In a few hours, Eli Manning's iron man streak of 210 consecutive starts will come to an end when Geno Smith takes the first snap from center for the New York Giants against the Oakland Raiders. In a few months, Eli's 14-year NFL career may come to an end. At least, according to his father, Archie Manning.

"There's no sense speculating," Archie told NFL.com's Ian Rapoport. "If he's still there, we don't know what their future plans are, if other people are there. And you have no idea what other teams will think of a 37-year-old quarterback. You don't have any idea.

"Eli might say, 'I've had enough. I'm feeling good, I've got a beautiful wife, three little girls, I'm healthy. And that's it.' So there's no sense speculating."

That's a heck of a hedge from the patriarch from the Manning family, but it is the first public musing from someone close to Eli that he might decide to hang up his spikes rather than ply his trade somewhere other than East Rutherford, N.J. next year. As for Eli's reaction to the fact that he was going to be benched, Archie said, "It just flat broke his heart."

That's no surprise, given his reputation for competitiveness and the fact that he had never missed a start in his career since taking over for Kurt Warner all the way back in 2004. Of course, there's another Manning who may have had an opinion on how the Giants handled Eli's benching this week.

As for his older son's reaction, "You don't want to hear what Peyton said," Archie told NFL.com.