Little brother Eli is now a leading Mann, too

Tom Coughlin was wrapping up another uneventful news conference Wednesday when he offhandedly asked reporters whether they had seen the latest ad featuring the Manning brothers.

It appeared Coughlin merely was making conversation, but by bringing attention to the DirecTV commercial, he inadvertently helped make an interesting point about Manning Bowl II.

In the ad, Peyton and Eli Manning are seen leaving for their game against each other Sunday night on NBC, but on the way out, Eli pushes Peyton into a closet to keep him from getting to the stadium.

Contrast that with their most well-known ad, one for ESPN in which Peyton gets the last laugh when he kicks Eli in the back of his legs as they tour the network's headquarters.

"I had to get a little payback,'' Eli said Wednesday.

It was all for fun (and endorsement money) but the role reversal has echoes in their professional and personal lives since their teams last met in 2006 - the year the ESPN commercial debuted.

Then Eli was a single 25-year-old with one full year as the Giants' quarterback and still firmly in the role he had played since birth: Cooper and Peyton Manning's much younger brother.

Four years later, Eli is in his seventh NFL season, a married man closing in on his 30th birthday, and a Super Bowl winner and Super Bowl MVP, just like Peyton, 34.

Eli never will stop being the youngest of Archie and Olivia Manning's three sons, and he likely never will match Peyton's historic statistical achievements.

And he still has many years worth of games to play. But for the first time in a lifetime, there is nothing to prove.

Eli said his relationship with Peyton began to change when he reached college and they could do things together. "I could get into an R-rated movie or whatever," he said. "We became friends more than just brothers.''

They also became football confidants, along with their father, Archie, a former pro star himself. But every year that has gone by, the bonds have become more ones among equals.

"I don't give advice to Eli unless he asks for it,'' Peyton said. "There are certain things that I ask him about, too, about football and whatnot.

"He certainly is a grown man. I just try to be there for him when he needs me, and I know it's the same way, that he's there for me.''

Now in his seventh pro season, Eli has become a part of the New York sports furniture, respected by fans and teammates and unfailingly comfortable in his own skin.

Archie told Newsday's Bob Glauber his two quarterbacking sons even have reversed personalities of late, with Eli becoming more outgoing and Peyton more reserved.

Tony Dungy, who coached the Colts in the 2006 game and now is an analyst for NBC's "Football Night in America,'' said the dynamics are entirely different this time.

"This isn't a great quarterback and his little brother,'' he said. "This is two veteran, Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks at the top of their game, who happen to be brothers.

"I think [Eli] has stepped up. He's not where Peyton is yet, but he's close."

That once would have been a shocking statement, if not an absurd one. And it still is a stretch.

But with Manning presumably entering the latter stages of his career and Eli in his prime, there could be a time when their performance charts cross.

If they do not change teams and or meet in a Super Bowl, this will be their last showdown until 2014, when Peyton will be 38. Their father doubts either will play much beyond that age.

So Sunday night could well be the most even head-to-head matchup of their lives. The family at least knows what to expect this time.

"That was the first time we'd experienced anything like that,'' Archie said of the 2006 game. "People forgot or couldn't picture that Peyton and Eli didn't grow up competing.

"When Peyton was 10, Eli was 5, so you don't compete.''

Four years later, the Mannings know they don't have to worry about Eli in these situations - or most any situation. Archie and Peyton spent most of their NFL years in New Orleans and Indianapolis, and Eli has stared into the New York spotlight and not blinked.

"He's developed his own niche and career,'' Dungy said. "He's not the little kid, the younger brother, anymore.''