re: Archie Manning gives details on why Eli refused to play for the Chargers

I never got the sense Archie was the one orchestrating this. I think he was just portrayed by Eli's agent as the "puppet master" to take the public heat off of Eli AND make the threat to SD believable. In reality, I suspect the agent (Condon) was the one pulling all the strings. Remember, he had to sell the Chargers front office on the idea that Eil absolutely would sit out if SD drafting. Agents are notoriously untrustworthy. So they probably wouldn't buy Condon's bullshite if it were perceived as HE was the one trying to orchestrate the deal. But the threat had a lot more credibility if it were portrayed to SD as Archie insisting Eil not play for SD. That made it "real". I'm sure the thought for the SD front office was "this kid is close to his father and his father's advice holds a lot of weight. There is a chance he might actually be telling the truth here that he would sit out."

Condon saw another Manning. Condon saw Peyton as the reining MVP in small-market Indianapolis. He saw the market of New York over San Diego. And he, through representing some Charger players/coaches, saw the crappy ownership/management as opposed to the stability of the NYG ownership.

Condon wanted Eli in NY, convinced Eli that was the best place for him, and Eli (easygoing as he is) was fine with it. Had he not been a "Manning" and had NYG not been one of the teams in position to draft him, this deal never goes down and Eli is a Charger.

This was 99% agent driven signed off on by an introvert client who was willing to go along with it.