Cynical Cinema

“You can see ol’ Archie Manning has had the ball for…Peyton.  I mean…Eli.   Sorry, I just get all excited when I see that Manning name” 
     - Announcer during broadcast of Ole Miss vs. Mississippi State football game, October 25th, 2002.

The Manning brothers are the two most famous players in football today.  Peyton is pretty much the face of the NFL, having broken dozens of quarterback records in 2004, been named the league’s MVP in 2003 and 2004, and won the Super Bowl with the Colts in 2007.  His younger brother Eli, who has suffered his entire career in the NFL from comparisons to Peyton, had still managed to put together a pretty solid big-league career until his moment came in late 2007.  He led the Giants through the wild card round, and then two more rounds of the playoffs to reach the Super Bowl against the best teams in football - he beat the #1 Cowboys in the second round, and the #2 Packers in the NFC final.

Then, of course, the 2008 Super Bowl, where Manning led the underdog Giants to victory over the very heavily favoured, still-undefeated Patriots in the biggest upset in Super Bowl history.  And managed to cement his own NFL legacy, escaping (at least somewhat) from his older brother’s considerable shadow.  The brand-new DVD Manning Vs. Manning, out November 11th from Alliance Films, traces the history of that rivalry and examines the shadow that Peyton obviously cast over the career of his brother.

But then, I don’t think this DVD does so on purpose.  I think that the comparison is really a result of the interviews we see with the two star QBs, and the comments of the announcers during the games that are featured in the set.  No Eli game can go by without a mention of Peyton.  No Eli intervew comes without a discussion of his older brother.  And, of course, their father Archie, who was a star NFL quarterback in his own right.  But the brothers don’t seem to have a bitter relationship, or a desire to one-up each other.  They root for each other, and they love playing the game of football.  And we love watching them play.

Both players stayed on in college until their senior year, a rarity for QBs who are going to be drafted so high.  And most of the games on the two discs are from their senior years.  On the Peyton disc, there is one game from 1995 (the Citrus Bowl where his Tennessee Volunteers played Ohio State), and three from his senior year, 1997.  The Citrus Bowl is a cool game to watch, since it features future NFL stars Eddie George, Orlando Pace, Terry Glenn, and of course Peyton Manning.  The games from his senior year are not quite as compelling, since they mostly show him blowing out some overmatched opponent.  The special features include a Scholastic Sports America feature, profiling Manning in high school, where he was the number one QB in the country, recruited by every college in the U.S.  There are five other little features, interviews and promotional bits.

Although Peyton had a more spectacular college career, it’s Eli’s disc that is more entertaining.  He was not nearly as heavily recruited as a high school quarterback, and not nearly as well known during his college career.  That means that there are fewer special features on his disc.  There are two interviews, one that includes his father and Peyton as well.  And then there is a “2008 Father’s Day With The Mannings” feature.  Boring.  But Eli gets more games on his disc.  And they are, for the most part, not blowouts.  They are exciting, tense, and dramatic games.  (And I will tell you this now - Eli does not win all the games on his disc.  I won’t tell you which ones he loses, because you should watch them without knowing.  It’s more exciting that way.)

The best reason to pick up this two-disc Manning Vs. Manning set is the games themselves.  And the best game, without a doubt, is the first one on the Eli Manning disc.  Mississippi, with Eli Manning at QB, went into Arkansas on November 3rd, 2001, and played a game that lasted seven overtimes.  Manning went toe-to-toe with the Arkansas quarterback, Matt Jones, to put up a total of 114 points in a game that ended 58-56.  In seven overtimes.  Jones later went on to become a wide receiver with the Jacksonville Jaguars in the NFL, where I’m sure he never played in a game as dramatic as this nail-biter.  And I suspect that Eli never played in a game this tense until the 2008 Super Bowl.

There is not much else to recommend this set.  The games are great, and watching NFL superstars ply their trade in the college game is pretty cool.  (You get to see guys like Jamal Lewis play with Peyton at Tennessee, and Jason Armstead with Eli at Ole Miss.)  But the special features are for the most part boring and not even very informative.  Frankly, the ideal DVD of these two would feature Super Bowl XLI, Super Bowl XLII, and Peyton’s hilarious self-deprecating television commercials.  And that bonkers seven-overtime game.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 1st, 2008 at 12:43 pm and is filed under 2001, Football, Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, 1995, 2003, ESPN, 2008, 2002, 1997, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.