Eli Manning, a New York Giants legend, isn’t willing to be rookie quarterback Jackson Dart’s “reservation guy.”
In a recent interview with NFL analyst Peter Schrager on The Schrager Hour, Eli Manning told a hilarious story about the young rookie quarterback for the Giants reaching out to him for help. The two-time Super Bowl winning QB first pointed out that the New York Giants are doing things the right way, even though they’ve started out the season 0-2 (they showed flashes of a competitive team in their overtime loss to Dallas in Week 2).
Though some wins – or just one win – would be nice for the Giants, Eli commended them for bringing in veteran quarterback Russell Wilson to start ahead of the quarterback drafted out of Ole Miss. Manning thinks that having Wilson come in allows for Dart to get a feel for New York and how the media covers the Giants team, rather than just throwing him into the circus right off the bat (sorry for the baseball reference in this football story).
And even though Dart is serving as a backup for now, Eli reached out to him and let him know that he’s there for the young quarterback if he needs any help, as he explained to Peter Schrager:
“I told Jackson whenever he got there from Ole Miss, I said, ‘Hey, I’m not gonna be the guy that’s giving you advice or calling you every week (telling you) that you need to be doing this or doing that. But if you have any questions about anything, I’m here for you. Football related or if you are deciding which town you want to live in, or this or that, moving around town, any ideas, I’m happy to be here.'”
A very nice and noble thing of Eli Manning to do.
Sure enough, Dart took up Eli on that offer not too long before the season started. As Manning tells the story, the New York Giants rookie called him up and asked for something. Dart wasn’t seeking football advice, nor neighborhood recommendations. Rather… he asked Eli for a favor:
“All of the sudden it’s training camp. He calls me and says, ‘Hey you got a minute?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, of course. What’s up?’ It was such a similar situation I was in. Brining in a veteran like Russel Wilson, they brought in Kurt Warner when I got there. I thought maybe he was just dealing with that or something.
He goes, ‘Can you get me a reservation at 4 Charles tonight at 6:30?’ That’s the hardest reservation (to get) in New York. I was like, ‘No, no, no. That’s not part of the deal. When I said I’m happy to help out, I’m not doing that. I’m not your reservations guy. You have to earn the right to call and get your reservation. I’m not doing that.'”
Hilarious.
And let’s be honest… Eli Manning could have easily gotten Jackson Dart that reservation. One phone call and the simple phrase “this is two-time Super Bowl winning QB for the Giants Eli Manning” uttered and the rookie could have gotten one of those elusive tables at the small, impossible-to-get-into steakhouse.
But I respect that Manning told Jackson Dart that’s he got to earn that reservation. Though it’s obviously a funny story, it also stands as a bit of a learning lesson for the rookie out of Ole Miss. No one was handing out free, exclusive reservations to Eli when he first got started… so the NFL legend isn’t handing one over to the next generation of quarterbacks either
You can hear Manning talk more about it in the interview below:
