Manning's first Super Bowl win was a team with one Pro-Bowler, and him on the defense. He beat Tony Romo's team on the way, where Romo, on a game-winning drive, drew penalties with his immature behavior and threw an interception in the end zone, on a relatively short pass. Romo was playing on a TEAM that featured a Pro Bowl running back, a Pro Bowl tight end and one of the best wide receivers in the game and three All Pro Offensive linemen. One of Manning's scores was a fast-moving two-minute-drill drive with barely any time before the half, while both of Romo's TD drives were largely dependent on Marian Barber running behind three star blockers, against a D-line infamous for its lightwieght pass-rushers.

While Manning has been throwing to relative unknowns like Amani Toomer and Steve Smith (the sole All Pro wide receiver of Manning's career, and an alternate at that), and distractions/penalty magnets like Plaxico Burress & Jeremy Shockey, and won a Super Bowl the year his team led the league in dropped passes, Romo had Terrell Owens, Jason Witten and Miles Austin. What more can you ask for in supporting offensive performers? Five all-pro linemen? An all-pro fullback? A second all-pro wideout? Dallas is repeatedly hailed as a potential champion, season after season, while despite the Giants success in standings and post-season, an analysis of the talent on their roster leads to them repeatedly being picked for mediocre finishes.



What teammate made Tony Romo throw an interception to a washed-up nickleback with a playoff game on the line? Which one made him fumble a hold? Which player made him lurch backwards and fall down in the endzone to provide the margin of victory in a home game that was the Cowboys' last best to win the division last season?

You want to talk about defenders, well, while Manning was throwing on opening day against an elite cornerback, and a secondary the announcers could not stop singing the praises of, Romo was throwing to a talented group of receivers against an injury-ravaged secondary. His decisive touchdown to Miles Austin came against a fourth-string (literally) cornerback.

Your assertion that Manning's success is due to superior supporting players is absurd.

I was discussing reasons for image and perception, which was the subject of the original post - the imagined immunity from criticism Super Bowl winners receive despite supposedly inferior play on the first week of the season. I was not remotely criticizing Romo for who he dates, and my ignorance of his current familial status is an indicator of that indifference (I didn't even know Manning had a kid until he brought her onto the field to throw the first pitch at a Mets game on Father's Day this year). My point was simply to reiterate that if they want to avoid criticism, they have to insulate themselves with accomplishments. The fact that Romo was in a position to become aquainted with celebrities before he had any signifcant accomplishments (relatively speaking of course, as making an NFL team is a <1% accomplishment in its own right), gives the impression of distraction from perfecting his craft. I am not saying that Eli Manning evaded tabloid headlines because of his superior work ethic (if I had to put money on it, my guess would be "because he's a big dork" ) that enabled him to make superior achievements or something, nor am I saying that Romo's choke in the playoff game against Manning was due to his infamous Cabo vacation. However, if he IS going to do those things, he and his fans/supporters will have to live with it.

Incidentally, my enthusiasm for Manning has everything to do with what team he plays for, as does much of my antipathy for Romo (to the extent that the strength of my feelings for their respective teams inspires greater scrutiny of each player and more mental effort to analyzing what I see, when mostly I would be content to coast on the general impression, whether favorable or not, of each had they played elsewhere). All your rants about team issues do is justify my own feelings of the superiority of the one club over the other. If the teams traded quarterbacks, my opinions of the two would remain unchanged, as would my hopes of the outcomes of their games and divisional standings.