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By JOHN BRANCH
Published: November 11, 2007
Unlike Tony Romo, Eli Manning started out famous. Before he was chosen with the first pick of the 2004 N.F.L. draft, Manning was well known as the son of one quarterback and the brother of another. He was flung to the hot lights of New York, a premade star and a savior for the Giants, christened before his first professional snap.
Unlike Manning, Romo was virtually unknown in 2004, lost deep in the heart of Texas. He was an N.F.L. quarterback, but barely. He signed with the Dallas Cowboys as an undrafted free agent in 2003, and, anchored to the bench, watched a parade of better-known quarterbacks pass him on the way into the lineup. Almost begrudgingly, he was given a chance to throw his first N.F.L. pass midway through his fourth season.
Yet here are Manning and Romo in 2007, each eagerly handed the long-term hopes of his franchise. They have arrived at the same place, figuratively and literally, as Manning’s 6-2 Giants play Romo’s 7-1 Cowboys today at Giants Stadium.
Unpredictably, each has become a little the way the other one was.
It is Manning who has nurtured and almost retreated into a quiet and unassuming public life. It is Romo who is known as much for his red-carpet appearances and romantic dalliances as for his fantasy football numbers, a sort of Lone Star Joe Namath.
Manning and Romo are linked because they stand at the forefront of a simmering rivalry between teams on simultaneous upswings. The unassuming Manning, 26, continues to be projected as the Giants’ quarterback for years. The effervescent Romo, 27, signed a contract worth a guaranteed $30 million with the Cowboys a few weeks ago. An “Entertainment Tonight” reporter was dispatched to the news conference to ask about Britney Spears, and the Cowboys’ owner, Jerry Jones, called Romo “the man of the 2000s.”
Manning was peppered with questions about Romo last week — eliciting an unusually testy, “Y’all have a lot of questions about Tony Romo” response at one point — and duly pointed out that quarterbacks do not play against quarterbacks. Yet Manning and Romo could soon be coupled in rivalry the way that Peyton Manning and Tom Brady are in leading the Indianapolis Colts and the New England Patriots.
In a case of casting-call serendipity, Romo and Manning seem well fitted for their respective markets. Manning blends into New York. Romo stands out in Dallas.
“Both of them found cities that are perfect for who they are,” said Phil Simms, who spent his playing career as a Giants quarterback and is now the lead N.F.L. analyst for CBS Sports.
“I think it’s easier to keep a low profile in New York than Dallas,” Simms added. “There’s so much going on in New York, so many celebrities — I mean, restaurant owners are celebrities — that it’s easier to go unnoticed. The quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys is probably the most high-profile person in town.”
Romo is as likely to be mentioned in People magazine as in Sports Illustrated. In the past few weeks, he has been linked to Spears (they met at a Hollywood nightclub), the actress Sophia Bush (whom Us Weekly reported will attend today’s game as Romo’s guest) and the actress and model Carmen Electra, with whom Romo promoted a video game.
“I think you just enjoy the ride,” Romo said.
Manning, more measured on the field and off, has somewhat purposely avoided full-blown celebrity status. He reveals little about his personality. He has spurned most endorsement offers, because he wants to prove himself further before selling himself as a pitchman. He is engaged to his college girlfriend, Abby McGrew, and is rare tabloid fodder.
“I’m just being myself,” Manning said. “I like to go out and do the things I enjoy. I’m not trying to be at the hot scene every night. I’m just being myself and not trying to do too much or do too little. It’s not a conscious effort either way.”
Romo said he was not aiming to shape his persona, either. But his fame has stretched exponentially since he made his first start in late October last year.
“Last year, when he came on the scene, my, we were deluged,” said Bob Spoo, Romo’s coach at Eastern Illinois, referring to media requests for background information and interviews. “As I think back now, it was kind of setting him up for failure. You can’t be at the top every game. There has to be a downside.”
It came in a playoff game at Seattle. Romo led the Cowboys into position for a potential game-winning field goal. But as the holder on kicks, Romo bobbled the snap and was tackled. The Cowboys lost.
In hindsight, it was little more than a dip in a meteoric rise. Along the way, he met and dated the country singer and former “American Idol” Carrie Underwood, escorting her to last spring’s Academy of Country Music awards. He judged the Miss Universe pageant. He threw out the ceremonial first pitch at a Cubs-White Sox game in Chicago, and played in a celebrity golf tournament at Lake Tahoe. He is host of a weekly radio show and appears in a number of commercials. He stars in a popular YouTube clip, unabashedly singing Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” on stage with a cover band.
Romo played it all down, but he does not apologize. He suggested that everything he did outside of football made the news, skewing the perception.
“I probably did three things,” he said of his off-season, “but all three were like television type of things that people could see and talk about. Gosh, I was around this complex and lived here in Dallas a lot more this off-season, but people don’t understand that because they don’t see you on a daily basis. And so you learn along the way to stop really caring about what people’s perceptions of you are.”
“I’m the only one who really knows whether I’m putting myself in a position to succeed by working and putting forth the effort week in and week out,” he added.
Cowboys Coach Wade Phillips called Romo “a field-house rat,” and said he worked as hard as anyone on the team. Spoo is also not worried that Romo might overindulge.
“That’s his personality,” Spoo said. “He’s a happy-go-lucky guy. He’s engaging, he attracts people, he’s not shy.”
“I think he knows when enough is enough,” Spoo added.
Still, it creates an interesting contrast to Manning, less a wallflower than his reputation suggests. Manning is affable and funny, though in front of cameras he rarely shows anything more than a mild grin, through which he recites a well-rehearsed set of answers to the barrage of repetitive questions.
When the number of people around Manning shrinks, his smile relaxes and his words loosen.
“Eli has no ego,” said his father, Archie Manning, the longtime Saints quarterback, in a phone interview from New Orleans. “He just kind of rolls along. I’m not saying he wouldn’t do some of the things that Tony does, but he’s not going to pursue it.”
The Giants backup quarterback Anthony Wright, who also played two seasons in Dallas, said: “The personality has to fit whatever mode you’re in. Eli’s personality fits what he’s doing and what he’s comfortable with.”
Archie Manning said his son was likely to follow the lead of Peyton, should he achieve some measure of his brother’s football success. Peyton Manning was a perennial Pro Bowl quarterback when he began accepting many of the endorsement deals he now has, and has cultured a persona as a sort of goofy everyman.
“There’s 32 of these guys,” Archie Manning said of N.F.L. starting quarterbacks. “And every one has a different background, and every one is a little different. I don’t think there is a set way to do it.”
One way to shape an image — the toughest way, perhaps — is to win. In what could be the true rekindling of a longstanding rivalry, today the quarterbacks will go back to proving who they are on the field.
LINK
Published: November 11, 2007
Unlike Tony Romo, Eli Manning started out famous. Before he was chosen with the first pick of the 2004 N.F.L. draft, Manning was well known as the son of one quarterback and the brother of another. He was flung to the hot lights of New York, a premade star and a savior for the Giants, christened before his first professional snap.
Unlike Manning, Romo was virtually unknown in 2004, lost deep in the heart of Texas. He was an N.F.L. quarterback, but barely. He signed with the Dallas Cowboys as an undrafted free agent in 2003, and, anchored to the bench, watched a parade of better-known quarterbacks pass him on the way into the lineup. Almost begrudgingly, he was given a chance to throw his first N.F.L. pass midway through his fourth season.
Yet here are Manning and Romo in 2007, each eagerly handed the long-term hopes of his franchise. They have arrived at the same place, figuratively and literally, as Manning’s 6-2 Giants play Romo’s 7-1 Cowboys today at Giants Stadium.
Unpredictably, each has become a little the way the other one was.
It is Manning who has nurtured and almost retreated into a quiet and unassuming public life. It is Romo who is known as much for his red-carpet appearances and romantic dalliances as for his fantasy football numbers, a sort of Lone Star Joe Namath.
Manning and Romo are linked because they stand at the forefront of a simmering rivalry between teams on simultaneous upswings. The unassuming Manning, 26, continues to be projected as the Giants’ quarterback for years. The effervescent Romo, 27, signed a contract worth a guaranteed $30 million with the Cowboys a few weeks ago. An “Entertainment Tonight” reporter was dispatched to the news conference to ask about Britney Spears, and the Cowboys’ owner, Jerry Jones, called Romo “the man of the 2000s.”
Manning was peppered with questions about Romo last week — eliciting an unusually testy, “Y’all have a lot of questions about Tony Romo” response at one point — and duly pointed out that quarterbacks do not play against quarterbacks. Yet Manning and Romo could soon be coupled in rivalry the way that Peyton Manning and Tom Brady are in leading the Indianapolis Colts and the New England Patriots.
In a case of casting-call serendipity, Romo and Manning seem well fitted for their respective markets. Manning blends into New York. Romo stands out in Dallas.
“Both of them found cities that are perfect for who they are,” said Phil Simms, who spent his playing career as a Giants quarterback and is now the lead N.F.L. analyst for CBS Sports.
“I think it’s easier to keep a low profile in New York than Dallas,” Simms added. “There’s so much going on in New York, so many celebrities — I mean, restaurant owners are celebrities — that it’s easier to go unnoticed. The quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys is probably the most high-profile person in town.”
Romo is as likely to be mentioned in People magazine as in Sports Illustrated. In the past few weeks, he has been linked to Spears (they met at a Hollywood nightclub), the actress Sophia Bush (whom Us Weekly reported will attend today’s game as Romo’s guest) and the actress and model Carmen Electra, with whom Romo promoted a video game.
“I think you just enjoy the ride,” Romo said.
Manning, more measured on the field and off, has somewhat purposely avoided full-blown celebrity status. He reveals little about his personality. He has spurned most endorsement offers, because he wants to prove himself further before selling himself as a pitchman. He is engaged to his college girlfriend, Abby McGrew, and is rare tabloid fodder.
“I’m just being myself,” Manning said. “I like to go out and do the things I enjoy. I’m not trying to be at the hot scene every night. I’m just being myself and not trying to do too much or do too little. It’s not a conscious effort either way.”
Romo said he was not aiming to shape his persona, either. But his fame has stretched exponentially since he made his first start in late October last year.
“Last year, when he came on the scene, my, we were deluged,” said Bob Spoo, Romo’s coach at Eastern Illinois, referring to media requests for background information and interviews. “As I think back now, it was kind of setting him up for failure. You can’t be at the top every game. There has to be a downside.”
It came in a playoff game at Seattle. Romo led the Cowboys into position for a potential game-winning field goal. But as the holder on kicks, Romo bobbled the snap and was tackled. The Cowboys lost.
In hindsight, it was little more than a dip in a meteoric rise. Along the way, he met and dated the country singer and former “American Idol” Carrie Underwood, escorting her to last spring’s Academy of Country Music awards. He judged the Miss Universe pageant. He threw out the ceremonial first pitch at a Cubs-White Sox game in Chicago, and played in a celebrity golf tournament at Lake Tahoe. He is host of a weekly radio show and appears in a number of commercials. He stars in a popular YouTube clip, unabashedly singing Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” on stage with a cover band.
Romo played it all down, but he does not apologize. He suggested that everything he did outside of football made the news, skewing the perception.
“I probably did three things,” he said of his off-season, “but all three were like television type of things that people could see and talk about. Gosh, I was around this complex and lived here in Dallas a lot more this off-season, but people don’t understand that because they don’t see you on a daily basis. And so you learn along the way to stop really caring about what people’s perceptions of you are.”
“I’m the only one who really knows whether I’m putting myself in a position to succeed by working and putting forth the effort week in and week out,” he added.
Cowboys Coach Wade Phillips called Romo “a field-house rat,” and said he worked as hard as anyone on the team. Spoo is also not worried that Romo might overindulge.
“That’s his personality,” Spoo said. “He’s a happy-go-lucky guy. He’s engaging, he attracts people, he’s not shy.”
“I think he knows when enough is enough,” Spoo added.
Still, it creates an interesting contrast to Manning, less a wallflower than his reputation suggests. Manning is affable and funny, though in front of cameras he rarely shows anything more than a mild grin, through which he recites a well-rehearsed set of answers to the barrage of repetitive questions.
When the number of people around Manning shrinks, his smile relaxes and his words loosen.
“Eli has no ego,” said his father, Archie Manning, the longtime Saints quarterback, in a phone interview from New Orleans. “He just kind of rolls along. I’m not saying he wouldn’t do some of the things that Tony does, but he’s not going to pursue it.”
The Giants backup quarterback Anthony Wright, who also played two seasons in Dallas, said: “The personality has to fit whatever mode you’re in. Eli’s personality fits what he’s doing and what he’s comfortable with.”
Archie Manning said his son was likely to follow the lead of Peyton, should he achieve some measure of his brother’s football success. Peyton Manning was a perennial Pro Bowl quarterback when he began accepting many of the endorsement deals he now has, and has cultured a persona as a sort of goofy everyman.
“There’s 32 of these guys,” Archie Manning said of N.F.L. starting quarterbacks. “And every one has a different background, and every one is a little different. I don’t think there is a set way to do it.”
One way to shape an image — the toughest way, perhaps — is to win. In what could be the true rekindling of a longstanding rivalry, today the quarterbacks will go back to proving who they are on the field.
LINK
