Big Brother Is Still Watching

As the Giants made their way back to the locker room from their field house after practice last week, Ben McAdoo was walking and chatting with the two time Super Bowl-winning quarterback.

- Ken Palmer

No, not that Manning — the other one. 

Peyton Manning was a surprise visitor, dropping by younger brother Eli’s place of work for the first time since his retirement in the wake of the Broncos Super Bowl 50 victory nine months ago.

“I did notice Eli was kinda quiet today,” Giants rookie Sterling Shepard joked. “Must have been because big brother was around.”

Peyton flew into New Jersey in the afternoon and arrived at the Giants facility in time to sit in the team’s quarterbacks meeting. He offered some thoughts on what he saw from the Steelers defensively and how that would affect the Giants gameplan.

“He’s played Pittsburgh a lot over the years, played them last year in the playoffs,” Eli said. “He had a few tips or ideas that may fit into our system.”

The Giants held a walkthrough practice soon after and Peyton attended, watching from the sideline. Then the quarterback who most recently hoisted the Vince Lombardi Trophy delivered a message to the team with a simple theme: “Take nothing for granted,” Shepard said.

Peyton may not have been speaking directly to his brother, but he just as well could have been.

At 35, Eli has started 205 consecutive games, including playoffs, and that is the longest active streak in the NFL, the third-longest in NFL history. Only two quarterbacks have longer displays of durability: Hall-of-Famer Brett Favre and Peyton, sure to be a first ballot inductee in Canton in the summer of 2021.