Eli Manning reveals what daughter learned during Giants-Eagles playoff game
New York Giants legend Eli Manning has opened up about taking his daughter to Big Blue's playoff game at the Philadelphia Eagles on Jan. 21 which Philadelphia won 38-7.
"To be able to go there with my 11-year-old daughter, she definitely learned a few new hand gestures, learned a few new vocabulary words that I said, 'Whatever you hear and see in Philly, it just stays in Philly. You can’t bring that back to school; don’t try that on your friends or your teachers. We don’t need you getting expelled any time soon,'" Manning hilariously told The Athletic's Dan Duggan for a piece published Monday. "But it was fun to be there and root them on. Unfortunately, the game didn’t go quite how I wanted it to."
Eli and Ava Manning watched as the Giants found themselves trailing the division-rival Eagles 14-0 at the end of the first quarter and 28-0 at halftime. The two-time Super Bowl Most Valuable Player who featured only for New York from 2004 through the 2019 season joked ahead of what became a lopsided Philadelphia victory about the "amount of double birds" he'd encounter at Lincoln Financial Field that Saturday night, and it sounds like Eagles fans didn't let him down.
Manning told Duggan that Ava "enjoyed" the overall experience despite the result and the "welcome" her famous father received in the "City of Brotherly Love" that evening.
"It was a fun experience for her going into a hostile environment," Manning remarked. "She had been to a lot of Giants home games, but not any away games. It was my first time being at an away game with her where you’ve got a hostile crowd. She got to go on the field beforehand and see some of the players. She had a good time."
Manning is completing media obligations ahead of Super Bowl LVII between the Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs that will occur at State Farm Stadium, home of the Arizona Cardinals, on Feb. 12. In a different interview, the retired signal-caller expressed belief in current New York QB1 Daniel Jones, and Manning informed Duggan he has plans to meet up with Jones "somewhere in New Jersey" in the next few weeks.
"I’m going to look forward to talking to him," Manning said about that interaction. "I hope it works out and everybody can figure it out and keep him a New York Giant."
Jones can hit free agency when the new league year opens in March, but Giants general manager Joe Schoen recently made it known that holding onto the 25-year-old is a top priority for this winter.
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