New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning is most certainly in the twilight of his Hall of Fame career, and it’s been a brutal season for Big Blue. But there’s a bit of a silver lining among all the clouds for Manning this Sunday as his Giants travel to face the winless San Francisco 49ers at Levi’s Stadium.
Manning is going to tie his brother, Peyton Manning, for second place all time in consecutive games started. The only other quarterback to top them both is the great Hall of Famer, Brett Favre, who might never have his record broken.
Eli Manning will make his 208th consecutive start on Sunday in SF
Manning would tie his brother Peyton for the 2nd-most consecutive starts by a QB in NFL history
Eli would only trail Brett Favre (297) pic.twitter.com/zg3Xlk8i4B
— NFL Research (@NFLResearch) November 11, 2017
Fourteen seasons. He hasn’t missed a start since Week 10 of the 2004 season. With 109 wins in the regular season, eight more in the playoffs and two championships, he’s a legend in the making.
Manning, 36, won’t play long enough to come close to the 297 games in a row that Favre put up. But if he can stay healthy for one week more and starts for the Giants in Week 2, then he’ll be able to one-up his older bro in something on the gridiron.
Until Peyton Manning won his second title, with the Denver Broncos, he was looking up at his younger brother in terms of championship wins. Now that’s no longer the case. And while history will look back a bit more fondly on Peyton for all the records he put up, perhaps Eli will get the respect he’s due for the way he played, and for how long he has been able to do it.