Getty Former New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning.
Eli Manning spent 16 years as the quarterback of the New York Giants. After rewriting the team’s record books and staking claim to multiple Lombardi Trophies along the way, the likely Hall of Famer transitioned into the front office this year, serving in a business operations and fan engagement role for the Giants.
Safe to say after 17-plus years in East Rutherford, Manning feels as if he’s got a pretty good grasp of the Giants organization and what it represents. This is why the franchise legend is adamantly sticking his neck out to oppose the idea that the Giants would conduct a sham interview, such as the one Brian Flores alleges in his class-action lawsuit filed on February 1.
“I was not involved in any of that process in any way, so I don’t know the details,” Manning told The New York Post on February 2, speaking on the team’s recent head coach search. “I know the Giants organization. I know they do everything possible to give everybody a fair chance. They don’t care, minority or not, they are looking for the best possible candidate. They are going to do everything properly to look for that perfect candidate. So, I don’t think there was any wrongdoing there.”
Giants Release Statement
While some of Flores’ former players, including current Giants right tackle Nate Solder, have publically backed the free-agent coach on the matter, the Giants organization is strongly opposing Flores’ allegations. In a lengthy, 600-plus word statement released on February 3, the team claimed “Mr. Flores’ allegations about the legitimacy of his candidacy for our head coach position are disturbing and simply false.”
Here’s a snippet of the statement detailing the logistics of how the organization says they ultimately came to a decision on hiring Brian Daboll as their new head coach:
After we interviewed six exceptional and diverse candidates, the decision on who we would hire as head coach was made on the evening of January 28, one day after Mr. Flores spent an entire day in our offices going through his second interview for the position, meeting with ownership and other staff members, and receiving a tour of our facility. (See the itinerary below). There is additional concrete and objective evidence to substantiate we did not make our decision until the evening of the 28th.
Giants: ‘Mr. Belichick Does Not Speak for Us’
After vehemently denying any wrongdoing in the matter, the team then shifted their focus onto Flores’ lawyer for his decision to share text messages with New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick as evidence. In the now-viral text exchange between Flores and his former colleague, Belichick believed he was texting Daboll — not Flores — to congratulate him on likely getting the Giants gig. Those texts came three days prior to Flores’ second interview with the team on January 27.
The allegation that the Giants’ decision had been made prior to Friday evening, January 28, is false. And to base that allegation on a text exchange with Bill Belichick in which he ultimately states that he “thinks” Brian Daboll would get the job is irresponsible. The text exchange occurred the day before Coach Daboll’s in-person interview even took place. Giants’ ownership would never hire a head coach based only on a 20-minute zoom interview, which is all that Mr. Daboll had at that point.
In addition, Mr. Belichick does not speak for and has no affiliation with the Giants. Mr. Belichick’s text exchange provides no insight into what actually transpired during our head coaching search.
The latest Giants news straight to your inbox! Subscribe to the Heavy on Giants newsletter here!
Sign up for the Heavy on Giants Newsletter!