Eli Manning retires

Here's another thing. The committee, senior pro football reporters one and all, is well aware which candidates are coming down the eligibility pike in future years. I think you're right that if Rivers and Eli are first eligible the same year their candidacies would hurt each other. They would REALLY hurt each other if the committee knew Brady would be eligible the next year.
PS: Ragu, in some ways the football Hall is LESS exclusive, since it has to admit a minimum of five new members a year (maximum is seven). But that's for a sport where there are more than twice as many players on a team. So it seems more exclusive.

 

The most dangerous word in the language.

 

Peyton Manning: After my dad and Dan Marino, Eli was my favorite player

And with that. Peyton announces he has no interest in becoming a respected NFL commentator.

 

C'mon, he was cutting the family meat.

 

Seriously, the guy can't support his brother?

 

/approves

 

Simms' lack of durability is a big knock. In a 15-year career, he started at least 12 games just 8 times. There's five years where he played just 20 total games.

 

I put Eli in the Hall of Very Good, "has a ring" division. That said, ten minutes ago I saw a headline that read "Is Eli Manning a first round Hall of Famer?".

 

As a first-year ballot guy, absolutely. He's already in a pool with Kuechly and Witten might retire. But Eli's going to get in -- even if it's down the line. Kurt Warner went in on the third try, that could be easily be Eli territory.

 

Era-adjusted, I'd say these guys were fairly comparable:

 

I cannot stress this enough. Eli's interception total and interception rate are terrible for his era. He put up yards and tds because everybody after 1990 did. What everybody else in the last 20 years didn't do was throw picks at the rate Eli did.