We tend to forget just how ready-made for the job he really was, right away, right from the jump. Eli Manning has been the face of New York football for so long it’s hard to remember what that visage looked like before he arrived.
That’s not hyperbole, either. Giants fans of a certain age — say, 22 and under — have no actual memory of what it is to have another player step under center (notwithstanding the dreadful Geno Smith Experiment, which Giants fans of all ages treat the way “Dallas” treated Bobby Ewing’s death back in the day: as if it never happened).