Have mercy. I will never forget it. Sixteen years and six days ago my son, Cody, and I were about to enter a very hot Vanderbilt Stadium to watch the Ole Miss Rebels take on the Vanderbilt Commodores in Nashville. It was so hot that day.
The 12:35 EDT kickoff was to accommodate the telecast of the Jefferson-Pilot SEC Game of the Week on WAVE Channel 3 locally. I remember seeing Dave Rowe in the concourse before the game started. He was commentating for JP that day.
The Rebels were going to have a good season. Eli Manning was back for his senior year. They won 24-21 thanks to a 54 yard field goal with less than four minutes to play. I saw two Ole Miss games that year. The 24-21 win in Nashville and the 43-40 victory in Oxford against the South Carolina Gamecocks. Both games seemed more like escape tricks than convincing victories. But, as the old adage goes “we’ll take it!” And we gladly did.
Before that game in Nashville, an Oxford icon for sure, old as dirt and dressed in a red suit and tie, walked sideways toward me and Cody. I was looking around for Julius Caesar because this guy was looking like a Soothsayer. His eyes were wild and he grabbed me by one arm and Cody by one arm and shook us both a little, saying the following with those wild eyes, “TELL’EM! TELL’EM! TELL’EM…TELL’EM… ELI’S COMING!” And he walked away.
Cody and I looked at each other and he spoke up before I did, “What the heck was that all about?” Cody was thirteen at the time. I was dumbfounded. One of those things you never forget.
Today I find myself wanting to put on a blue suit and tie. I want to drive two and half hours North and walk around Lucas Oil Stadium for a little while and find someone to grab by the arm and tell’em….and tell’em! “ELI’S COMING!”
Oh, a man can dream can’t he?
How cool would it be for Eli to come to the house big brother built and wind down a stellar career. Talk about a sweet ending.
I wrote about it here earlier. Daniel Jones is breathing garlic down the shirts of the NY Giants brass for picking him 6th overall. The NYC media and fan base are like no other. How seldom they forget. They see Daniel Jones running for a first down and not throwing the ball away as much. Regardless of how well things are working out for Eli in the preseason, the first time he throws one to the feet of his receiver four yards behind the line of scrimmage, BOOS will cascade from Giants Stadium over the Hudson and into Manhattan. Folks on the Brooklyn Bridge are going to hear this going on.
I’m greedy. I want Eli to be spared this nonsense. I also want him in Colts blue. I never thought it possible until now. I never thought it possibly possible.
I think it could happen. It needs to be soon. The season is almost here.
Don’t get me wrong. In a perfect world I would much rather see Eli lead the New York Football Giants to another Super Bowl victory before even thinking about looking for property in Hamilton County, Indiana. That is what I would much rather see. But I just don’t see it.
I also didn’t see the criticism for Andrew Luck coming down like it has. One of two things are prompting such NYC-like bemoaning. One, putting folks down is a little more fashionable than it used to be. Look at Washington and you’ll find that answer. Two, the folks whining about Andrew Luck leaving have probably never had a helmet on and had their “BELL RUNG” as we used to say. This game is much more difficult than it looks. We just watch it.
Right now, I hope I watch Eli Manning run out of the next tunnel with a horseshoe on the side of his helmet. That would be quite ironic for this football fan who has gone everywhere but Indianapolis to watch him play.
Speaking the rights.
Danny Johnson