Up now, Eli Manning‘s biggest Super Bowl highlight was throwing the game-winning pass to David Tyree in Super Bowl XLII. The “Helmet Catch” won the championship for the New York Giants, gave Eli his first Super Bowl ring, and sent the Tom Brady and the New England Patriots back to Foxborough empty-handed. Yet, that triumph might now be Eli’s second-best highlight, thanks to the “Road To The Super Bowl LVI” spots where he, Jerome Bettis, and Victor Cruz end up singing Olivia Rodrigo‘s “good 4 u” while on their way to Super Bowl LVI. Eli was feeling the song, so was this his way to tell the world that he was a die-hard Sour fan?
“Well, you know, I have three daughters, age ten, eight, and six,” Eli tells HollywoodLife in an EXCLUSIVE interview when discussing the PepsiCo and Frito Lay shoot. “So yes, I knew the song — had not memorized it, but didn’t really know exactly what the words were. But that was definitely the biggest part of the prep.”
Getting the words to “good 4 u” was also “the funniest kind of off-set [action],” Eli tells HollywoodLife. “Victor, Jerome Bettis, and I [were] playing the song on our phones, thinking ahead of the B-roll camera going. Just me, singing that song by myself, trying to get into the tune, the tempo, and us working together, coaching each other up, was pretty funny. But that was definitely the hardest part of the shoot.”
It could have been worse. Eli could have been recruited for duct-tape duty and put in charge of strapping down Terry Bradshaw for his scene. Thankfully, Manning was spared the taste of securing the Pittsburgh Steelers legend to the top of the bus.
“That wasn’t part of the job requirements,” Eli says with a laugh. “That was just funny watching and just kind of seeing [Terry] out there and any it makes so much sense for him. Like, that’s such his personality. You know, ‘we got one spot left, just for you just for you, Terry: up on the bus.'”
“The whole commercial, it was so much fun just,” continued the Giants icon, “because you know – it’s great guys, you’re on the Road to the Super Bowl. It’s such an exciting time, not just for us, but for everybody right now. And so now it’s kind of about, hey, if your [Super Bowl] parties, you need some PepsiCo beverages. You need the Frito Lay snacks. That’s just part of the Road to the Super Bowl and, of course, the Super Bowl parties.”
The Super Bowl is an excellent time to reconnect with friends, especially those you haven’t seen in a few years due to work, travel, or global pandemics. For Eli, these “Road To The Super Bowl” commercials allowed him to hang out with a former Giants teammate and friend Victor Cruz. “We’ve always stayed close,” he tells HollywoodLife.
“When we started off, he was a Jersey kid. When he first came into the Giants, we were in a lockout year. So, Victor and I were working out. He was an unproven guy, never really played in games. And We’re in New Jersey, going to local high schools, throwing passes and throwing routes. He’d show up anytime I sent him a text. ‘Hey, can you throw this day or this day or this day?’ ‘Yes, sir.’ We built a great friendship.”
Eli said he also keeps up with a lot of his Offensive linemen – Shaun O’Hara, Chris Snee, Rich Seubert, among others. “Usually, in the NFL, it’s the guys you’re around in your first eight years or so, they end up being your best friends. You end up being at each other’s weddings. You’re having kids around at the same time. And so, you have that bond where you’re more similar in age. All of a sudden, when this 22-year-old kid comes in, you have that connection on the field, but you don’t always get it off the field.” Basically, if you can get a friend who’ll do Olivia Rodrigo karaoke with you on a bus during a cross-country trip to the Super Bowl, you know you have a friend for life.