A very clear trend has emerged in the aftermath of Eli Manning’s retirement. On one hand, those who have played alongside or against the New York Giants quarterback believe he’s a shoo-in Hall of Famer. Those who have done neither, don’t.
You can now add San Francisco 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman, a future Hall of Famer himself, to a list of the former.
“I do think Eli’s a Hall of Famer,” Sherman said, via the New York Post. “I think people underestimate what it means to run through the Super Bowl … there’s a reason so few low seeds have never won a Super Bowl. The teams that he’s done it with are probably 30, 40 percent of the low seeds that have won Super Bowls.”
Sherman is also willing to recognize that while Manning has played on some good team, he’s predominantly played on average or below teams.
“His teams haven’t always been great, he hasn’t always been surrounded by talent and when he has, he’s played pretty well,” Sherman said.
“But to run through the playoffs, some of the teams he beat, he beat the all-time great quarterback of all time twice — and two of the best teams of all time. He beat an undefeated team of all time. He beat an undefeated team that had Randy Moss on it who had just come off a record-breaking season. Who does that?
“And so for those reasons, I believe he’s a Hall of Famer.”
Of course, Sherman also has a personal motivate for wanting to see Manning in the Hall of Fame.
“I [intercepted] him a couple of times. That’s why you want him in the Hall of Fame — the more Hall of Fame quarterbacks you get, the more chance you got to be in there,” Sherman said with a sly smile.
