Eli Manning took public criticism from his coach this week like he takes a sack after a blown block by his offensive line. He got up, brushed himself off and moved on.
After Monday night's loss to the Lions, head coach Ben McAdoo blamed Manning for a delay of game penalty that cost the New York Giants a chance to go for a touchdown at the goal line while trailing by 10 points in the second half. McAdoo called the penalty "sloppy quarterback play."
On Wednesday, Manning dismissed the criticism and took the high road.
"He knows I can take it. If you've played 14 years in New York, you've been criticized," Manning said, via the team's official website. "You can take pretty much whatever they throw at you. So Coach McAdoo and I are on the same page and anything he says -- whether it's to the media, to me, to the team -- it's all for the better of the team and I'm OK with it."
While a head coach trashing his starting quarterback publicly rarely happens, Manning added he received the criticism because the coach knows he can handle it, whereas other players might go into a shell after having such reproach tossed their direction.
"It's part of being in the NFL," Manning said. "You can't be sensitive and I think everyone's gotten very sensitive -- players and everybody. If someone says anything negative about you, or you did something wrong, then you've got a problem. Coach McAdoo and I have a great relationship. I think he understands that. I told him when he first got here, 'I enjoy being coached, if I screw something up, let me know.' I want to be coached, so we talked about things and there's some things I've got to do that I've got to be better at."
