Eli Manning On His Ailing Heel: “I thought it might be a little sore today but I woke up and it felt good.”
October 12, 2009 – 11:12 pm by Michael Bean
The New York Giants sure do look impressive. Sure, they’ve been beating up on sad-sack teams the past couple of weeks, but they sure are winning in impressive fashion. On Sunday, the Giants thrashed the Oakland Raiders 44-7 and improved to 5-0 on the year. Quarterback Eli Manning, who wasn’t sure how long he’d play or how effective he’d be due to a plantar fasciitis injury, was efficient in limited time. He threw just 10 passes, but completed 8 of them for 173 yards, 2 touchdowns and a perfect quarterback rating of 158.3. Manning joined ESPN Radio New York to talk about how he’s feeling, how wide receiver Steve Smith is really shining, returning to his hometown of New Orleans next week to play the Saints, and how he believes that overcoming injuries is partly mental.
On how his heel is feeling as of Monday morning:
“You know, it feels really good. I thought it might be a little sore today but I woke up and it felt good. I’ll continue to get treatment and stuff throughout the week and rest these next two days. I’ve got the advantage of being able to take today and tomorrow off where we don’t have practice. But I want to make sure I’m out there Wednesday and able to practice and get with the guys and receivers and make sure we keep working and try to get better.”
On if he’s much tougher than the ‘choir boy’ image he projects:
“I guess so. I guess I’ll take that as a compliment even though you called me a choir boy. I understand. I don’t know, I just try to take care of my body and do all the right things and make sure I stretch and lift, and all those things that help your body stay in tune. And some things you can’t help – you now, I wasn’t even hit on this injury, it just kind of happened and sometimes those are the worse ones. But I just want to be out there and have always thought I was a fast healer and have had the mindset that when you get an injury or banged up, hey I’m going to play the game and do everything I can to get prepared to play the game and the treatment. And I think it is somewhat mental in your healing process and you can kind of speed it up.”
On if he was surprised that he came out so early in the game (before halftime):
“Well, when we went up 28-0, Coughlin asked me what I wanted to do. I think the original plan was kind of halftime. But we just had the lead and I said, well I want to go out and see if we can get another one, one more score. We had one more possession, we had to punt on that one and then I came off and he told me I was out right there. So we’re were going to get the ball with 7 minutes or whatever until halftime, and we had the fumble and I asked him after that if I could go back in and he said no, you’re done, you’re done.”
On the game next week against the Saints in his hometown of New Orleans:
“It is exciting. It’s something that, when I got in to the NFL, I was looking forward to the opportunity to play in the Superdome and back in New Orleans where I grew up and seen so many games. I grew up a Saints fan. When my dad was announcing games, we’d get to the games real early, myself and my two brothers. We’d go to every home game, we’d get to go to the locker room afterward and see some of the players or run around the field a little bit. So yeah, it’s something I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. We were supposed to play there a few years ago, but Katrina, it was the year they ended up playing up here instead. So I am excited about it, and I think the whole situation - the fact that the Saints are playing so good this year, it’s going to be a great atmosphere in the Superdome. You know, two undefeated teams and it should be a lot of fun.”
Listen here to Manning with Michael Kay on ESPN Radio New York
Tags: Ei Manning, ESPN Radio New York, Michael Kay Show, New York Giants, NFL's best quarterbacks, undefeated NFL teams
