Ernie Accorsi shivered.
It was a miserable night 18 years ago in Mobile, and they stuck him outside, in the stands at the GMAC Bowl. Accorsi, then the Giants’ general manager, had flown to Alabama to watch Ben Roethlisberger, the broad-shouldered quarterback from Miami of Ohio.
Roethlisberger threw four touchdowns in the first half against Louisville. Accorsi, still freezing, was sold on him as a future NFL star. A few months later, as Accorsi prepared for the 2004 NFL Draft, he attended Roethlisberger’s pro day — which Roethlisberger punctuated by throwing a pass 60 yards from his knees. He wanted to put on a show.
“His pro day was one for the ages,” Accorsi told NJ Advance Media this week.
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Yet Accorsi preferred Eli Manning, the gangly kid from Ole Miss with the famous last name. Roethlisberger was Accorsi’s second choice, ahead of Philip Rivers. Accorsi rated the three quarterback prospects “very, very close,” he said.
He got Manning, of course, in that famous draft day trade that sent Rivers to San Diego, where Manning refused to play. The Chargers, picking first overall, never called his bluff. If they had, Roethlisberger — and not Rivers — would’ve been a Giant.
For Accorsi and Manning’s former teammates, vivid memories flooded back this week. Moments from the tense draft trade that forever changed careers, lives and franchises. And moments from Manning’s iconic, charmed, and once-polarizing Giants career — like his locker room hijinks, beers on the team bus, golf at Augusta National with a country music star, and that time he proved a loudmouth radio host so wrong, it quite literally bit the guy in the butt.
After winning two Super Bowls — probably enough to secure a Hall of Fame spot, despite his shortcomings — Manning will reach another milestone during Sunday’s game against the Falcons, when his No. 10 is retired and he enters the Giants’ Ring of Honor.
And this fascinating, what-if question arises, too: How would Roethlisberger have fared if he wound up with the Giants instead of in Pittsburgh, where he has also won two championships? Just fine, according to some people around the NFL. But not everybody agrees.
“I don’t think that would’ve been a good match, just with Ben’s personality,” said former Jets quarterback Boomer Esiason. “I think he went to the right place.”
So did Manning, who quietly navigated a deafening media market and became a Giants legend — just like Accorsi thought he would when he put Manning first on his draft board.
“You’re staking your legacy on it — that’s for sure — if you blow that pick,” Accorsi said. “But I didn’t worry about him not making it.”
That’s because of moments like Manning’s pro day. He held it in his hometown, at the Saints’ practice facility. His father, Archie, was so nervous that instead of watching the workout, he drove around the parking lot.
Manning was supposed to be the only quarterback there. But Tulane’s J.P. Losman showed up unannounced, shocking scouts and Manning’s protective superstar older brother, Peyton, who attended with Tom Condon — the agent for both Mannings. Condon approached Accorsi.
“Peyton is seething that Losman just showed up unannounced,” he told Accorsi.
“Well, I’m more concerned about Eli,” Accorsi replied. “How is Eli?”
“Eli doesn’t give a damn,” Condon said.
Giving Eli the shirt off his back
Draft day 2004, and a phone rang.
Not Manning’s this time, but another phone, out in Phoenix on a golf course.
Jeff Feagles picked up. He had just finished his first season as the Giants’ punter, and he wore No. 10 — which was Manning’s number at Ole Miss. Manning wore No. 18 in high school, but Ole Miss had retired that number for Archie.
Pat Hanlon, the Giants’ public relations director, was calling to see if Feagles would give Manning No. 10 — which had most notably been worn by Fran Tarkenton and Brad Van Pelt from the late 1960s to early 1980s. Now, the Giants needed Feagles’ number immediately, for Manning’s introductory press conference. Sure, no problem, Feagles said.
“You’re going to wear this number a lot longer than I ever will,” Feagles later told Manning.
In return, Feagles asked Manning to pay for a family vacation. Manning went all out — a week in Destin, Fla., at a four-story house on the beach, with “first-class everything,” Feagles said.
For the next six seasons, Feagles’ locker was next to Manning’s, so he saw Manning blossom from quiet kid into team leader. At first, Manning mostly observed. But teammates gradually saw his goofiness, spontaneity and inner prankster emerge.
After practice, Giants players would remove their ankle tape, ball it up, and shoot it into a trash can. Manning always just watched. Then one day, he “comes flying out of nowhere,” swatted a teammate’s shot away, and silently walked to the shower, said running back Tiki Barber.
Manning eventually took charge of the Giants — and of “the back of the bus gang,” as players called it. Manning scored beers after every road game — win or lose — and drank them back there with Feagles and offensive linemen on the way to the airport. In Wisconsin, they’d drink Leinenkugel’s. In St. Louis, Bud Light.
“The front of the bus was usually coaches, and when those guys were done [talking about the game], they would come back and steal a beer from us as well,” left guard Rich Seubert said. “Nothing is better than a cold beer after a game.”
As Manning’s teammates leaned on him, so did Giants fans. By 2007, Manning’s fourth season, they were growing impatient with him and coach Tom Coughlin, after back-to-back wild-card round losses. Then the Giants opened the season 0-2.
“The Giant fan wanted both him and Coughlin fired,” said Esiason, whose WFAN show with Craig Carton began that year.
At Giants Stadium, Accorsi had to ride the elevator down from the press box with grumbling fans who sat in suites. He heard their loud complaints about Manning, and always made sure to stay in the back of the elevator, “praying they didn’t turn around and see.”
On the radio, Carton ridiculed Manning by saying he “would go shopping with his mom for antiques,” Esiason said. When the Giants rallied to make the playoffs, Carton bet Esiason — a Manning supporter — that they’d lose to Dallas in the divisional round.
They won — and Carton had to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge wearing a Speedo. Esiason said Carton got such severe hemorrhoids from the stunt that he needed surgery. He had to fly to the Super Bowl in Arizona while sitting on a donut pillow.
Manning became a star after the Giants beat the undefeated Patriots in that Super Bowl. He won his first of two Super Bowl MVPs, repeating the feat again in 2011. He no longer needed Peyton to worry about him. But he remained understated, always.
Like that time in early February a few years ago, when he called Feagles to invite him for a round at Augusta. Manning got a private plane, and off they went. Manning told Feagles that Peyton and one of their friends were coming, too. After landing at Augusta’s airport, Manning told Feagles that Peyton would soon get in.
“And 10 minutes later, George will be here,” Manning said.
“Who is George?” Feagles asked.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Jeff,” Manning said, realizing he had left this part out. “It’s George Strait.”
“Are you [expletive] serious?!” said Feagles, a huge country music fan.
Manning just sat there casually, waiting for his famous brother and buddy to arrive.
Waiting for the phone to ring
Accorsi’s quarterback scouting was finished.
He coveted Manning, whom he gave a slight edge over Roethlisberger because Manning thrived in the SEC and Roethlisberger came from the Mid-American Conference.
But Accorsi still “was never confident” he could get Manning, even though Manning had already made it clear he wouldn’t play for the Chargers and wanted to come to the Giants.
Accorsi had been on the other side of this in 1983, a quarterback-rich draft, when he was the Baltimore Colts’ general manager and John Elway refused to go there with the No. 1 pick. Accorsi drafted Elway anyway, but Elway threatened to quit football and play for the Yankees. A week later, Accorsi gave in and traded him to the Broncos.
So in March 2004, when Accorsi saw Chargers general manager A.J. Smith at the league meetings, he reminded him of ‘83 and the Elway standoff.
“If you’re going to see this through, more power to you,” Accorsi told Smith. “But if you’re interested in trading, we’re interested.”
The Giants picked fourth, but Accorsi remained unsure about his chances of getting Manning — or Roethlisberger. He didn’t think the Raiders would be foolish enough to take offensive lineman Robert Gallery second overall, with Roethlisberger, Rivers, and Larry Fitzgerald available. Accorsi was wrong. The Raiders did it.
Plus, Accorsi didn’t know Smith well (and hasn’t spoken to him since the 2004 draft). Smith initially asked for pass rusher Osi Umenyiora. Accorsi said no, and talks slowed. Draft week arrived, and Smith told Accorsi he’d call him Friday. Smith never called.
“I knew I wasn’t going to get the trade by chasing him,” Accorsi said. “So I didn’t call him.”
The stalemate dragged on a day later, after the Chargers drafted Manning first. The Chargers were open to a trade, but needed Rivers to fall to the Giants.
“When we took Eli, the mood in the [draft] room wasn’t a celebration,” said David Chao, then the Chargers’ team doctor. “The mood in the room was: All right, let’s see what happens.”
Sure enough, Gallery went to Oakland, Fitzgerald to Arizona. Now, Accorsi was on the clock, still waiting for Smith’s call. Accorsi told his representative at the draft to write Roethlisberger’s name on the card and run it up the minute Accorsi said so. Then Smith finally called Accorsi, halfway through the Giants’ allotted 15 minutes. He was ready.
The Giants then drafted Rivers fourth — a moment, at last, of cheers and high fives in the Chargers’ draft room. Accorsi and Smith simultaneously spoke on the phone with Joel Bussert, the NFL operations executive who had to approve the trade. They read the terms to him, as the Giants dealt a 2004 third-rounder and 2005 first- and fifth-rounders.
Accorsi will never forget the four words Bussert said next: “We have a trade.”
Manning was a Giant.
“It wasn’t as much elation as relief, when we finally were able to get him,” Accorsi said.
But they never would’ve gotten him if Manning hadn’t forced his way out of San Diego. He has dodged questions about why he had Condon push for the trade.
“Condon, from our standpoint, was great,” Accorsi said. “That probably would’ve never been done without Tom Condon.”
There are apparently several reasons Manning refused to play in San Diego.
Accorsi said he believes Manning was wary about the Chargers being able to protect him with their offensive line, especially “because Archie had taken such a beating” as the Saints’ quarterback in the 1970s, with 340 sacks in 11 seasons.
Ryan Leaf — the all-time bust Chargers quarterback drafted behind Peyton in 1998 — said last year that his father told Archie the Chargers failed to help him develop and mature. Leaf said that played into Manning’s refusal to join the Chargers.
Manning also “went on history,” said former NFL GM Randy Mueller, who is friends with Archie. The Giants were a historically strong franchise. The Chargers were not.
“History favored the Giants — and not the Chargers — making it a successful career,” Mueller said.
‘He would’ve been run out of town’
But what would history look like if Accorsi had to settle for Roethlisberger?
“Usually, good players find a way to succeed wherever they are,” Hall of Fame Giants coach Bill Parcells said. “I would think you’d have to put Ben Roethlisberger in that category. So I would imagine it would’ve worked well for him also.”
Others around the NFL aren’t so sure, because of Roethlisberger’s off-field issues early in his career — most notably, the 2006 helmet-less motorcycle accident and sexual assault allegations in 2009 and 2010, which resulted in him settling a lawsuit and serving a four-game suspension.
“If that had happened in New York, he would’ve been run out of town,” Barber said. “If he had to grow up in New York, he probably would’ve had a different outcome. Growing up in Pittsburgh allowed him to mature without getting swallowed.”
Manning, never as brash as Roethlisberger, cultivated a mostly spotless public reputation throughout his 16-year career. And ultimately, all three of these quarterbacks — Manning, Roethlisberger, and Rivers — likely will wind up in Canton.
But Manning and Rivers, linked forever in the Giants-Chargers trade, both have obvious holes in their resumes. Which makes it curious that Smith called the trade “the most satisfying moment for me in my career,” in a 2019 interview with SB Nation.
While Manning and Roethlisberger won two championships — and Roethlisberger lost another Super Bowl — Rivers reached the AFC Championship Game once in seven playoff trips (six with the Chargers). Manning has a 117-117 regular-season record, 84.1 quarterback rating, and 0-4 playoff record outside of the two Super Bowl runs.
“In his era, where does he rank?” said Steve Palazzolo, a Pro Football Focus senior analyst. “You’ve got nine or 10 other quarterbacks you’d put ahead of him.”
Though Manning’s two Super Bowl rings make him revered among Giants fans, “in terms of the general football population, it may not necessarily carry the same kind of weight,” Giants Hall of Fame linebacker Harry Carson said.
But those eight wins — the Super Bowl runs — are the foundation of Manning’s legacy. In those games, he had 15 touchdowns, two interceptions, and a 100.0 quarterback rating.
“The Hall of Fame is tricky,” Barber said. “It’s about the narrative that can get crafted around you. I think the narrative around Eli is very easy.”
And for Accorsi, the goal was always simple, through all the frigid nights on the road scouting and anxious moments in the draft room — from Elway to Eli. Accorsi is 79 now, retired since early 2007, his legacy long since secured by the gangly kid from Ole Miss.
“I never drafted a quarterback hoping he’d make the Hall of Fame,” Accorsi said. “I drafted a quarterback hoping he’d win championships.”
(NJ Advance Media’s Mike Kaye contributed to this report.)
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Darryl Slater may be reached at dslater@njadvancemedia.com. Zack Rosenblatt may be reached at zrosenblatt@njadvancemedia.com.
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