E-GIANTS
Dave Klein was the Giants' beat writer for The Star-Ledger from 1961 to 1995.
He is the author of 26 books and he is one of only four sportswriters to have covered all the Super Bowls. Dave has allowed TEAM GIANTS to reprint some of his articles.

ELI MANNING TO FACE CHARGERS IN NEXT "MUST WIN" GAME,
WHICH BRINGS UP THE 2004 TRADE THAT GOT HIM TO GIANTS AND NOT S.D.

By Dave Klein
It was April 24, 2004, as the Giants' new head coach, Tom Coughlin, was preparing for his first draft.

The 2003 Giants had finished with a 4-12 record, but sadly, so did three other teams. They were Oakland, San Diego and Arizona, and in cases like that the NFL awards all ties in an inverse order of the winning percentages of the teams they played.

So it was decided that San Diego had compiled its 4-12 record against the worst-rated opponents, that Oakland was second, Arizona third and the Giants fourth.

This did not sit well with general manager Ernie Accorsi, who was experiencing a near-fatal attraction condition over a quarterback from the University of Mississippi named Eli Manning.

"You can tell about the special ones," he said, having had previous experience with the likes of Johnny Unitas. "You can just tell when one of the special ones walks into a room," he said one spring afternoon at lunch in Manhattan. "Eli has that look, that aura."

Unfortunately, the Chargers felt the same way, and their general manager, A.J. Smith, told everyone he could think of - even those who didn't ask.

Accorsi wanted him and had several telephone conversations with Mr. Smith, and finally, on April 21, three days prior to the draft, an agreement was reached (one not to be disclosed to the public until Draft Day).

Other teams were willing to deal with the Giants to move into the fourth spot, including the Redskins, Steelers and Browns. It was suggested that the Giants would engineer a trade with Pittsburgh for the 11th spot, allowing the Steelers to draft whoever it was they wanted and "settle" for a quarterback named Ben Roethlisberger.

But Accorsi held out.

But Smith was not about to pass on the kid, because the next team was Oakland, a rival of San Diego's in the AFC West, and as he told someone later that day: "There was no way in hell I was going to stick around and watch him beat us twice every season."

The Chargers' head coach at the time, one-time Giants' assistant Marty Schottenheimer, was equally enamored with Philip Rivers of North Carolina State, and when contacted by Smith (something the G.M. didn't do all that often) Marty suggested he could be just as happy with Rivers.

So a deal was struck. Accorsi and Smith side-stepped the ravenous Raiders and the Cardinals, who didn't have that much interest in Manning or Rivers and settled instead for one of the top two or three wide receivers in the game today, Larry Fitzgerald.

The Raiders, characteristically, spent the second pick of the draft on a major disappointment, offensive tackle Robert Gallery of Iowa. So the Chargers got their second choice plus a hell of a lot more and the Giants, Accorsi and Coughlin got the kid they had ogled.

Why this brief history? Because for the third time in his career, Eli is preparing to face the Chargers, while at the same time hoping to record his first victory against them. He lost the first meeting, on Sept. 25, 2005, by the one-sided score of 45-23, a game in which Rivers threw three touchdown passes.

The fans were joyous with the victory. After all, Eli had spurned them to go to "the big city," even though it was New Jersey, and they were offended and insulted. The next time the teams met was slightly more than four years later, on Nov. 11, 2009, and again San Diego and Rivers won it, 21-20, on a last-minute touchdown pass.

But the truth of the matter is that Archie Manning, whose DNA has produced not only Eli but his older brother, Peyton, was the one who didn't want his young son from playing in San Diego. He didn't like the way the team was being run, he didn't have much in terms of professional respect for Smith and he was against watching his kid suffer through years and years of non-winning seasons.

Like any good son, Eli paid attention. He also took Peyton's advice, which was the same as Archie's, and said for public consumption that he would not play for the Chargers if drafted by them.

So Smith was forced to agree to terms, although he struck as hard a deal as he could. In exchange for Eli, he instructed the Giants to draft Rivers with their fourth pick and then add their third-round selection that year, their first and fifth-round picks the following year.

They got Rivers and a good placekicker named Nate Kaeding, who was released and then retired in 2012; the Giants' first-round pick in 2005, which turned out to be defensive end-linebacker Shawne Merriman; and their fifth-round pick, which they traded to Tampa Bay for former Giant offensive tackle Roman Oben, previously drafted in the third round in 1996. Oben, who currently works on the Giants' post-game broadcasting crew, hold the distinction of being the first and only NFL player born in Cameroon.

And all the Giants got was Manning.

The last bit of research conducted shows that of all the players involved, the only Super Bowl rings belong to Eli, and yet this should not be interpreted as a paean to Accorsi. Of course he made the trade, and he handed the Chargers considerable additional weaponry to use that year and the next, but Smith managed to make poor selections on a rather consistent basis and, as a result, those indignant San Diego fans might like to take a long, hard look at the trade and then wish it has never happened.

Jerry Magee, one of the icons of California sportswriters, once observed that the trade was a terrible move by Smith, who has since left football. "It wasn't smart," he said, "and people who like Rivers should do so, because he is a lot to like, but Manning is a unique quarterback and I think the courage he showed that first time he played in San Diego marked him as special. He stood up and took all the abuse and didn't let it bother him."

In the two games the teams have played, Eli has completed 49 of 74 passes for 567 yards, four touchdowns and zero interceptions.

He has never spoken about the machinations and mysteries that swirled around the team teams, nor has he ever admitted that his father, Archie, was the driving force behind the trade. But his agent, Tom Condon, has admitted that Archie was "adamant" that Eli was not going to play for the Chargers. He also indicated that neither Oakland nor Arizona held any attraction.

Condon, one of the NFL's most respected player agents, also represents quarterbacks Alex Smith, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Matthew Stafford, Sam Bradford and Tony Romo.

When asked about this upcoming game (4:35 p.m. Sunday, FOX Sports), Manning would only reply in broad strokes, just like his head coach. "It's a big game for us because it's the next game on the schedule and this means each one counts. We missed too many opportunities earlier this season, so every game now is like an entire season for us."

Sure, but somewhere inside, he must have that warm and fuzzy feeling that comes with "escaping" a bad situation and coming away with a pair of Super Bowl rings, you know?

Check out Dave's website at E-GIANTS where you can subscribe to his newsletters which run much more frequently than what is available here.
- Team Giants

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