Wow. That was absolutely delicious - thanks for the link.No need to waste time with that. If you really want to get your schadenfreude on, just stroll over to any one of the Giants' fan boards and you will see a full-on meltdown in progress.
Simmons point #18 above about Giants fans was spot on. The idea that Eli is being benched because, well, he's just not worth anything close to $22M/yr and the Giants need to start planning for the future just doesn't compute for them.
Here is a good quote from BigBlue Interactive, and it captures likely Mara thinking as well as any point I read over there:
"There is no good way to push out a legend. Look at what happened in SF when Montana was moved to KC. Or Favre to the Jets and then to the Vikings. Hell, even Eli's brother got the shaft in Indy when they released him to make way for Luck. That said, there were probably better ways to handle it.
Ultimately, McAdoo is just further digging his own grave with his comments and it plays to the game Mara will be playing. At the end of the day, the Giants will pick in the top 3 and will take a QB. If you bring in a new coach, you don't want that coach to have to deal with the problem of pushing out Eli for the new QB. That's a tough start. Let McAdoo take the hit. Like a pitcher in a blowout game, he's gonna suck up his ERA getting lit up and take one for the team. In this case, McAdoo is going to be a PR nightmare, and it appears that he sucks at working the press and fans anyway, so screw it.
Everything stinks about this, there is no nice way of doing this. All that is left is to fire McAdoo and Reese after the season and look to trade Eli and let a new coach and new QB begin a new era of Giants football."
And here is a more representative one:Ultimately, McAdoo is just further digging his own grave with his comments and it plays to the game Mara will be playing. At the end of the day, the Giants will pick in the top 3 and will take a QB. If you bring in a new coach, you don't want that coach to have to deal with the problem of pushing out Eli for the new QB. That's a tough start. Let McAdoo take the hit. Like a pitcher in a blowout game, he's gonna suck up his ERA getting lit up and take one for the team. In this case, McAdoo is going to be a PR nightmare, and it appears that he sucks at working the press and fans anyway, so screw it.
Everything stinks about this, there is no nice way of doing this. All that is left is to fire McAdoo and Reese after the season and look to trade Eli and let a new coach and new QB begin a new era of Giants football."
"This is my take too. Sort of. I think Mara figures fuck it, mcadoo "deserves" the right to make a change at qb even if he's lost and at the very worst, Geno plays worse and nothing saves this offense anyway. If Geno actually out plays Eli... I can't even process that.
I want to hibernate. This season is fucking gross. Make it go away. Please.
Why does it have to be Geno fucking smith??? Why him??? Why couldn't they just start giving Webb reps the last few weeks and start him???? Why??? Is it so outlandish to give Webb reps in practice after being red shirted all fucking season???? Ok fine he came from a spread offense... for fucks sake coach him up already!!!! No... not our team. Ben feels Geno smith is the right man for this job. He will save this offense.
My god I can't believe how crazy this is. Handley was better. A lot better!!!!"
Edit: And I missed the "legend" reference at the top too. Comparing Eli to Montana, Favre, or Peyton is just a bit rich.