How sports news is made now. An 18-year-old whose profile reads “high school student” logs on to social media and posts his first ever tweet, announcing: “Committed to the University of Texas #HookEm”.
And in the southern portion of the United States, the region where college football remains a quasi-religious affair, a frenzy is unleashed. Story of the week. Maybe the year. Because the kid’s name is Arch Manning, grandson of a storied New Orleans Saints’ quarterback called Archie, nephew of a pair of Super Bowl winners named Eli and Peyton.
Those illustrious bloodlines ensured that speculation about where exactly this prodigy might go to play college ball has been going on since his early adolescence. Ludicrous but this is the world we have created.
One of his highlight reel videos on YouTube has long since passed three million views and, perspective be damned, a full year before he sets foot on the University of Texas campus in Austin, he’s already anointed as the next great quarterback-to-be. Many reaction pieces about his momentous decision also included appraisals of his chances of starring in the pros half a decade from now.
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“When is Arch Manning eligible for the NFL draft?” asked the headline in The Sporting News, over an article trying to figure out if he’ll be the number one pick when the time comes.
Like star county minors, there are no guarantees he ever reaches those heights so that’s an awful lot of pressure to be heaping upon a 6ft 4in curly-haired kid about to enter his senior year at Isidore Newman High School in New Orleans.
His media-savvy family didn’t ask for this sort of hype and, due to their accumulated experience across generations in the limelight, seemed to actively try their best to tamp down the hysteria when the most renowned universities in America came courting his signature.
“The best thing for me, as grandpa, is I stay out of it,” said Archie Manning. “I have a really good grandfather-grandson relationship. His dad, Cooper, has done a good job during this crazy recruiting. It’s really changed. I’m proud of what they’ve done. When Peyton, Eli and Cooper went through it, it really didn’t turn up until the spring before their senior year. They might have been getting letters, but with Arch, it started in the seventh grade (age 12). I’m not that fond of that, but that’s just the way it is.’’
Certainly, by the standards of other blue-chip prospects of the moment, who, often assisted by starry-eyed parents, court media coverage and amplify their online celebrity, Manning has maintained a remarkably low profile.
He even eschewed the now, almost, obligatory televised press conference where the player reveals his choice by dramatically donning the cap of the winning school. A solitary tweet was his take on that assignment.
“I think Arch has been very under the radar,” said Eli Manning after the announcement. “Just keeps things simple. People were kind of expecting a lot but that’s not his style. I think he was just ready to be done with it.”
For his nephew, the name may prove as much a curse as a boon and some wonder whether the current hype surrounding him is a tad exaggerated because of the family pedigree. Not so, say objective scouts, who regard him as a more mobile and athletic version of his uncles, one citing his ability to dunk the basketball as evidence of a superior skill set for his age.
Even still, no matter what he achieves at Texas and in the pros when the time comes, every feat will be measured against those of his uncles and his grandfather. He’s tracking some enormous footsteps.
Out of the small town of Drew, Mississippi, Archie became such an icon at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) that the campus speed limit was set at 18 in honour of the number he wore on his jersey.
John Grisham named characters for him in several of his novels and described him as “a legend larger than life!” This, despite the fact he almost quit college following his father Buddy’s death by suicide.
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And Archie’s the member of the quarterback dynasty who had the least distinguished pro career because it was his misfortune to spend his prime years with the underachieving New Orleans’ Saints in the 70s and early 80s.
His eldest boy Cooper was the first prospect of the next generation. Gridiron obsessed, he was on his way as a wide receiver at his father’s alma mater when his career was prematurely ended by spinal stenosis.
At the time, he wrote a letter to his younger brother Peyton, telling him he’d be living his football dreams vicariously through him from that point on. He got to enjoy that and the sight of Eli bringing two Lombardi trophies to the New York Giants while carving out his own successful life as an investor and a real estate developer.
Cooper has managed his own son’s progress smartly to this point. Arch didn’t play tackle football as a kid, sticking to the non-contact flag football, a version of the game that teaches the skills without incurring any hits.
From this point on, however, his name and notoriety will ensure an enormous target on his back every time he takes the field. Just as well that before every game he receives a text from his grandfather that reads: “Have fun!”
