Eli and the Giants

[BleedinBlue]

The Making of a Quarterback: The Incredible Rise of Eli Manning and the New York Giants

This book can be pre-ordered on Amazon.com. Personally, I'd like to get the first edition hard cover and hopefully get to meet Eli one day and have him sign it.

 

 

Anyway....here's an interview with author Ralph Vacchiano (courtesy of Giants 101 - MVN)

 

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MVN G101: How long have you been working on the book?

 

RV: I guess in a way I’ve been working on it since the day Eli was drafted. About a year into his career I had an idea for a book that would examine the quarterback position and how tough it was to find and develop good ones, using Eli as a case study. So I began saving transcripts of every interview I did with him and about him, and doing a little extra research along the way with the idea that eventually I’d write a book. Of course, the worse he played, the harder it was to find someone who wanted to publish it. In fact, I didn’t find an interested publisher (Skyhorse Publishing) until after the Giants won the NFC championship game. After that, I had about 2 1/2 months to do some more interviews and put the whole thing together. But really, this is the culmination of four years of research on not just Eli, but on quarterbacks throughout NFL history.

 

MVN G101: When you were doing the research, what is something that interested you, that perhaps you didn’t already know?

 

RV: What, you want me to give away all my secrets? I think you’ll find a few surprises in the book and definitely a couple of items that had never been reported before. I’ll let you read those for yourself. Overall, I found there was really a lot to learn. I thought I knew how hard a quarterback’s job was, but it’s more difficult than I ever realized. I got to see one of Eli’s old playbooks and the amount of information and detail that he has to learn is incredible. I mean, there’s even a 10-step process to getting in and out of the huddle! I also learned that on several occasions the draft day trade for him in 2004 almost didn’t happen. I mean the Giants were seriously seconds away from trading down in that draft before the Chargers finally called. And I learned some very interesting things about The Drive in Super Bowl XLII. In fact, I wrote a whole chapter just on that. I think you’ll be amazed and impressed with some of the details, including how and why Plaxico Burress was so wide open on the game-winning touchdown pass.

 

MVN G101: How much support/access did the Giants organization offer you in writing this book? Any particular “shout outs” you would like to share to any particular staff members, players, or coaches?

 

RV: The Giants are one of the more accessible organizations overall in the NFL, so they’ve been a huge help to me throughout Eli’s four-year career. I could probably name 100 people I’ve talked to over the years and I’d owe them all a bit of thanks. But between the end of the Super Bowl and my book deadline, I got some great stuff from John Mara, Kevin Gilbride, Chris Palmer. Eli Manning was pretty helpful, too. Probably the person I owe the most to, though, is their ex-GM, Ernie Accorsi. He gave me an incredible amount of time and help on this project. He also wrote the foreword, and let me tell you it’s worth buying the book just to read that.

 

MVN G101: Within the title, you mention the “incredible rise of Eli Manning.” If you had to pinpoint his rise to one moment, which moment would you choose?

 

RV: Wow, that’s a tough one. I don’t know if you really can. There was no big turning point where it just clicked. That’s one of the points of the book, I think, that the end result was the product of four years of hard work, not some magic moment. I think Kevin Gilbride said it best when he compared Eli to (and I’m paraphrasing here) an overnight Hollywood sensation who you think came out of nowhere until you hear his story and then you realize he’s been in Hollywood for years. If you want to pinpoint something, though, I guess it would be the regular season finale against the Patriots. He had a huge game against a pretty good defense and, despite a late interception and the loss, it gave him an incredible amount of confidence at the perfect time. A lot of people in the Giants’ organization credit their Super Bowl championship run to the game-tying drive at the end of the first half in their playoff game in Dallas, when Eli responded to a monster Cowboys drive with a quick-strike touchdown drive in the two-minute drill. I actually think a major moment for him came nearly a year earlier when Chris Palmer was hired to be the quarterbacks coach. It didn’t pay immediate dividends, but I think the book will show you how much that hire paid off for Eli and the Giants in the end. Those are multiple moments, though, and they all played a part. So did many others. I know it looks like he just flipped some sort of switch right before the playoffs started, but that’s just not the way it happened. It was more of a gradual growth than most people think.

 

(Special thanks to Ralph Vacchiano who spent the time and spoke with MVN Giants 101. He is very busy chasing down stories of our beloved New York Giants and still basking in the joy of a Syracuse Lacrosse NCAA Championship, so we know how busy he is right now. We will be providing an in-depth review of his book as soon as we can get our hands on a copy, so make sure you check back in to MVN Giants 101 for more coverage of this sure hit book. Also, be sure to read his blog, The Blue Screen, for breaking news and excellent analysis of the 2007 Super Bowl Champion New York Football Giants.)

 

 

 

[echochamber]

I've been reading some of the little spoilers Eric from BBi has been posting and this book seems awesome. Definitely gonna pick it up. Supposedly, EA brings up plenty of Unitas & Elway. How can't you love that

[RandolphScott]

I've been reading some of the little spoilers Eric from BBi has been posting and this book seems awesome. Definitely gonna pick it up. Supposedly, EA brings up plenty of Unitas & Elway. How can't you love that

 

 

Yeah me too.

 

AND DAMNIT, DON'T FORGET BERT JONES!

[echochamber]

Yeah me too.

 

AND DAMNIT, DON'T FORGET BERT JONES!

 

lol! shite, how could i forget Bert?!

[gateb]

I can't wait to get this. Ralph is one of the best in the business, I've talked to him before and he's a great guy too.

[Bigblue25]

Can't wait so many books lately about big blue i'm loving it. From our former GM,to Strahan, a fan,Tiki and all the super bowl miracle books that just came out, I love the title making of a QB, used to read alot about the Manning passing academy Archie, Peyton and Eli hold every year, everyone said Eli knows everything there is too know about playing QB(possibly smarter then his brother), used to bother the hell out of me, why it never translated on the field until our last three games it finally happened.

[eagleEye]

Bad move. Eli isnt half way through his career and there making a book about hm. Bad idea.