Tom Coughlin rips Eli Manning for 'unbelievable' interceptions

Eli Manning and Tom Coughlin will be forever irrevocably connected to each other in New York Giants history for their two miraculous Super Bowl wins and their decade long relationship as mentor and protege.  Throughout it all, you never heard the head coach besmirch the play of Manning — either as a raw rookie or a struggling veteran —until now.

In what must have been a painful burst of criticism towards his quarterback's poor play against the Eagles Sunday, Coughlin ripped Manning for throwing three interceptions and pinned the devastating loss squarely on his signal caller.

"It all comes down to the interceptions," Coughlin said after the game. " Two of them were just unbelievable."

The 36-21 loss at home to Philadelphia sees the Giants (0-5) match their worst start in a non-strike season since 1979.

"I honestly believe that he’s trying so hard to get us a win, he’s almost put too much on himself," Coughlin said. "He keeps it all pretty much inside. I’m not making excuses. There were a couple of those plays that were terrible."

The quarterback — who now has a head-turning 12 interceptions on the season and hasn't heard boos like this in over six years— held himself accountable for the Giants’ latest debacle.

"I know I can play better," Manning said. "Sometimes, things are going to go wrong, but you’ve got to make the best decision. Throw it away, take a sack. I know I can’t keep turning the ball over every time."

Coughlin didn’t help the Giants with his own mistake. The coach, normally so attentive to detail, burned two timeouts on one play with 12:40 left in the third quarter, when LeSean McCoy’s tiptoeing catch gave the Eagles an apparent first down. Coughlin wasn’t initially sure if he wanted to challenge the play, so he called a timeout, and "just settled everybody down." When he elected to challenge and the play stood, he lost another timeout.

"I instinctively just took a timeout," he said. "Obviously, had I known in advance, I would have challenged first."

Coughlin was angry but still made sure he found Manning after the game to talk it over.

"I just grabbed him a moment in the locker room," said Coughlin. "He's way, way too good a player to have these things happen."

The boos probably drowned him out.

Giants counting on Manning to close gap in NFC East — Peyton Manning that is

If the New York Giants have any chance of salvaging this season, it sounds like the team believes it will have to pin their slim hopes on the broad shoulders of a Manning or two.

If there was ever a good time for Giants quarterback Eli Manning to cash in on a family favor — it couldn't have come at a better time than this weekend.

As the Oh-and-four Giants regroup after Sunday's  31-7 shellacking at the hands of the Chiefs, salvation might come in the form of a quarterback from another team —namely Eli's big brother Peyton.

The division-leading Cowboys play Peyton's Broncos on Sunday and it sounded like Eli is already counting on that game as a win for his big brother and his seemingly unstoppable offense.

"Dallas is going to Denver this week, so we feel we’ve got to get a win here and hopefully we’ll get a win and we can be one game back," said the optimistic Eli on Monday.

The game is actually being played in Dallas, but Eli's point is taken.

Luckily for the pathetic Giants, every other team in the NFC East are almost as bad. The Cowboys are on top with a 2-2 record and the Eagles and Redskins each have one victory. Even with a four game losing streak to start the season, the Giants are only two games back.

The Giants have an opportunity to close the gap on Sunday. Don't discount what a little brotherly love can do.

Tiki Barber reveals he's expecting baby with new wife

Tiki Barber has revealed he and the 23-year-old former NBC intern he left his pregnant ex-wife for three years ago are expecting their first child together.

The former New York Giants running back —who married one-time mistress Traci Johnson in a civil ceremony in a New York City Hall ceremony in July, eight days after his divorce to his wife of 11 years, Ginny, became final — boasted that he will be dad one more time.

Speaking on the women's gab-fest "Bethenny," the 37-year-old Barber said that his fifth child, and Johnson's first, was due in December before rubbing his young bride's belly as the live audience applauded. The episode will air this coming Tuesday.

The former Giants' lightning bolt running back turned lightning rod pariah had to endure the wrath of many fans after leaving his first wife in 2010, even though she was eight months pregnant with twin girls, after beginning an affair with Johnson.

At the time of the affair, Barber was working for NBC's "Today" show with ambitions to be a serious journalist, but lost his job soon afterwards when his contract wasn't renewed. His poor interviewing skills and dull camera presence didn't help his cause.

The affair with the former NBC intern and Maxim pinup girl did not help endear him to football viewers either, as public opinion against Barber had already been lukewarm.

Before he became gossip fodder, Barber infuriated Giants fans when he questioned the techniques of head coach Tom Coughlin and the leadership skills of the Giants quarterback, Eli Manning, both of whom since gone onto to win two Superbowl championships with the Giants — each without Barber in the picture.

Giants fans lustily booed the former NFL star when Barber was inducted into the Giants' Ring of Honor in October 2010.

Before his secret affair with Johnson became public, Barber was thought of as a committed family man, already the father of two sons and the expectant father of twin daughters.

And last year he insulted New York's Jewish community by comparing the clandestine affair with Johnson conducted inside a friend's attic as akin to the harrowing tale of Anne Frank.

Tabloid's back page mocks Eli Manning after tough loss to brother Peyton

The back page of today's N.Y. Daily News with the headline "MOMMY" says it all about Eli Manning's third loss to big brother Peyton ... and it can't comforting to either one.

Sunday afternoon’s showdown with the dominant Denver Broncos at MetLife Stadium was supposed to be one last chance for Eli to beat Big Bro in a regular season game, and maybe lead to one more match-up in the same place at this year's Super Bowl.  

But the idea of the Manning Bowl IV was a moot point for the Giants quarterback after an embarrassing 41-23 loss to the Broncos in front of mom and dad in the stands.

And a kiss and a Band-Aid won't make this loss feel any better.

Never mind that Eli got another noogie from Peyton and fell to 0-3 against Big Bro. The Giants are going to have to convince everyone that they’re a better team than their record shows, and that these two season-opening losses could have been wins.

Eli Manning has 'anointed' portrait of himself hanging in home

Who knew humble old Eli Manning was hiding a little bit of A-Rod narcissism inside?

The New York Giants quarterback — known for his Aw shucks personality — is also a serious art collector who keeps a portrait of himself titled "Annointed" hanging in his vast collection of works.

“He would appear to be anointed, in the parlance of our Protestant religious fables and myths,” said Mississippi-born artist and family friend William Dunlap, who painted  the portrait and misspelled the word — with an extra “n”— in gold leaf.

“It wasn’t intentional,” Dunlap said of the spelling fumble. “There’s no secret message there.”

Dunlap, 69, said the painting’s title refers to Manning’s bloodlines — father Archie quarterbacked the Saints for a decade, and future Hall of Fame brother Peyton is Denver’s leader on the field.

“Annointed” was shipped to New Jersey, where Manning lives during football season, Dunlap said.

While not nearly as vain as the Yankee third baseman's infamous Centaur self-portrait rumored to be hanging over his bed, Annointed hangs prominently in Manning's Hoboken abode.

But Manning's tastes are more than pedestrian — his Big Blue Period collection includes abstract impressionist Ida Kohlmeyer, and Theora Hamblett, a Mississippi artist whose work has hung in the Museum of Modern Art and in the home of Nelson Rockefeller.

According to The New York Post, the Renaissance Man's (he also acts) art collection also includes a depiction of the Williams Brothers Store — a Mississippi market opened in 1907 by Manning’s great-grandfather and great-great-uncle. The allegorical image includes six hounds, five of them meant to represent members of the Manning clan — parents Archie and Olivia, and brothers Cooper, Peyton and Eli, Dunlap said.

On Sunday at MetLife Stadium, Eli's Giants will square off against Peyton and the Broncos in Manning Bowl III — in what can now only be called a dogfight.

Eli Manning pouts after pick-six interception (GIF)

New York Giants’ Eli Manning did a lot of pouting Sunday night. But none was more obvious than the pick-six that cost his Giants the game.

This self-loathing came after his late fourth-quarter interception that was returned by Brandon Carr 49 yards for a touchdown to ice the Cowboys’ victory. Manning threw three interceptions  in Sunday's 36-31 loss to the 'Boys but his teammates' three other miscues only added to his frustration.

Here's  Eli Manning’s little tantrum after the final minute interception that helped Cowboys ice the win over Giants.

Eli Manning says Peyton made it `look easy' against Ravens

After Peyton Manning joined Sid Luckman, Adrian Burk, George Blanda, YA Tittle and Joe Kapp as the only NFL quarterbacks to throw seven touchdowns in a single game, Eli Manning chimed in on his big brother's remarkable feat.

The New York Giants quarterback downplayed Thursday night's brilliant performance by Peyton as only a younger sibling could.

“Yeah, he did okay,” Eli Manning deadpanned to the Giants website. “He did alright. He makes it look easy. I don’t appreciate that. I know it definitely is harder than what it looked like, especially that second half. But he played pretty outstanding. It was fun to watch.”

The older Manning threw a franchise-record seven touchdowns in the Denver Broncos’ 49-27 victory over the defending Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens in Denver. He became the first quarterback to do so since former Vikings’ Kapp accomplished the feat in 1969.

He completed 27 of 42 passes for 462 with the seven touchdowns and no interceptions.

Still, Eli has a pair of Super Bowl rings — as opposed to Peyton's one — to help keep things into perspective.  The brothers will face each other in the third Manning Bowl at MetLife Stadium next Sunday.

Cruz explains shortened salsa dance: 'It's just preseason, so I didn't want to two-step'

New York Giants wideout Victor Cruz missed almost everything the team did this off season because  he didn't have a contract and, according to head coach Tom Coughlin, came to camp a little "rusty."

Now Cruz has a $43 million contract but might still have a little lingering rust in his joints — at least when it comes to his post-touchdown dancing.

After completing 57-yard TD catch-and-run from Eli Manning, Victor Cruz started his salsa celebration and then waved his hands and cut short the dance. It had fans wondering what gives?

"Yeah, it’s just preseason so I didn’t want to two-step, I didn’t want to give it the full gambit just yet just because it’s the preseason,'' Cruz said after the Giants' 18-13 preseason opening victory over the Steelers. "The salsa is still going strong.''

The vintage catch-and-run by Cruz spiced up what was a pretty pedestrian outing by the G-Men.  Even though Cruz' dance lacked his usual flair, he looked like he's shaken off most of the rust otherwise.

"I think [Polamalu] was thinking I was going to break off the route, so I just went vertical and Eli threw a great pass to me that I was able to take in for the touchdown," Cruz said. "It’s great to be on the same page with your quarterback, and Eli and I work hard on that. When things are clicking, you really get the results you want."

Cruz can do the Charleston for all Giants fans care — as long as he and Eli still waltz together like that a couple times a game.

First photos of Eli and Abby Manning's newest little Giant

A day after DIRECTV debuted Eli and Peyton Manning's rap video commercial, the New York Giants quarterback and his wife Abby had their new baby daughter's first photos published.

Eli — more than anyone —knows being the younger sibling to a star isn't easy, so when Abby took little Lucy Thomas Manning for a stroll around their Hoboken, N.J. neighborhood with her older sister Ava Frances on Tuesday, the six-week-old "rookie" followed her rappin' dad's lead and just studied the first-born, according to The New York Post.

Abby wore workout shorts and sneakers for her day out with their little girls and the public’s first look at well-behaved newborn, who reportedly didn’t utter a single shout-out from her stroller.

The 32-year-old Eli and his college-sweetheart wife welcomed Lucy to the world on June 17. Three-year-old Ava Frances was born in March 2010.

In an interview with Parents magazine last year, Eli said raising children brings a lot more surprises than any football game — even the Super Bowl.

“In terms of the Super Bowl, I know what to expect,” he said. “With parenting, this has been a brand-new experience. It’s life-changing. Every day, you learn something new.”

Lucy and Ava are members of football’s most famous family. Dad Eli has led the Giants to two Super Bowl wins, while uncle Peyton — quarterback of the Denver Broncos — won one title with the Colts.

And grandpa Archie played for 14 years in the NFL.

Eli Manning said he doesn’t care that he has girls and no boys.

“I think a lot of guys want a son because of all of the things they do while growing up,” he said. “Having a girl is a blast. I don’t care what happens down the road, as long as the children are healthy.”

One piece of advice. Stick to quarterbacking Lucy, a rap career just seems like a reach. Just sayin'.

Tiki Barber: Eli is better than big brother Peyton

It sounds like the feud between Tiki Barber and Eli Manning has taken an about face and now the former Giants running back is singing the praises of Eli — going as far as to call him a better quarterback than his brother Peyton.

Barber, who co-hosts the Morning Show with Brandon Tierney and Dana Jacobsen on the CBS Sports Radio Network, said on Wednesday's show that he thinks Eli is better than Peyton.

"The expectation was that he was never going to be Peyton. I remember having these conversations with people who watched Eli in college, saying, 'He's good, but he's never going to be Peyton, he's not Peyton.' Guess what? I think he's better than Peyton," Barber said. "Because of clutch. What matters in sports? It's winning and losing. You get to the stage and what do you do? Eli's gotten there and he's won."

For the record, Eli's career postseason record is while big brother's is 9-11.

Barber, who played with —and criticized — Eli for three seasons in New York, didn't stop there. He also said Eli could be in the conversation for top-five quarterback of all time if he has a couple more successful seasons.

"For Eli to crack the top five of all time, he's got to have a 2011 [type] season a couple more times and win another Super Bowl and be Super Bowl MVP, and then I think he's in the discussion for the top five [quarterbacks] of all time," Barber said.

It's quite a turn for the Giants' pariah. Barber publicly questioned Manning's leadership abilities back in 2007 — after Barber retired. When Eli responded, the fight was on. 

Barber was quoted as saying that when Eli tried to give motivational pre-game speeches, he sounded "comical." When Manning heard the comments from Barber, he replied that maybe Barber should take a look at himself first, because Barber's pending retirement had served as a distraction all season long.

Manning went on to win the first of his two Super Bowls that season while Barber watched from his couch.

Since then, Manning has gone on to become one of the most-respected elite quarterbacks in the NFL while Tiki has pretty much faded from view and favor with Giants fans.

In 2011, Manning threw 29 touchdown passes on the way to leading the Giants to a Super Bowl win over the Patriots, the second Super Bowl win of Eli's career. Eli's 4,933 passing yards in 2011 is the eighth-highest single-season total in NFL history and is 233 yards more than Peyton's best single-season performance. Something even Barber has to acknowledge.

"As much as you want to try and diminish what he's done, you can't," Barber said of Manning. "Every stat and conversation point supports what he's done."

Manning Bowl III is set for Sept. 15 when they meet at MetLife Stadium and Peyton goes for the sweep.

And, just maybe, there will be a Giants-Broncos matchup in Super Bowl XLVIII in the same place to settle the argument once and for all.

First look at Eli and Peyton's new DirecTV characters

Every year the NFL preseason brings with it high hopes and — in the case of the Manning brothers — low comedy. And tt sure beats Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson.

This summer is no different reports TMZ,  after Eli and Peyton were spotted in character on a New Orleans film location and the gossip site posted the photographic proof.

According toTMZ:

He's already got 2 ringz ... but this week, Eli Manning threw on 2 Chainz ... and gangster'd himself out (along with his brother Peyton) ... for another DirecTV commercial shoot in New Orleans, and TMZ has the pic. 

With Eli sporting a red Kanye-inspired jacket and a quasi-mullet ... and Peyton sporting a Jew-fro and Birdman shades ... we're guessing the NFL superstars were doing another one of those goofy spots for Sunday Ticket. 

It wouldn't be the first time Saturday Night Live's favorite NFL siblings camped it up together.  Who could forget the gut-busting 'Football Cops."