“I just didn’t feel like they were the most committed team to winning at the time,” Manning said. “Marty Schottenheimer was the head coach, who was awesome. Had great respect for him. But they came to work me out in New Orleans, went to dinner and there was just friction between the head coach, general manager [A.J. Smith], the owners [Spanos family]. They are all yelling — kind of like fighting.”
“We are at a Marriott restaurant. Schottenheimer’s mad like, ‘We’re in New Orleans and we’re eating at a Marriott?’ He’s like pissed. They are kind of bickering,” Eli recalled. “It just didn’t seem there was a lot of agreement on things and they were committed to building a great winning franchise at that moment.”