When Eli Manning refused to play for the Chargers after they drafted him first overall in 2004, it was widely believed that his father, former NFL quarterback Archie Manning, was behind the decision. Eli says that isn’t true.
Eli Manning appeared on Bussin’ With The Boys and said that while he and agent Tom Condon were on the same page that San Diego was the wrong place for him, his parents actually didn’t agree.
“My parents really weren’t supportive. My dad didn’t like the idea,” Manning said. “Now, he came to my defense and like supported me after everything was going down, but . . . he didn’t like that. And afterwards he took the brunt of a lot of the criticism because he came to my defense and people were saying, ‘Oh, you played in New Orleans all those years you didn’t win, so you’re trying to dictate like where your son’s going.’ And and he just bit his tongue and said, ‘Hey, this is what Eli wants to do and I support him’ and he did some media to try to save me from doing all the media and taking the hits.”
Manning said he respected then-Chargers coach Marty Schottenheimer but could tell there was friction between Schottenheimer, the front office, and ownership, and didn’t think the Chargers were heading in the right direction.
“San Diego had the first pick, I didn’t really want to go there,” Manning said. “I just didn’t feel like they were the most committed team to winning at the time,”
When the possibility of a trade came up, Condon told Manning the Chargers were going to trade him to the Browns, and he didn’t want to go there, either. Fortunately for Manning, ultimately the Giants and Chargers made a deal, and Manning won two Super Bowl MVPs in New York.
Giants Clips
Former NFL defensive end Josh Mauro died last month at 35. Via the California Post, authorities have determined that Mauro’s death occurred as a result of an accidental drug overdose.
Officially, the cause of death was “acute combined fentanyl, cocaine, and ethanol intoxication.”
Mauro, who played college football at Stanford from 2010 through 2013, went undrafted in 2014. After four years with the Cardinals, Mauro spent one with the Giants and one with the Raiders. He returned to Arizona for the final two season of his career, in 2020 and 2021.
He appeared in 80 career regular-season games, with 40 starts.
When 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan aired grievances at the annual NFL meetings in March about his team getting the short straw for a long trip to Australia to face the Rams — at (as Shanahan insists) the specific request of the Rams — Shanahan held out hope for a nugget of consideration when the 49ers return to the United States.
Shanahan wanted his team’s Week 2 game to happen on Monday night.
That isn’t happening for the 49ers. Instead, the Rams will get the extra day to adjust and recover after playing in Australia. They host the Giants on Monday night, September 21.
Only one of the two Australia teams could have gotten the extra day. Still, some will wonder whether Shanahan’s public gripes prompted a little twist of the knife by the league office. At times, the powers-that-be can have a very long memory — and they sometimes don’t react well to public complaints.
To his credit, Shanahan wasn’t bashful about speaking his truth. And if he thinks the decision to give the Rams and not the 49ers the extra day to get ready for Week 2 traces to his willingness to say when he thinks, Shanahan should say that, too.
We don’t know if Fernando Mendoza will be starting at quarterback for the Raiders in Week 1 of the regular season, but we do know who the Raiders will be playing in the first overall pick’s potential debut.
The NFL’s schedule reveal on Thursday night shows that the Raiders will host the Dolphins at 4:25 p.m. ET on Sunday, September 13. The game will be on Fox.
Mendoza will have to get the nod over Kirk Cousins in order to start for the Raiders. Offseason addition Malik Willis is expected to make his first appearance for the Dolphins. Both teams will definitely have head coaches making their offseason debut as Las Vegas hired Klint Kubiak in February and Miami hired Jeff Hafley in January.
Sunday will also feature a pair of divisional games in the late afternoon window. The Packers will visit the Vikings while the Commanders will be in Philadelphia to renew their acquaintance with the Eagles. The NFC North matchup will be on CBS while the NFC East clash will be broadcast by Fox.
The other late game on Sunday afternoon will see the Cardinals visiting the Chargers on CBS. Arizona could have Jacoby Brissett, Gardner Minshew or rookie Carson Beck at quarterback for that contest.
The 1 p.m. ET games will send the Bills to Houston for a date with the Texans while the Browns go on the road against the Jaguars. The Colts will host the Ravens, the Saints will visit the Lions, the Buccaneers will travel to Cincinnati for Dexter Lawrence’s first game as a Bengal, and the Steelers will kick off the Mike McCarthy era — with or without Aaron Rodgers — at home against the Falcons.
Previous reports revealed that the Jets will be in Tennessee and that the Bears will head to Charlotte to face the Panthers. The Jets-Titans game will be on CBS along with the Bills-Texans, Ravens-Colts and Browns-Jaguars games. All the other 1 p.m. games will be on Fox.
The entire Week 1 slate will kick off on Wednesday, September 9 with a Patriots-Seahawks Super Bowl rematch in Seattle on NBC. Thursday will bring a Netflix game between the 49ers and Rams in the NFL’s first game in Melbourne and Sunday night will find the Cowboys at MetLife Stadium to meet the Giants on NBC’s Sunday Night Football. Those games were all announced ahead of Thursday’s full schedule reveal, which was also the case for the ESPN Monday night game between the Broncos and Chiefs in Kansas City.
The Giants signed free agent outside linebacker Khalid Kareem, according to the NFL’s transaction report.
In a corresponding move, the Giants placed cornerback Thaddeus Dixon on injured reserve.
Kareem spent the past two seasons with the Falcons, playing six games. In 2025, he saw action on 71 defensive snaps and 25 on special teams and had seven tackles and one pass defensed.
The Bengals selected Kareem in the fifth round in 2020.
He has played games with the Bengals, Colts, Bears and Falcons.
In his career, Kareem has totaled 41 tackles, one sack, two passes defensed, a forced fumble and an interception in 34 games with one start.
Rookie cornerback Thaddeus Dixon’s bid to make the Giants has taken a severe blow.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that Dixon tore his Achilles during a workout on Wednesday. The Giants have not made any roster move at this point, but Dixon is destined for injured reserve and a lost rookie season.
Dixon signed with the Giants after going undrafted last month. He played in seven games for North Carolina in 2025 and spent the previous two seasons at Washington. Dixon had 20 tackles and two tackles for loss while playing for Bill Belichick in Chapel Hill.
The Giants drafted Colton Hood in the second round and they signed Greg Newsome as a free agent to go with Paulson Adebo, Dru Phillips, and Deonte Banks at cornerback.
It looks like Titans head coach Robert Saleh and offensive coordinator Brian Daboll won’t have to wait long for matchups against the teams they used to coach.
Saleh was the head coach of the Jets from 2021 until he was fired during the 2024 season and NFL reporter Jordan Schultz reports that his first game with the Titans will be a visit from his former employers. It will be the second straight year that the Jets go down memory lane to open the season as they faced Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers in Week 1 last year.
Daboll was hired by the Titans after his three-plus years as the Giants’ head coach came to an end 10 games into the 2025 season. Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post reports that the Titans will visit the Giants at MetLife Stadium in Week 3.
That stadium is also the home to the Jets, so the game will elicit some memories for both of the new Titans coaches.
Cornerback Nazeeh Johnson is visiting another NFC East team as he looks for a place to play in 2026.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that Johnson is visiting with the Giants on Thursday. Johnson visited with the Eagles last week.
Johnson was a 2022 seventh-round pick in Kansas City and has spent the last four seasons with the Chiefs. He was limited to two late-season games last year after injuring his shoulder in the preseason and he missed all of 2023 with a torn ACL.
When healthy, Johnson had 66 tackles and a sack in 29 regular season games. He also has eight tackles in the postseason.
Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers’s recovery from last season’s torn ACL reportedly included a second visit to an operating room.
Dan Duggan of TheAthletic.com reports that Nabers went for another surgery on his knee in order to remove scar tissue. Nabers, who initially had surgery in late October, had been experiencing stiffness in the knee prior to the operation.
Per the report, the operation took place “multiple weeks ago” and that the team has not altered its recovery timeline for the wide receiver.
Head coach John Harbaugh said in April that the team hopes to have Nabers on the field at some point during training camp and the larger hope is that he’ll be fully ready to go for the start of the season.
Quarterback Jaxson Dart has been in the building with new Giants head coach John Harbaugh for over a month now.
The young signal-caller is picking up what Harbaugh has been putting down when it comes to trying to set the tone for the upcoming season.
This week, Dart told Jordan Raanan of ESPN that each day, Harbaugh has been preaching how he’s expecting the Giants to be a physical and violent kind of team in 2026 and beyond.
“That’s the style he wants us to play at,” Dart said. “He has the right guys here for it and I just think that what he wants to do is what everybody on this team wants to be about. We’re hungry to win and I couldn’t think of a better coach to play for.”
Dart also noted his excitement for New York’s offense to enter the season healthy, after players like receiver Malik Nabers and running back Cam Skattebo weren’t about to finish the season due to injury.
“I just think we’re very versatile. I think it starts there,” Dart said of the offense, coordinated by Matt Nagy. “And then the other thing is, I just can’t wait for all my boys to be back healthy. I’m excited for the pieces we’ve brought in. They’re going to help us a ton. And we’re just going to be a physical, violent team. That goes on the offensive side of the ball, defensive side of the ball, and special teams.
“So, the boys and I can’t wait to get out there.”
In 14 appearances with 12 starts as a rookie, Dart completed 63.7 percent of his passes for 2,272 yards with 15 touchdowns and five interceptions. He also rushed for 487 yards with nine TDs.
