Eli Manning Leaves Door Open For Future in Broadcasting

Eli Manning is living the good life right now, playing golf, hanging out with family and getting paid to be a spokesperson for multiple different brands, including Yahoo Sports! Watch Together, which is why he slummed it to answer a few questions from me.

These questions, because I'm a person who likes to talk media, centered around if he could see himself in broadcast like his brothers Cooper and Peyton. Just as he did as a quarterback for the Giants, he deftly sidestepped my first attempt to extract information, but I got a small bite with my follow-up about if any broadcaster companies had reached out to him about joining their team.

"No, nothing official, no official asks and I really haven't reached out and I wouldn't be interested in making that commitment as well," Manning told The Big Lead. "I think it's really a time to, not be adventurous, but dabble in a few different fields and see what interest is there from both sides."

So far, Manning has dabbled in many fields post-retirement, but broadcast is not one of them. Based on his answers, it doesn't seem like he's that interested, though he also didn't shut the door completely.

"I'm still just kind of feeling all that out and I think that's how I wanted to use this year is to try a few things, not make any decisions too quickly and rush into anything," Manning said. "I think that's kind of the worst thing I could is to rush into something and be committed into something that I'm really not passionate about and don't love doing."

The only work-work Manning has done since he hung up the cleats is as a spokesperson, something he was successful at during his playing days. As mentioned, he spoke with TBL to promote the “Watch Together” feature on Yahoo!, which allows "NFL fans to video chat on their phones with friends while watching live local and primetime games in the Yahoo Sports app." He's also done extensive work promoting Franks Red Hot.

Beyond that, he joined Twitter in May, has played a bunch of golf (including the Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February), and has spent time with his family.

Manning hasn't made any broadcast appearances during this NFL season so far, not even as a guest on Cooper's pregame segment on FOX, so there was no reason to think he would want to be in the media. However, with the influx of former quarterbacks filling seats on national television and Manning's successful background as a commercial endorser and as the host of Saturday Night Live, I couldn't help but take this chance to see if Eli would spill the beans.

He did not. He did, however, provide some clarity on what he's looking for.

"I wanted to take this fall to just try out a few things and see what I enjoy, what gets me excited and also see if I can do it all in the right time frame," Manning said. "How much do I want to work, how much do I want to be away and try all those things out to have a better feel for how I want to spend my time and what capacity and fields I want to be working in."

Based on that, free time seems like a top priority to him, so being a regular guest on a daily studio show doesn't seem like an option. Tony Romo likewise values free time to spend with his family/play golf and has made it work as an analyst, so perhaps that could be in Manning's future. But like Peyton and Cooper, it seems Eli might be best suited for a role in pre-taped segments that are more timeless and can be done on his schedule. Or he could just keep getting paid handsomely to be a spokesperson for brands, which seems cool except having to speak with me.