Archie Manning called it "not a great situation" but said he would never criticize the Mara or Tisch families and that he would not pile on McAdoo. Asked to describe how it went, Manning said he believed the word from McAdoo to Eli was essentially "'OK, I'm taking you out after a while to play the other guys.' And Eli was like, 'Are you starting me just because of the record?' Ben said, 'Yeah, I guess so.' "And Eli was like, 'screw that.'" That was not the way Mara wanted it handled, Archie believed.