NEW YORK \u2014 Eli Manning still has a desk inside the Giants\u2019 building, but he won\u2019t be buying a stake in the team.<\/p>\n
The franchise is looking to sell up 10% of a minority stake in the organization. Manning, 44, the two-time Super Bowl MVP, previously had expressed interest in buying in. But he said on CNBC recently that the asking price is too high.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe Giants one, basically it\u2019s too expensive for me,\u201d Manning said. \u201cThese numbers are getting big. A one percent stake of something valued at $10 billion, it turns into a very big number.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I love the Giants. I think it\u2019s deserving of that valuation,\u201d he added. \u201cThere\u2019ll be people that will want to go for it. And I was kind of along the ride.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manning said there were also conflicts of interest with his current jobs, however, that further complicated his potential investment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really was a matter of some complications with the fact that I\u2019m doing broadcasting, I wouldn\u2019t be able to talk to the players,\u201d he said. \u201cI coach in the Pro Bowl. I do a high school football camp where college guys come. There were gonna be a lot of conflicts, and it was gonna affect my day job.<\/p>\n
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\u201cSo I kind of had to pull out of the Giants deal,\u201d he added. \u201cBut still obviously I\u2019m here and have access and am still very involved in the Giants organization.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manning\u2019s announcement could be good news for the Giants if the franchise indeed is fetching a $10 billion total valuation. This could also be Manning\u2019s way of trying to help the organization fetch that number as he bows out.<\/p>\n
The Giants, in the meantime, made some internal staff cuts this offseason with an eye on trimming down for prospective buyers.<\/p>\n
They also retained GM Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll into the fourth year of their five-year contracts after a 3-14 centennial season.<\/p>\n
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Some league sources have speculated that this was in part financially motivated, since hiring a new GM and head coach while still owing Schoen and Daboll tens of millions through 2026 could have been less attractive to prospect buyers.<\/p>\n
The NFL allowed private equity firms to buy up to 10% of teams under a new policy approved last August.<\/p>\n
Regardless of who buys in, the team is not ceding control, which has rested with current President John Mara or his family since his grandfather, Tim Mara, founded the team in 1925.<\/p>\n
Since 1991, the Tisch and Mara families have each owned 50% of the club, with a long list of individual family members holding small stakes. Since the passing of Wellington Mara and Bob Tisch in 2005, the team has been under the control of John Mara and Steve Tisch on behalf of their respective families.<\/p>\n
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Waller wanted to play, just not here<\/p>\n
Darren Waller wanted to play in the NFL again \u2014 just not for the Giants.<\/p>\n
Waller, 32, who hung up his cleats after one 2023 season in New York, un-retired to facilitate a trade to the Miami Dolphins that became official last week.<\/p>\n
The tight end said he soured on playing football entirely in 2023 when Brian Daboll deployed him as a fullback against the Bills in a Week 6 October loss at Buffalo.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I was retiring when we played in Buffalo. It was in the first quarter of the game,\u201d Waller said on \u2018The Side You Don\u2019t See\u2019 podcast. \u201cWe were running this counter lead running play, and I\u2019m kind of leading through the hole like I\u2019m a fullback. And the play is working.<\/p>\n
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\u201cBut I sit down on the sideline after a drive where we ran it three times, and I\u2019m like, \u2018What the f\u2014 am I doing with my life? I\u2019m out here playing fullback. I don\u2019t even wanna do this s\u2014 anymore.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
Waller said he was \u201clooking at the moon\u201d and decided \u201cyep, I\u2019m gonna finish this year to the best of my ability, but I\u2019m definitely done playing after this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former Giants standout receiver Plaxico Burress said on the \u2018Up On Game\u2018 podcast that, in his opinion, Waller didn\u2019t want to play for Daboll.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it had more to do with a lot of things he had going on outside of football, and I don\u2019t really think he wanted to be here in New York playing for Brian Daboll,\u201d Burress said. \u201cI really honestly believe that. It wasn\u2019t a good situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Schoen, who traded a third-round pick to the Raiders to acquire Waller in 2023, got a 2026 sixth-round pick from the Miami Dolphins in exchange for Waller and a conditional 2027 seventh rounder.<\/p>\n
The Giants GM continues to seek an elusive answer at tight end. He has drafted two fourth-rounders (Daniel Bellinger 2022, Theo Johnson 2024) and one seventh-rounder (Thomas Fidone, 2025) in addition to the failed Waller trade. And he\u2019s still searching for a reliable answer at the position.<\/p>\n
Camp on the way<\/p>\n
The Giants\u2019 rookies reported to the team\u2019s facility on Tuesday. The full team is required to report one week later on July 22. Then the team will hold its first practice of training camp on July 23.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 Eli Manning still has a desk inside the Giants\u2019 building, but he won\u2019t be buying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210337,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2067],"tags":[200,5047,4540,3724,7,519,201,6518,251,1917,56,2321,2469,6,1799,5048],"class_list":{"0":"post-210336","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-giants","8":"tag-brian-daboll","9":"tag-daniel-bellinger","10":"tag-darren-waller","11":"tag-eli-manning","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-giants","14":"tag-joe-schoen","15":"tag-john-mara","16":"tag-miami-dolphins","17":"tag-new-york","18":"tag-new-york-giants","19":"tag-newyork","20":"tag-newyorkgiants","21":"tag-nfl","22":"tag-the-giants","23":"tag-theo-johnson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114860218437579516","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}