![\"Eli](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769106249_698_0x0.jpg\")
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Eli Manning is “excited” over the New York Giants hiring John Harbaugh to be its head coach. (Photo by John Nacion\/Billboard via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Billboard via Getty Images<\/p>\n
If Eli Manning approves the hire, you know you\u2019re the right man for the job.<\/p>\n
The New York Giants great said he\u2019s \u201cexcited\u201d over the team\u2019s latest hire at head coach, with the Giants signing John Harbaugh to be its next head coach. Harbaugh previously led the Baltimore Ravens to the Super Bowl and is a former NFL Coach of the Year winner, leading the Ravens to the playoffs in 12 of his 18 seasons.<\/p>\n
The hope is that Harbaugh can bring a similar type of success to a Giants organization that has been starving for a winning culture. New York has clinched just two playoff appearances over the past 15 seasons, with one of those taking place while Manning was still playing (2016).<\/p>\n
\u201cSo excited for John Harbaugh, I don\u2019t think we could have asked for a better situation and getting a better coach,\u201d said Manning in a one-on-one interview. \u201cJust with his pedigree and everything that he has accomplished as a coach, winning a Super Bowl, bringing teams to the playoffs, creating just a great culture there in Baltimore.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manning actually detailed that he spoke to Harbaugh during the whole hiring process, meaning the veteran head coach was in touch with both Manning and his former head coach Tom Coughlin, who led the Giants to two Super Bowls.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving talked to him through this process, it\u2019s the perfect situation, and he\u2019ll do so much bringing this culture, this Giants culture back to New York, and building a winning team,” said Manning. \u201cI know the ownership, the players, the fans, everyone is excited for him because they believe in what he\u2019s about, the person that he is, the coach that he is, and I know he\u2019ll do a great job.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the Giants will be looking ahead as they to turn their franchise around under the leadership of Harbaugh, there are four teams remaining in the playoffs to compete for Super Bowl LX. Manning said he\u2019s not \u201cbig\u201d on Super Bowl predictions because he usually gets them wrong, but said he\u2019s going with the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots with the Patriots emerging as the winner in a rematch of Super XLIX.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see a lot of great qualities in all the teams obviously, with Seattle\u2019s defense and the way they\u2019ve been playing, and Sam Darnold and the way they run the ball, they seem like a tough team,\u201d said Manning of the Seahawks. \u201cBut they\u2019re also playing a Rams team that they\u2019ve already played twice. I that\u2019s different when all of a sudden Seattle plays a team they\u2019re playing for the first time. I think they\u2019re shocked about how fast they are in their defense, but the Rams they know how to attack these guys. The\u2019ve played them twice, they\u2019ve put up points against them. It\u2019s a great game, I do think Seattle is going to win it.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the AFC side, Manning is going with the Patriots, the team that he defeated in the Super Bowl twice during the 2007 and 2011 seasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think everybody\u2019s kind of written off the Broncos, \u2018Oh, your quarterback\u2019s out,\u2019\u201d said Manning. “But Jared Stidham is a veteran guy, he has started games. He\u2019s been in the system for a while, their defense is extremely good, and the fact that the Broncos have had so many fourth quarter comebacks, they\u2019ve been down in situations and somehow found ways to win. That attitude and that belief is not just the quarterback doing that, it\u2019s the whole team buying into that and coming from Sean Payton.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do think they kind of have that special ability to make it tough, and to never get worried, never get down and never have doubts,\u201d Manning continued. \u201cIf they keep that same attitude, they\u2019re gonna be tough to beat. I do think the Patriots will will end up on top, and you\u2019ll get a Patriots-Seattle Super Bowl rematch. I\u2019ll go Patriots.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 45-year-old Manning is well-known for a legend on the field and he\u2019s also taken on some roles in post-playing career such as being a head coach during the annual Pro Bowl flag football games and being an analyst with his brother, Peyton Manning, on the ManningCast.<\/p>\n
However, he\u2019ll be taking on a new role during Super Bowl LX week when he serves as a referee for the Toyota Glow Up Classic, a glow-in-the-dark flag football all-star game for female athletes from the Bay Area, where it\u2019ll be played on the same field as the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n
Former Philadelphia Eagles star Jason Kelce\u2019s wife, Kylie Kelce, will also serve as a referee with other NFL stars scheduled to appear such as Brock Purdy, Jordan Love and Michael Pittman.<\/p>\n
\u201cReady to be a ref, always treated the refs politely and correctly,\u201d said Manning of taking on the task to be a fe. \u201cI think always had a great relationship with the referees, and so I think it\u2019s time to take it to the next level. I\u2019ve been around five football, coached the Pro Bowl games the last few years, I only got to be around one team. As a ref, you get to be around all the players, and you\u2019re supporting them all, kind of get to be around the huddle, get to hear the play call a little bit more. I\u2019m not stuck on the sideline, so I\u2019m excited to be on the field for the entire game and just supporting these great athletes. It\u2019s gonna be a great environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manning, who played flag football until the eighth grade, is excited over the growth of the sport, with flag football now being included as part of the Olympics.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a great sport, it\u2019s a great introduction to the game,\u201d said Manning. “The fact that you now you have so many female athletes playing flag football, getting them involved in the game, you see the growth of it going through high school female flag football teams, colleges introducing it. It\u2019s just amazing the fact that Toyota is behind this and supporting flag football in so many different ways, football for all, and advancing that thought and that idea and everything they\u2019re doing. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just an exciting time for the game of football,\u201d Manning continued. \u201cThe fact that flag football is an Olympics sport is unbelievable. Happy to be behind this and thankful for Toyota for their support and recognizing kind of the drive for future superstars to superstar and how it can all start with some flag football.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eli Manning is “excited” over the New York Giants hiring John Harbaugh to be its head coach. (Photo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2671,2674,4089,34377,838,837,9,2683,11,10,19889,2247,49003],"class_list":{"0":"post-108859","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-baltimore-ravens","9":"tag-denver-broncos","10":"tag-eli-manning","11":"tag-john-harbaugh","12":"tag-los-angeles-rams","13":"tag-new-england-patriots","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-giants","16":"tag-new-york-headlines","17":"tag-new-york-news","18":"tag-sam-darnold","19":"tag-seattle-seahawks","20":"tag-super-bowl-lx"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}