NFL Blog

Okay, so Favre is head to the Jets. We were all sitting on pins and needles. I'm just glad that it is over.

I promised an NFL blog a few nights ago linking Peyton Manning and his decision to stay at Tennessee for his senior season back in 1997 with Eli winning the Super Bowl. Let me connect it all for you. Hang on, it's about to get crazy.

First......

Had Peyton gone into the NFL Draft after his junior year, he would not be there for the Colts to take him in '98. Colts GM Bill Polian has always said he had not decided to take Manning over Ryan Leaf until the night prior to the draft. If Manning wasn't there, it's safe to say that Leaf would've been a Colt, and therefore the Chargers would have stayed at the 3rd pick overall (they traded up with Arizona to the 2nd spot overall, actually giving up a 1st round pick in the '99 draft). Since the next QB taken in that draft was in the 3rd round (Charlie Batch to the Lions) another safe assumption is that the Chargers would have taken care of another position other than QB in the 1st round.

Are you still with me?

Moving forward into the '99 the Chargers still need a QB. The first round pick they traded to Arizona ended up being number 8 overall. Hopefully you haven't thrown your monitor through a wall yet, so for simplicity sake we'll keep it at number 8 overall, where a QB out of Central Florida named Duante Culpepper is available. The Chargers nab him because Stan Humphries and Jim Everett at quarterback is like having Val Kilmer and George Clooney playing Batman. No good comes from it.

So now you're asking where Eli comes into play.

Fast Forward into 2001 when Michael Vick was picked 1st overall. The Chargers originally had that pick, but traded it to Atlanta for an extra 2nd round pick. That won't happen because a) The Chargers are better than 1-15 due to picking up Culpepper and b) they have no need for a quarterback. The Chargers pick LaDanian Tomlinson and move on.

For those of you still here and not in the fetal position in the corner screaming "MAKE HIM STOP" I'll finish up.

In 2003, The Chargers are in a better position to challenge for the AFC West and thus do not have the first overall pick in 2004, which was used to pick (wait for it........wait for it..............) ELI MANNING. Eli was traded to the Giants due to his disdain for San Diego and its mismanagement over the last 6 years; mismanagement that might not have occurred had Peyton entered the draft. Someone else would have had the first pick (Arizona or Oakland) and thus the Giants would have stayed with Phillip Rivers who they originally drafted, and he would have been the one under center (hypothetically) for the Giants in 2007.

There are a lot of hypothetical situations in this article, especially the given success that San Diego would have had if they had not drafted Ryan Leaf. I am willing to grant that assumption due to the amount of draft picks given up for the ability to draft Leaf and how much of a boost those picks could have provided the Chargers. Not to mention Leaf was a bigger letdown than the last episode of Seinfeld. Had the Chargers not been so damaged from that pick it is safe to assume that Eli would have gone to one of the other two teams in front of the Giants.

So there you have it. After reading this, you'll never get the last five minutes of your life back. Congratulations, you have been sucked in by my own perverse obsession with this sport.