Twilight of the gods – Giants sack Eli Manning

November 30, 2017

After 13 years and 210 games, including two Super Bowl titles in which he was named MVP, Eli Manning will not be starting at quarterback for the New York Giants this Sunday against the Oakland Raiders.

Manning – who has always been gracious to me as editor of WAG magazine in his role as spokesman for Guiding Eyes for the Blind – fought back tears as he told reporters, “I don’t have to make sense of it.”

No, Eli, you don’t, because in a way it doesn’t. It takes a particularly lousy group effort for a team to be 2 and 9. And while a 36-year-old Manning – a healthy 36-year-old Manning – may no longer be the answer, does anyone think successors Geno Smith and David Webb necessarily are? ...

The NFL’s continuing female trouble

October 27, 2016

Well, just when you think gender news couldn’t be any more depressing in this “election cycle” – “Is that what we’re calling it?” one wag asked me – comes word that New York Giants kicker Josh Brown was released from the team Tuesday after new information surfaced that he had assaulted his then-wife, Molly, two dozen times, including at least once when she was pregnant. After a botched initial NFL investigation that in effect blamed Molly Brown for not cooperating – yes, always good to blame the victim – Josh Brown was suspended for a big one game.

“He’s admitted to us that he’s abused his wife in the past,” the Giants co-owner John K. Mara said Thursday (Oct. 20) on WFAN in New York.

“And I think that’s what’s a little unclear, is the extent of that.”

Translation: It was OK for the Giants to resign Brown, because he may have knocked around the missus only a bit some time ago. ...

The NFL takes a “paws” for a cause

September 21, 2014

Football took a holiday from its troubles Sept. 18 as members of the New York Giants’ most recent Super Bowl-winning teams hit the runway at Bloomingdale’s White Plains to support New York Pet Rescue.

Former wide receiver Amani Toomer, former punter Jeff Feagles and former guard Chris Snee walked some four-legged models – or rather the “models” walked them, perhaps giving credence to W.C. Field’s line that you should never work with kids or dogs.

Or maybe you should. At one point, Andy – one of the two-legged models – paused (or should that be pawsed?) to let a woman in the audience pet the dog he was carrying. Then he kissed the hand that had caressed the animal. Lovely.

The event underscored that it takes all kinds to make this world. Football players generally are not as lithe of physique as models. Nor do they slip easily into ready-to-wear or hold a pose the way models do. They’re built for and are used to moving.

But the Giants trio had good fun, with Amani Toomer even imitating the classic model’s slouch for the delighted audience. ...