Eli Manning will play his final game as a Giant on Sunday. Or maybe it won't be. Our gut says it will be, but no one can know for sure.

What is clear is the Giants have failed Manning, no matter what comes next. They must now accept the consequences, whatever they may be.

Six years ago, Manning was 30. He was the reigning Best Quarterback on Earth. He had just won his second Super Bowl MVP and put the fourth trophy in the case. The team around him was about to be in flux, but he was entering his prime. And really, that's all the Giants needed. The rest would fall into place, they'd reboot and they'd chase another title.

Instead, they stand here. Forty-one wins and 54 losses since Super Bowl XLVI. Four losing seasons. One playoff appearance. Zero to show for it all.

Almost half of Manning's likely Hall of Fame career, completely wasted.

"Hey, it's tough to get to Super Bowls, tough to win them. No, I don't have regrets," Manning said Wednesday, always the good soldier. But regrets, the Giants certainly should have a few.

The front office failed to build another championship-caliber roster, particularly on the offensive line, and never gave Manning a serious shot to make another run. Ownership tolerated Jerry Reese's poor drafting and personnel negligence far too long (some career-changing injuries didn't help either). Tom Coughlin fell on his sword as an early result, but that wasn't the cure-all they thought it would be.

Enter Ben McAdoo, who failed to put a productive offense on the field once he became head coach, then just repeatedly threw Manning under the bus until delivering the final insult with his benching - a debacle ownership signed off on, even if they have spent every day since running from it. No, saying nice things is not a magic elixir to make that 215th start retroactively register.

Manning deserves part of the blame as well. He has not always played well, particularly in the last two seasons. But this is the important question: Was he fundamentally any different a player as he has been? Manning was never a consistently elite quarterback, save that 2011 run. He has always been a guy who was rough around the edges, with decisions and throws that made your heard hurt, only to put it all together when it mattered most.

Even what may prove to be Manning's last real shot at glory as a Giant - last season's playoff appearance - was undone by those around him. Manning showed up to play at Lambeau Field, zipping passes all over the field. His partying receivers dropped them. All of them. They couldn't shake the Boatgate heat, and the bottom fell out. Were the Giants capable of winning it all? Unlikely. But who knows what could have been.

Alas.

"We've worked hard, we've competed," Manning said. "Last year made the playoffs, didn't win in the playoffs. So, I don't feel regret in any way."

If Sunday's finale against the Redskins - Manning will again provide undeserved gravitas to this disgrace of a season behind a leaky line and with an injury-decimated receiving corps - is indeed the end, perhaps it was always going to go down like this. These things usually end badly, even for the best of them. But you know what? Manning should have had the chance to try for something better.

He still may get it, either here, somehow, or more likely elsewhere. If Manning leaves after this season, he will get to escape this mess and choose a team that can win immediately and contend - something unlikely to happen here - while the Giants move on into their new era, getting a fresh start with a new coach, general manager and quarterback.

We all know the happy reunion will eventually come, with a jersey retirement and Ring of Honor induction in the Meadowlands first, then a celebration in Canton later. Time will heal all wounds. It happened to Brett Favre, it happened to Peyton Manning, it happened to Joe Montana, it might happen to Tom Brady or Drew Brees. It can happen to Eli Manning, and if it does, everyone will move forward.

That doesn't mean it had to, though. That's the shame in this all. Manning deserved a shot at better, and the Giants owed him it. But they failed him, on and off the field. Sunday may be the end. It may not be. Either way, the Giants made this so. Now they have to live with it.

James Kratch may be reached at jkratch@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JamesKratch. Find our Giants coverage on Facebook.