Normally each year we get five inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, so when Rich Eisen listed four players and then there felt like a pregnant pause during the NFL Honors show on Thursday night, it was obvious Eli Manning would be the next name called. The pregnant pause turned into an announcement that the Pro Football Hall of Fame class was complete and, to everyone’s shock, Manning’s name wasn’t called. 

Both he and Luke Kuechly were pretty shocking omissions, even if it was their first time on the ballot. We’ve seen weird things before, like the voters making Terrell Owens wait longer than a single minute to get into Canton. 

But Eli Manning — perhaps you recognize his last name — not getting in was a shock to anyone watching. 

The case against Manning isn’t that hard if you want to focus on regular-season production, where the former Ole Miss standout was largely average relative to the great quarterbacks who played the game. 

Manning never led the NFL in a single standard regular-season category … other than interceptions, which he led the league in three different times (20 picks in 2007, 25 in 2010 and 27 in 2013). He completed just a hair over 60% of his 8,119 pass attempts over the course of his career and averaged a very pedestrian 3,564 yards per season, along a very “meh” average of just 23 touchdowns to 15 interceptions per season.

But the case FOR Manning is easy, too. He won two Super Bowls and did it in pretty remarkable and impossible-to-forget fashion. First, he outdueled Tom Brady and the undefeated Patriots in 2007, being part of “The Helmet Catch” to David Tyree, escaping pressure and heaving the ball down the field in one of the most memorable moments in NFL history.

Even if you don’t want to give him credit for that bit of luck, Manning to Mario Manningham in the second of his Super Bowl wins, again against Tom Brady and the Patriots in 2011, was one of the best throws you’ll ever see. I was in the stadium, on the same side the throw was completed, and it’s etched into my brain seeing Manningham toe-tap on the sideline as Manning made an impossible throw to set up the Giants go-ahead score. 

Manning threw nine interceptions in the playoffs, but three of those came in his first playoff game. Take that game away and his playoff stats are pretty incredible: 8-3 record, 2,815 yards, 18 touchdowns and nine interceptions.

Whether it’s being “not Peyton” or whether it’s keeping some of the bad playoff games in or whether it’s the pedestrian regular-season numbers, there was clearly enough to work against Manning for the voters to keep him off the first ballot. 

As someone who firmly believes Manning is the third best quarterback of the 2004 NFL Draft, behind Philip Rivers and Ben Roethlisberger, he just happened to land on a franchise that put together some great playoff runs and didn’t have to see Brady until the end game, I’m OK with the decision.

But the bottom line is that it’s a shocking result given the Manning family name, and the family’s place in the hierarchy amongst NFL blue bloods.