What do you get for your big brother who is coming into your house looking to win his second Super Bowl? Apparently it’s a lot of tickets to the big game, as Eli Manning has been tasked with handling all of Peyton’s ticket requests.
“He’s asked for a number for me to try to get and I hit that number,” Eli said during a conference call last week. “Unless he has a few surprises, I’m in good shape right now.”
Eli, a two time Super Bowl champion himself for the New York Giants, lives just ten miles away from East Rutherford NJ, where the game will be played on February 2. The close proximity, however, isn’t the reason why Eli got left with ticket patrol. No, the real reason is simple — when one brother is playing for all the marbles, the other takes care of the little things, like buying tickets.
“We try to help out in any way you can,” Peyton said, via Yahoo.com, after practice on Thursday. “That’s certainly a way I’ve been helpful to him and he’s been helpful to me, over the past two I’ve played in and he’s helped me out again this year. You certainly appreciate that.”
Considering that the two brothers have combined for five Super Bowl appearances, it’s safe to say that they both should have ticket brokering down to a science. But, in the slim chance that Peyton may exceed Eli’s ability to drum up tickets (he is coming off of a season where his decision making was, um, questionable), Peyton’s former teams’ owner has got his back.
Jim Irsay, owner of the Indianapolis Colts, is also helping Peyton out on the ticket end since his Colts are guaranteed 1.2 percent of the 82,566 tickets to the game (which is what every team is given).
“We’ve already talked this week about getting him some extra [Super Bowl] tickets and I told him, ‘You’ve got it, buddy. Go get ’em. Go win it.’ I wish him all the best,” Irsay said Wednesday.
With his seats taken care of, Peyton is now free to enlist his brother in providing the one type of help even the combined fortunes of the Manning brothers can’t buy, a decent gameday weather forecast. As of now, there is a 30 percent chance of snow and you can be sure it will be cold and windy, conditions that favor defense over offense.
James LeBeau is an avid fantasy sports participant and a sports contributor for CraveOnline Sports. You can follow him on twitter @LoboISbroke or “like” CraveOnline Sports on Facebook.
Photo Credit: Getty
