An early version of the now-classic Eli Manning face

This Manning home video - in all its 80′s VHS glory – has been on YouTube since 2009, but we hadn’t seen it until recently, and it’s a pretty fantastic slice of football history.

Watch young Eli Manning playing a game of pick-up football at his home in New Orleans, with his family looking on. It appears to be a birthday party of some sort, with Eli and his friends participating in one of the least-organized games you’ll ever see. Father Archie is the cameraman, brother Peyton is the ref, and mother Olivia is barely paying attention as Eli refuses to play two-hand touch, and cheats his way around the football field.

But it’s worth noting the two-time Super Bowl MVP’s preternatural leadership qualities on display at an early age (he’s clearly the one in charge out there), as well as the play where Eli goes down on the concrete part of the driveway, and simply brushes himself off as he gets back up and resumes playing. And then there’s the now-infamous Eli Manning face, as seen in the banner pic above. Some things never change.

Eventually, Archie steps in at all-time QB to bring some sanity to the proceedings (with Peyton taking over camera duties), delivering a touchdown strike to Eli before the video cuts out. But not before we get a small taste of what life growing up in the Manning household was like.

VIDEO AFTER THE JUMP

(Image via DirecTV.com)

With the lockout giving NFL athletes even more time than usual to hawk products for huge endorsement deals, it should come as no surprise that two of the game’s most prolific pitchmen – the Manning brothers – are taking things to the next level with their new promotion.  Football Cops is being presented as a new original drama from DirecTV, featuring Peyton and Eli as Mike Tahoe and C.J Hunter, two mustachioed partners who use their rocket arms as crime-fighting weapons.

And despite the fact that DirecTV is playing this up as a real new series, and even has 3 “episodes” listed on the website, its hard to believe that this will actually be a recurring full-length television program. If anything, it’s far more likely to become an unavoidable marketing onslaught of commercials and short-format viral videos that we’ll have to endure over and over (and over) this Fall, until the very sound of the theme music makes our ears bleed.

But before it gets to that point, enjoy the official trailer for Football Cops:

Yeah … as much as we love the Fu Manchu mustache on Eli (let’s face it, anything that helps butch him up a bit is a good thing), and seeing Archie getting into the act as defense attorney Orlando Midnight, we’re going to reserve judgement about this “show”.  There’s a pretty good chance we’ll grow to hate it in time.

This insightful video provides a small glimpse of the NFL’s favorite family during some of their now-legendary backyard football games at the Manning family home in New Orleans.  Here we see young Peyton turn into a whiny little bitch whenever older brother Cooper puts the smack down on him, while Archie just watches in silence from behind the camera.

Classic footage right here, folks.  Unfortunately, Eli was apparently still too young to don the full pads for such hard-hitting action.

[via StacheMouthFootball]