Eli Manning

Eli Manning on center odor issue: Hard to get that stench off

Published Aug. 10, 2015 10:29 a.m. ET

foxsports

To say that the relationship between quarterback and center is one of the “closer” bonds that can be shared between two players on a football field would be a drastic understatement. New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning recently painted a colorful picture of how the relative intimacy of the snap exchange can have unexpected and unfortunate — not to mention pretty disgusting — residual aftereffects.

Manning has had nine different centers snapping him the football during his NFL career. The quarterback revealed to ESPN’s Dan Graziano how one unnamed center had something of an off-putting, personal odor issue.

“I don’t know if it’s a PG story or not,” Manning told Graziano Saturday. “But one of them, I thought about wearing a glove on my right hand after working with him for a while because of, um, well, I figure you can imagine the reasons why.”

When pressed to explain his comment further — was it sweat? — Manning revealed the grim details.

“Sweat doesn’t bother me,” Manning said. “But odor — an odor can bother you. You’ve got nine to pick from, so I’m not going to call out the individual. I don’t know what was going on, but I had to wash my hands kind of immediately after practice. First thing to do. Hard to get that stench off sometimes.”

That does not sound pleasant.

The presumed starting center at Giants training camp is Weston Richburg. Assuming he holds off the competition, he’ll be Manning’s 10th center and fifth in the last three seasons. Manning managed to rattle off the names of seven of them.

Let’s just hope for Manning’s sake that the new guy has exemplary personal hygiene habits.

“It’s definitely a close relationship, right away,” Manning said. “My hands are in places that not a lot of other people’s go.”

Indeed.

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