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Eli Manning confirms signature on Cowboys Stadium wall

By ArtieFufkin

(Image: nbcdfw.com)

This weekend, the Giants and Cowboys will meet in the Meadowlands, in a game that the Giants need to win to keep any glimmer of playoff hopes alive.  And since it’s now December, the visiting Cowboys are looking for any mental edge they can get to prevent their annual end-of-season swoon. So, it makes sense that some Cowboys are bringing up the fact that Eli Manning tagged the visitor’s locker room after the Giants week 2 christening of Jerry World.  At the time, nobody could confirm or deny that the signature was authentic, and many assumed Photoshop was involved.

But during his pre-game media conference call today, Eli confirmed that it was indeed his writing on the wall. But Manning claims that a Cowboys employee asked him to leave his signature, as a start to a “wall of fame”, similar to ones in visitor locker rooms in Philadelphia and Denver. From NJ.com:

“It’s a pretty common thing. I was asked to sign it,” Manning said Thursday in confirming the authenticity of the signature. “It wasn’t like I just went there and signed it. I didn’t have a pen on me or anything.”

But that bird won’t fly with Wade Phillips, who refuted the notion that anyone within the Cowboys organization would have invited such a thing.  He will clearly be using this as extra motivation for his players to take down Manning and the Giants on Sunday.

Phillips had this to say:

“Things come back around in this league. I respect the team we play. That’s the way I approach the game and I expect our players to do the same thing.”

Eli is a classy player, a great player,” Phillips continued. “I really respect him, especially his family … I don’t think he meant anything by it but it wasn’t a great thing for him to do.”

Whatever.  The Giants have way bigger problems to worry about than a stupid autograph.  And as awful as they’ve played of late, they’re still 2-1 in the division.  With a stretch of games against Dallas, Philadelphia and Washington coming up, they still (unbelievably) have a shot to win the division.  My belief in this Giants team was drained on Thanksgiving day, but now that the games really matter, we’ll see if these players have any fight in them.