EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — At the Faneuil Hall Marketplace in downtown Boston, outside Fenway Park and even on Martha’s Vineyard, seven miles off Cape Cod, stores for years routinely sold T-shirts that read, “I Hate Eli Manning.”

On social media and fan-generated blogs devoted to the New England Patriots, any ranking of the most disliked Patriots opponents habitually lists Manning in the top three spots. Not surprisingly, the hundreds who eagerly comment on the rankings happily break down the depths of New England fans’ contempt for Manning. (They do not think much of his brother Peyton, either.)

It all originates, obviously, with the Giants’ two upset victories over the Patriots in Super Bowl games after the 2007 and the 2011 regular seasons, when Eli Manning made pivotal passes to produce game-winning drives in the final minutes. From the perspective of many Patriots fans, only Manning and bad luck have stood in the way of six New England Super Bowl titles, instead of the four the Patriots have won.

Or as one Patriots blog poster lamented, “Why did Archie and Olivia Manning have to have a third son?”