Eli Manning flying under the radar

The longest off-season of Eli Manning's football life is mercifully over, but no matter how much extra time the Giants' quarterback had to agonize over the way last season went so wrong so fast, his essential core remains unaltered. Unlike so many of his NFL counterparts, the man they call 'Easy Eli' doesn't do off-field histrionics or bold sideline pronouncements.

Manning believes his 2010 Giants are good enough to win the Super Bowl, but his way of saying so isn't going to lead anyone to confuse him with Rex Ryan. "Yeah, talent-wise, it's definitely there," Manning told The Record on Thursday, shortly after lunch and a few hours before the evening portion of two-a-day training camp sessions began.

No defining anything less than that title as a failure.

No guarantee.

No boast, no brag.

 "It's just about getting the most out of everybody, working hard, staying healthy, being fully committed and staying together as a team," Eli Manning added. "That's what it comes down to."

Manning is adept at espousing the company line, at staying in the best graces of management with an understated personality that fits perfectly into the franchise portfolio. That's why this training camp sets up so perfectly for him. With publicity hounds up and down the division and the loudest barking dog sharing his own stadium,Eli Manning goes quietly about his work. He already has the one thing they all want, and a 2007 Super Bowl ring complete with MVP honors does more to silence the blowhards around him than anything he says could hope to do.

Yet Manning is cursed by his own success. If the worst title an athlete can earn is being the best at his sport without ever winning a title (Dan Marino anyone?), the one for the guy who should have won so much more isn't much fun either (the 1980s Mets, Brett Favre anyone?) Like winning that second major in golf, a second Super Bowl elevates a quarterback into rare company.

 "I'll find out what it means hopefully," Eli Manning said. "For me, it's about competing, getting better, become a better player, getting the most out of all our players, out of their potential and getting them to play at their highest level.

Peyton Manning nearly took the lead in the brothers' Super Bowl race, only to see his Colts lose last year's title game to the Saints. Back on equal footing, Eli and Peyton start over again, eyeing the same prize with much the same approach. High-profile player; low-profile person.

Giants coach Tom Coughlin can go days without being asked about the quarterback who has started every game for the past five seasons.

 "The only questions I ever have [with Eli] are [about the way] we continue to upgrade our expectation level and he's well aware of that," Coughlin said. "He's just Eli. He's flying along."

I asked Mannning if he has a few more Super Bowls in him and he only smiled and said, "I hope so." If he is going to get another, it'll be behind a persona that's definitely more Derek Jeter than Ben Roethlisberger.

Let his rivals make noise up and down the NFC East, from Tony Romo and his merry band of wide receiver battles in Dallas to the transfer of Donovan McNabb, who finally escaped the negativity of Philadelphia only to land in the ineptitude of Washington. Let his New York counterparts make plenty of training camp noise across the state, where Ryan and his Jets take their turn in the Hard Knocks spotlight and deal with the holdout of their best player, Darrelle Revis.

Manning is at his most comfortable when the attention is elsewhere. While the Jets turned themselves into the NFL's darlings by getting within one half of last year's Super Bowl, while they stayed in the headlines with every controversial off-season roster move, Manning rolled along in the background, blurring his vision in front of the tape machine.

Standing in the shadow of the leafy trees on the University at Albany campus Thursday, he explained just why he's been so quietly focused. An epic collapse after a 5-0 start – the Giants' finished 8-8 and out of the playoffs last season - had quite a sobering effect. The defense bore the brunt of the embarrassment, giving up a staggering 85 points in the final two games. But Manning's 14 interceptions and 13 fumbles must also be corrected, and he's had a lot of time to think about them.

 "The off-season was definitely way too long," he said. "You just think about not wanting to have that feeling again, that feeling we had at the end of the season. We got off to a great start, but those last 10-11 weeks just weren't good. We didn't play well. You just want to get that feeling of playing bad football out of our system. Not making the playoffs and ending the last few games the way we did, playing poorly, that's not us, that's not how we want to be thought of or associated with.

 "So we've got to get back to work."

Yes, the longest off-season of his football life is over. But the work is just beginning. The noise around him is deafening, but none of it is coming from Manning. And that's just the way he likes it.