For most NFL quarterbacks, winning one Super Bowl is the dream. Eli Manning did it twice, and both victories came against the New England Patriots. Years later, the former New York Giants quarterback faced a very different question: would he give those two championships up for something else?
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The hypothetical came during Manning’s appearance on Pardon My Take, released Wednesday, October 7. When Manning was asked to choose between 16 straight winning seasons and the two championships he won, he quickly made it clear which mattered more to him.
“That’s actually a pretty good question,” Manning said on the podcast. “I mean, it’d be nice to, yeah, I mean, double-digit wins. You’re making the playoffs most likely every single year. But you only win one championship. You’re, you know, I’m gonna take it. I’m gonna take the championship. Two rings.”
The hypothetical question is interesting given Manning’s actual career. He spent all 16 of his NFL seasons with the Giants, from 2004 through 2019, and made 234 starts. His regular-season record finished at exactly 117-117, a perfectly .500 mark that critics have used for years as evidence against his Hall of Fame case. New York made the playoffs just six times during his tenure, and the Giants didn’t win a single playoff game outside of their two Super Bowl runs.
Those two runs are why the answer was so easy. Manning led the Giants, as a wild card team both times, to upset the Tom Brady-led New England Patriots, first in Super Bowl XLII following the 2007 season, 17-14, and again in Super Bowl XLVI following the 2011 season, 21-17. He was named Super Bowl MVP both times, making him one of just six players in NFL history to win that award more than once. He finished his playoff career 8-4, with a 5-2 record in road playoff games.
The ledger on the other side of that trade looks very different. Giants president and chief executive officer John Mara described Manning’s place in franchise history plainly when he retired in January 2020.
“For 16 seasons, Eli Manning defined what it is to be a New York Giant both on and off the field,” Mara said in a statement. “Eli is our only two-time Super Bowl MVP and one of the very best players in our franchise’s history.
Even with those two championship runs, Manning’s career numbers rank among the best at his position. He retired with 57,023 passing yards, 366 touchdown passes, and 4,895 completions, each placing him in the top 10 in NFL history at the time. He also started 210 straight regular-season games without ever missing one due to injury, a streak that ranks third all-time among quarterbacks (behind Brett Favre and Philip Rivers).
None of that was enough to get him into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on the first ballot. When the Class of 2025 was announced without him, Manning said he was “totally at peace” with the outcome, and his answer on Pardon My Take explains why. For Manning, the two rings were always the point, and the Hall of Fame debate is secondary to the fact that the biggest wins of his career came against the most dominant team of his era, on the biggest stage the sport offers.
Manning’s recent appearance covered plenty of other ground this week, including his decision to root for his nephew, Texas quarterback Arch Manning, even when the top-ranked Longhorns face Eli’s alma mater, Ole Miss, on October 24. But the rings-versus-wins question was the one that put a number on how he sees his own career, and it didn’t take him long to land there.