Eli Manning has some advice for his college football-playing nephew — be careful and walk a fine line with what you say.
The two-time Giants Super Bowl champ chatted with Front Office Sports this week, and while he said most of his words of wisdom to Arch Manning would be about football, he did say that the Texas quarterback and presumptive top-five NFL draft pick should be “careful” with reporters.
“Most of my advice, more football stuff,” Manning told the outlet. “He’ll have to figure out that media on his own, and a lot of it is just kind of growing pains. You feel like they’re your pal, you relax with them a little bit, you try to be funny, and then they can take it and run.
“So you just gotta be careful. You gotta find your moments where you can be funny, you can be relaxed, but there’s certain things that you know you just gotta learn and deal with it. And I think he has learned, and he apologized and did the right steps in handling that.”
The Longhorns signal-caller, off to a 3-0 start with the top team in the nation, was in the middle of a media firestorm last week in the wake of a win over then-No. 1 Ohio State.
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian made waves for his non-interview with ESPN field reporter Holly Rowe in which he yelled, “Go Texas, fight! Let’s go Texas, fight! Hook ’em,” before walking away without fielding questions.
Days later, Arch Manning spoke with members of the press and brought up an AI-generated video in which a digital Sarkisian slapped Rowe.
“I’ve seen a few AI edits and stuff, but that’s about it. I saw AI edits of Sark’s interview,” Manning said, bringing laughter to the room.
“Have y’all seen that one? That’s a good one,” Arch Manning added with a smile and laugh. “Of him slapping Holly Rowe? That’s hilarious.”
Arch, one day later, said he apologized directly to Rowe, who accepted and hoped to move on from the incident.
“In my press conference yesterday, I made an insensitive comment about an Al video,” Manning wrote Tuesday in an Instagram Story post. “There is nothing funny about it. It’s easy to say I didn’t mean it, but I know my words and actions were hurtful to a lot of people. I do not take that lightly and am deeply sorry for that.”
Texas faces No. 14 Tennessee on Saturday at noon ET in a game that will be on ABC and feature Rowe as the sideline reporter.
