'First Take' is Getting Dragged for a Segment Asking if Arch Will Be the Best of All the Mannings
I don't know if you've noticed this or not, but every once in a great while, the world of Hot Takes media will, to put it politely, jump the gun just a bit. Under the constant pressure to cut through the noise and clutter, sometimes they'll lapse into superlatives. And often way, way earlier than warranted. What I like to call, premature adulation.
It's OK. It happens to a lot of guys. There's no shame in it. And there are treatments on the market that are safe and effective.
And it happened on "First Take" after they showed this pass from Arch Manning. Proving that too early is never early enough. Even if the kid in question is 16 and he's third generation of a family with not one, but three people with "Long Time NFL QB" on their business card. And the internet called them out for it.
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Just to define our terms, Granpa Archie is arguably the least accomplished of the three Mannings, and he played 15 years and went to two Pro Bowls. Peyton set a ton of records, not the least of which were passing yards, passing touchdowns, commercial endorsements and ESPN segments calling him the greatest ever. Even runt of the litter Uncle Eli won two Super Bowls and an alarming number of people think he's a first ballot Hall of Famer.
So it's understandable if the response to "First Take's" premise was less than enthusiastic.
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Bravo. This is the reason social media needs to exist. If for no other reason than to call out exactly this sort of bullshit. A conversation that should've begun and ended with "NEXT topic!" gets chewed over like it's a real discussion. Arch Manning doesn't have a driver's license yet (note I have no idea if he does; I'm just making a point) and grown men are speculating on what he'll be doing 15 years from now. Treating him like a start up tech firm and trying to get in on the ground floor of his IPO.
And we wonder how kids that are famous when they're young end up so messed up so much of the time. Actually, we don't wonder at all. At moments like this it's painfully obvious. And I say this as someone who watched a 3-year-old drive golf balls with Bob Hope on TV and said, "That Tiger Woods kid is going to win 15 majors. Mark my words."
Whether Arch succeeds or not, at least we'll get to spend the next 20 or so years mercilessly mocking ESPN for the way they'll no doubt be fawning over the kid. I will say this though: He's got a better shot of getting in the HoF than Eli does.