Eli Manning's Transition Into A Hockey Dad Is Going To Be Glorious
One of the greatest things to happen recently was Eli Manning retiring from football. I've always had a little soft spot in my heart for Eli since he's such a goober, but I could never openly admit I was an Eli guy since he played for the Giants. Now that he's retired? I can be all in on Eli completely guilt free. And there's never been a better time to be an Eli guy than right now (aside from maybe those 2 Super Bowls) as he makes his transition into a Hockey Dad.
There are plenty of different variations of Hockey Dads out there and it'll be interesting to see which category Eli falls into. If I had to put money on it, I'd say that Eli develops into the highly involved dad that doesn't know how to skate but still laces them up to help out at practice because his heart is in the right place. Sure, he may skate worse than half the kids out there, but he just wants to help. Until his competitiveness kicks in a little too much and he starts firing off slapshots at the goalies' domes during warmups because he doesn't know how to dial it down. But he's always down to carpool everybody's kids to practices and games so nobody says anything.
Then there's always the possibility that Eli turns to the darkside and becomes a Paul.
I'd say it's highly unlikely, but you never know. There's something that just happens with hockey parents that make otherwise normal human beings into deranged lunatics. Maybe it's the coldness of the rink that shrinks their brain, maybe it's the fumes from the Zamboni, but something happens when those parents walk into the rink and it can happen to the best of them. So I wouldn't take it completely off the board for Eli, but I'd keep it at highly unlikely.
The highest probability is that he ends up somewhere in between. A Hockey Dad who mostly keeps to himself during games, but is involved enough that he'll be tying plenty of skates in the locker room before practices and games. The type of Hockey Dad that all dads should strive to be. Unlike these maniacs.
