The Mannings

August 15, 2016
Former Sports Illustrated writer Anderson offers a balanced account of one of the premier families in the professional football, the Mannings. He begins with the family patriarch, Archie Manning, the legendary Ole Miss signal caller, who led the struggling New Orleans Saints through the 1970s. Archie, a native of Mississippi, set a high standard for achievement for his three sons, Cooper, Peyton, and Eli. Delving into the Manning psyche, Anderson gives a revealing analysis of Archie and his boys, the nice-guy father with the outspoken Peyton and the emotionally distant Eli. The Manning magic show continued after Archie's bruised NFL exit in 1984: starting in the late 1990s Peyton was an astonishing passer with the Indianapolis Colts and then the Denver Broncos, winning two Super Bowls and earning a reported $247 million in pro contracts. Eli, a promising quarterback at his father's alma mater, Ole Miss, surprised everyone by piloting the New York Giants to two Super Bowls and winning two MVPs in those games. Anderson, an accomplished storyteller, writes about the Manning football legacyâwarts and allâwith style and verve, backed by an abundance of research and scholarship.

June 15, 2016
A thorough but light-handed account of the making of a sports dynasty.Peyton and Eli Manning are the big names in a football family with roots in the football-crazy Deep South, Eli renowned as the second-highest-paid quarterback in NFL history, Peyton as "the face of the most popular sport in America." Yet the Mannings, as older readers and fans will know, go beyond the brothers. Longtime Sports Illustrated reporter Anderson (The Storm and the Tide: Tragedy, Hope, and Triumph in Tuscaloosa, 2014, etc.) begins and ends his vigorous story with Peyton's triumphant performance at Super Bowl 50, when he ended his career as the lead quarterback for the Denver Broncos. As the author notes, Peyton's numbers were legacy enough, with a record-setting number of 4,000-yard passing seasons, but he also was influential enough to change the rules regarding contact with defensive backs. Anderson digs in deep to trace the family franchise to the Depression era, especially to patriarch Archie Manning, who began as a rising star in basketball but, having failed an audition for a college slot, switched over to football at Ole Miss and, "a classic overachiever," became a renowned quarterback with a healthy respect for the fundamentals of the game: controlling the ball with the fingers and not the palm, standing with balance, throwing straight and on-target. Archie's college career helped improve a strained relationship with his own father, and he set numerous records and became a legend in Ole Miss lore. Archie Manning certainly isn't an obscure figure in football, nor is his son Cooper, forced to leave the game for medical reasons, but it's good to see both get more of their due from under the shadow of their more famous kin, and Anderson's yarn never wobbles. A winner for fans of modern football.

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August 1, 2016

Archie Manning was a legendary quarterback at the University of Mississippi who spent 16 years on unsuccessful teams in the NFL. He raised three sons including Cooper, whose football career ended with an injury in high school, and two Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks: Peyton and Eli. Peyton, a future Hall of Famer, has been the subject of many books, but the only biography of the family was John Underwood's Manning, which largely consisted of first-person accounts by Archie and Peyton. Here, Anderson (The Storm and the Tide) stresses family life and places emphasis on the mantra of Archie and even his father--be a nice person. The first half of this book deals with Archie's life and playing career, although comparatively little is included about his woeful time as a pro. Later chapters detail the upbringing of Archie's sons. Football heroics are the connecting thread but not the main point, as the book tries to depict the distinct personalities of each of the Mannings. VERDICT An expertly written impressionistic account of the first family of football that will be of wide interest.

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