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" As part of a collaboration with ESPN, Esquire.com&amp;#039;s The Culture Blog will be previewing a new episode of the Worldwide Leader&amp;#039;s award-winning news-magazine show, E:60, each week throughout the NFL season. On Wednesday night&amp;#039;s episode (airing at 7:30 Eastern), Jeremy Schaap looks at Eli Manning&amp;#039;s off-the-field charity work (hint: blind golf). In anticipation of that \u2014 and, you know, the Giants-Cowboys game \u2014 the veteran reporter talked to us about the past, present, and still-great future of the reigning Super Bowl-champion quarterback. \u2014Eds. Obviously, Eli Manning has become one of the elite quarterbacks in the league. He&amp;#039;s been self-fulfilling. The people who laughed at him for saying that he was an elite quarterback certainly can&amp;#039;t be laughing now. Now, he&amp;#039;s one of the three or four best quarterbacks in the league. He gets as much respect as Tom Brady and his older brother. If you&amp;#039;re a Giants fan and you&amp;#039;re watching the Giants live, you couldn&amp;#039;t have doubts about the performance of Eli Manning. I feel like, going into last season, there were a lot of questions; his reputation rested on his performance in the 2007 Super Bowl. But now that he&amp;#039;s won it twice \u2014 now that he&amp;#039;s had one of the great regular seasons in NFL passing history and put the Giants on his back during that spectacular run \u2014 well, now he&amp;#039;s done everything a man possibly can to answer the questions about him. The larger point, I guess, is this: Just a few years ago, people would&amp;#039;ve said that the Chargers got the better of the Giants when that deal resulted in their landing of Philip Rivers and the Giants getting Eli Manning. And there&amp;#039;s nobody who feels that way today. Assuming he stays healthy, Eli&amp;#039;s only going to get better. We&amp;#039;ve seen him grow over the past seven years, working hard, gaining a greater understanding of defenses, and generating greater comfort \u2014 all of the things that happen naturally with more reps. He&amp;#039;s going to make fewer mistakes and the game will slow down even more for him. You can see that progression in just the past three seasons. And I don&amp;#039;t have any reason to believe that growth won&amp;#039;t continue. This is a league about winning the big game, right? And that&amp;#039;s what the quarterback is supposed to do. As an underdog on two occasions in the biggest sporting event in this country, it was Eli Manning who came out on top and out-performed Tom Brady. If that isn&amp;#039;t the ultimate barometer of where he should stand now \u2014 of where he should go next \u2014 then I don&amp;#039;t know what is. \u2014as told to Ryan Joseph MORE FROM ESQUIRE.COM&amp;#039;S 2012 FOOTBALL KICKOFF: The Cheerleader Preview, the Best Beers for Every Team, the Best-Dressed Players in the NFL, the Fantasy Don&amp;#039;ts, and the College-Football Preview with Jenn Brown Follow The Culture Blog on RSS and on Twitter at @ESQCulture. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/sports/interviews/a15634/eli-manning-jeremy-schaap-12403475/?src=rss>