Eli Manning opens up about Giants' infamous boat trip before last playoff appearance of his career

The phrase "boat trip" will elicit strong emotional responses from certain New York Giants fans for as long as they remember the events of January 2017. 

Following the 2016 regular season, then-Giants players Odell Beckham Jr., Sterling Shepard, Victor Cruz and Roger Lewis took a short trip to Miami ahead of the club's wild-card playoff game at the Green Bay Packers. Those players posed for what became an infamous and often-mocked photo after the Giants were crushed to the tune of 38-13 at Lambeau Field. 

Then-Giants quarterback and franchise legend Eli Manning did not go to South Beach before that postseason contest. On the latest edition of the "Bussin’ with the Boys" podcast, Manning was asked if he felt players spending time in Miami rather than at the club's facility cost the Giants a chance to go on a meaningful playoff journey.  

Does Eli Manning blame "boat trip" for playoff loss to Green Bay?

"Odell didn’t have a great game... (he) had a couple drops early on," Manning said, per NJ Advance Media. "So, like it had nothing to do with Miami. It’s just a bad look." 

As Manning referenced, Beckham and Shepard both committed costly drops during the Giants' first postseason appearance since Manning became a two-time Super Bowl Most Valuable Player in February 2012. The hope among Big Blue supporters shortly after the Green Bay game wrapped up was that the NFC East club was on the rise, but the loss at Lambeau proved to be the last time that Manning would ever play in a playoff contest. 

"I don’t think they prepared to go to Miami," Manning said about his teammates. "They’re all on a boat in jeans and Timberlands. So, I think the boat is crazy. I think it was a last-second deal."

Was Eli Manning invited for the "boat trip" gone wrong? 

Before the Green Bay game, Manning joked that he was the person who snapped the picture because his teammates wouldn't let him be part of it with his shirt off. During the podcast, he confirmed he was not asked to participate in the Florida trip. 

"I was not invited on the boys trip to Miami (and) I wouldn’t have gone anyway, I don’t think," Manning said. 

Cruz, Shepard and Beckham have since suggested they wish they had handled things differently ahead of the playoff game. For what it is worth, the Giants have still notched just a single postseason victory since the franchise won Super Bowl XLVI in February 2012.