Eli Manning has been a Super Bowl MVP twice in his life. For the big game this year, he'll serve as a ticket jockey for his big brother, Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning.
"Early on, (I'll) just say, 'What do you need from me? How can I help? How many tickets you need me to get for you?'" Manning said during a Wednesday conference call. "That's what he's done for me in the past, what I've done for him in other Super Bowls, so just try to make it easy on him."
The younger Manning will be a popular media request leading up to the Super Bowl. His older brother will be the storyline of the week and Eli is in a unique position as a brother with expert knowledge of the Super Bowl process for a franchise quarterback.
Peyton's legacy is a natural talking point as he approaches what might be his final game, but Eli doesn't believe too much should be put into one game against the Panthers.
"Honestly, I think there's maybe too much placed on rings and Super Bowl championships just because it's not one player," Eli continued. "The quarterback is not the sole reason that you win a championship, it's the team.
"I hope he can win, but his impact has already been made and his legacy -- I don't think this one game, whether it will or not, shouldn't be affected by this one game."
Eli, though, isn't sure if Peyton is ready to call it a career. Although it makes sense that Peyton would be considering retirement at this point, Eli believes his brother is capable of playing beyond this season.
"I really don't know if it's gonna be (his last season) or not," Eli Manning told ESPN's Lisa Salters at the Pro Bowl Draft in Hawaii on Wednesday. "I think it possibly could be. Nineteen years, a couple neck surgeries, then the opportunity to win a Super Bowl and say 'hey see you later. I'm going into my next phase,' would be special. But hey, if he wants to keep going and playing and have chance to win more championships, he can do it. If anyone can, he can do it. But, it'd be special to see him win this championship."
As for a sibling rivalry, Eli said he holds no bragging rights over his brother for having one more Super Bowl ring -- right now, anyway.
"No, there's no bragging rights. We both know that it's a team effort and if everything goes the right way, one player can't control the outcome of a whole season or a certain game because there's too many other circumstances," he said. "I've never mentioned that and we've never compared who has more rings, it's never been a discussion or ever come up in any way."
We want to think Eli is being untruthful there, but we kind of believe him. Manning brothers seem like a different species, entirely disconnected from other brotherly bonds of the human population.
