

to these kids.

53:16

When I tell them they're special.

53:17

They are special because if

53:20

the average kid can't have what

53:23

what we're gonna do for you. We're gonna we're

53:25

gonna expose you to a lot of things

53:27

the average kid can't. But the

53:29

idea of spending

53:32

time that Eli Manning and

53:34

a lot of our guys would spend time with

53:37

these kids makes a huge

53:40

impact on them.

53:42

That is a beautiful, beautiful story.

53:45

I would love to at this point

53:48

hear the call to action?

53:50

How can people.

53:52

Help out?

53:53

How can where do people go? Any uh

53:56

any plugs that anybody wants

53:58

to make for any thing at

54:00

this moment, I'm Mike,

54:04

is yours?

54:05

Well, we talk about this, show us your team,

54:09

Tackle Kids Cancer, the

54:11

TCJ Fund. We're in

54:13

this together. We complement each other very

54:15

well. Eli and

54:18

his foundation, as he said,

54:20

we're they're trying to put

54:23

an end to cancer, which we all want. Okay,

54:26

the J Fund is of practical

54:29

nature, and we work together

54:31

and complement each other very well. But

54:34

in so doing and talking about this, there's

54:37

no doubt it's the

54:39

t at TCJ Fund at Tackle

54:42

Kids Cancer. And you

54:44

know, contributions are what this is all about.

54:47

It's about being able to be in

54:49

a position to help. And so

54:52

I would leave you with that thought.

54:54

Well, I hope that people listening to this will

54:57

certainly be moved by the work that

54:59

both you were doing. You

55:02

know, children are everything, Uh,

55:05

you know, and

55:08

and you know, help out, donate,

55:10

check out the check out the work, give

55:13

what you can and uh

55:15

and I want to thank you guys so much for

55:17

being here today. It's been fascinating

55:20

conversation. It's

55:23

not that often that we have, uh, two

55:26

celebrities. Generally we have one

55:28

celebrity and then the on the

55:31

unsung hero who is running the foundation. But

55:33

to have two major

55:35

New York heroes is a very very

55:39

is really an honor. And

55:42

I'll just ask you this. We

55:44

could cut this out. Was there ever

55:47

a moment during those years where

55:51

uh, you you just

55:54

we're afraid to go to Boston.

55:59

I don't get up there much even now, even

56:02

now, I have a feeling I'm not going

56:04

to get a warm welcome if I go up there.

56:06

Coach, how about

56:08

you?

56:09

You know I was I was an assistant

56:11

at Boston College for three years and the head

56:13

coach for three years.

56:14

Oh that's right, of course, that's of course.

56:16

I had a chance to be around Boston

56:18

a little bit, but and still have many many

56:21

friends of many connections and and

56:23

my son in law played at Boston College. My

56:25

daughter Kate went to Boston College, so

56:27

no, I have.

56:28

Even worse, even worse. Do

56:32

you ever pick up the phone coach and try to

56:35

book a room there and for some reason

56:37

there's no there's no rooms in the available

56:40

in the entire Boston area. Thank

56:43

you guys so much.

56:44

For being here.

56:44

I've had a blast, and

56:47

everybody help help out if you can't.

56:49

Thanks Devin.

56:52

Hey, guys, thanks for listening to another episode

56:55

of Six Degrees with Kevin Bacon. I

56:58

enjoyed that. I hope you did too.

57:00

If you want to learn more about the Tom Coughlin Jfund

57:02

and all the work that they are up to, head

57:05

to their website tcjfund

57:08

dot org. That's tcjfund

57:10

dot org. You can find all the

57:13

links in our show notes, and

57:15

if you want to hear more, make sure you subscribe

57:17

to the show and tune into the rest of the episodes.

57:19

You can find Six Degrees with Kevin Bacon

57:22

on iHeartRadio, Apple

57:24

Podcasts support wherever you get

57:27

your podcasts. See

57:29

you next time.