You're A.J. Smith. You're playing poker with Eli Manning. You're holding a pair of threes. He has his chips stacked so as to simulate the Manhattan skyline.
Now, do you really want to call his bluff?
If you're the general manager of the Chargers, can you afford to make a stand on principle when it might mean your walking papers? Do you dare spend the National Football League's No. 1 draft choice on a player who wants no part of your program and who has the wherewithal to wait?
Do you really want to play chicken from the seat of a Schwinn?
Delicious as it would be for the Chargers to challenge Team Manning to make good on its veiled threats – to have Eli sit out a season rather than sign with the Bolts – high-stakes brinkmanship is not a game for amateurs. It is certainly not a game for a football franchise synonymous with dubious decisions and front-office fumbling.
Four days ago in this space, the Chargers were advised that selecting Manning was the smart move. Events have since rendered that opinion inoperative. If the Chargers draft Eli Manning this morning, despite his documented objections and his newly perceived peevishness, they would be selecting a player as likely to wreck the franchise as to rescue it.
If Manning were drafted and didn't sign, the Chargers would have blown a chance at a franchise player and reaffirmed their reputation for inventive ineptitude. If he did sign, Manning would begin his career as an unproven quarterback with a lifetime supply of baggage and few of the allowances fans customarily accord promising rookies.
Drafting him is now, at best, a no-win situation. And yet, it could get worse.
Say Commissioner Paul Tagliabue opens the draft today with a tribute to Pat Tillman, the Arizona Cardinals safety who abandoned the privileges of pro football, answered the call of duty and died in the service of his country.
Say the Chargers then select Manning, who refuses to walk onstage for the obligatory photo-op.
How do you suppose that would play in the media capital of the world?
When A.J. Smith did his flip-flop on the facts and confirmed that the Mannings were indeed opposed to Eli suiting up in San Diego, he exposed the kid to the same kind of suffocating pressure Jevon Kearse applies.
Wherever he winds up, Manning will be seen (at least in the short term) as a prima donna without portfolio. He is going to have to show (probably before he is prepared to perform at this level) that he is deserving of special treatment.
That the Mannings wanted their preferences to remain private is natural. That they are surprised it leaked is ludicrous. If the Chargers had agreed to trade the pick, or decided to select someone other than Manning, they would have been expected to explain why they passed up the highest-ranking passer on the board.
The Chargers would have had two choices: 1) They could have put themselves in the position of being second-guessed for another generation; or 2) They could lay the blame on the Mannings.
This way, Smith gains the political cover to do what he probably preferred to do in the first place: Trade down and stockpile picks. If this costs him some leverage in trade talks, that leverage was always limited.
The New York Giants appear to be the only team actively trying to trade up for Manning, and Giants General Manager Ernie Accorsi is smart enough to avoid a bidding war against himself.
That the Chargers were sending out signals that they could still choose Manning yesterday suggests the team has moved the draft to a moral plateau and is determined to prevent players from dictating their destination. And there's something to be said for strategic stubbornness. Yet in light of their numerous needs and frustrated fans, the Chargers are obliged to be practical. Planting the idea that they might pick Manning should probably be read as an attempt to create the appearance of a competitive market where none exists.
As a ploy, it conjures Cleavon Little in "Blazing Saddles," holding a gun to his head to forestall the citizens of Rock Ridge from hanging him.
In short, it's suicidal.
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