Some fold under pressure, but not Eli Manning. It would have been easy to let the moment get the better of him, but even with all eyes watching, the legendary New York Giants quarterback kept his composure during Super Bowl XLVI in 2012, never forgetting that on sports’ biggest stage, brand loyalty trumps all.
Last week’s much-anticipated “Freedumb” event on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, a 24-hour marathon celebrating their rebrand after a five-month free agency period (Le Batard and his “marching band to nowhere” fled ESPN in January), predictably birthed a treasure trove of content with highlights including a rare sit-down with radio pioneer Jim Rome (who took a trip down Memory Lane by revisiting his feud with Jim Everett) and an enlightening chat with Pat Riley that took a $25,000 chunk out of his wallet. Later on in the show, ESPN and NBC alum Dan Patrick delivered a similarly entertaining anecdote, recalling the time he presented, or more accurately, tried to present Manning a Corvette for winning MVP of Super Bowl XLVI.
“He won the MVP and I’m supposed to be giving him this Corvette. Well he worked for some Toyota dealership and he didn’t want the keys,” said Patrick, who was part of NBC’s Super Bowl coverage that year. “So we’re on the podium in front of 100 million people. He walks off the podium and I’m reading the card saying, ‘Eli Manning you are the winner of this black on black Corvette.’ I have to turn and yell to him on the podium as he’s walking down the steps, ‘Get your damn keys! Come up and take this thing.’”
Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth. Who in their right mind turns down a brand-new Corvette? Eli Manning, that’s who. “He didn’t want to be seen with something that said Chevrolet,” said Patrick, who, even nine years later, can’t believe what transpired that night at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. “I mean imagine, you just win the Super Bowl, beat the Patriots, beat Tom Brady, and he’s walking off the stage because he doesn’t want to be seen with the keys to the Corvette.”
And in case you thought Patrick might be spinning a tall tale to keep viewers listening 20 hours into a YouTube livestream, there’s video to back it up. Notice around the 7:15 mark Eli is nowhere to be found, quite literally leaving Patrick (doing his best Ben Stein impression) at the altar.
We’ve seen other players decline the car that comes with winning the Super Bowl MVP including Tom Brady (because what more could he possibly need?), but never for endorsement reasons. Manning did ultimately accept the car, keeping the Corvette until he auctioned it off for charity last year as part of the All In Challenge (it fetched $140,000) benefiting Meals on Wheels, No Kid Hungry and World Central Kitchen, among other causes.
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