Eli Manning fails to become first-ballot Hall of Famer despite pair of Super Bowl wins and MVPs at NFL Honors before Super Bowl LIX
Manning likely gets in one day, but he’ll have to wait
The Hall of Fame class of 2025 was announced at the NFL Honors Thursday night, which will send four football legends to be enshrined forever in Canton.
Not amongst the inductees, however, was the most famous of the 15 modern-day finalists: New York Giants QB Eli Manning.
Whether Eli is a Hall of Famer or not has been a hotly-contested topic of debate in NFL circles ever since he retired 5 years ago. He's an extremely unique case study. His body of work in the regular season is that of a great QB who has no place near the Hall. But what he accomplished in the playoffs is the kind of resume that gets your bronze bust fast-tracked onto the shelf.
Up to five of the 15 finalists could have been inducted, but only four players met the 80% requirement of votes from the 50-person selection committee.
Manning's legacy is that of a giant killer and an ironman. While he was never a top-3 QB in any given season of his 15 year career, he played 210 consecutive starts for New York and brought them two Super Bowls.
Eli doesn't match up with what you expect from a Hall of Famer in many of the counting stats. His total yards, total touchdowns, All-Pro and Pro Bowl nods; they all fall short. But this is the man who owned the Brady-Belichick Patriots. It's so reductive, the way we talk about QBs at the end of their careers. But it's the standard for others with fantastic regular season accolades but little to show for it in the postseason, and so Manning should be held to that same lopsided standard.
He won two rings and two SB MVPs. Both were against the greatest dynasty in the history of the sport, and one was the greatest upset in the history of the sport. Frankly, I couldn't care less about the rest of your career when that's what you accomplished. That's as "you can't tell the story of the NFL without him" as it gets! He should eventually get in.
Whether people like it or not, he likely one day will. But that day may not be for a while. After failing to become a first-ballot inductee, Manning's nomination in 2026 will be up against the first year of eligibility for Drew Brees, who is expected to be a lock first-ballot HOFer. Historically speaking, the selection committee doesn't like to induct more than one QB each year unless it's impossible not to. So Eli may just have to keep waiting a couple years more to get his moment in the gold jacket spotlight.
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