Arch Manning, the quarterback for the University of Texas who, before the season started, was seemingly the unanimous favorite to win the Heisman, be the No. 1 overall pick, make it to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and cure cancer, has seemingly fallen out of favor with football audiences across the country.
Maybe it was the Warby Parker commercials airing between the underwhelming spectacle he was putting on the field, but regardless, almost all of America has turned its back on the next heir to the Manning throne.
Even America’s newspaper of record has labeled the 21-year-old quarterback, who has only started a handful of games, “synonymous with failure.” This claim from The New York Times is different from the thousands of fans trolling the young man. Whereas those fans — the losers from the SEC burnerverse — spend their days tweeting and arguing online, nobody takes them seriously. But the benchmark of American news media is different.
Trashing a kid for not being the golden, perfect quarterback everyone believed he would be — without actually seeing him as a full-time starter — is insane. Especially when it comes to a kid who has been entirely humble since the beginning of his collegiate career.
Even from a performance standpoint, the criticism doesn’t make sense. While Arch hasn’t been a Heisman front-runner, he’s put up 1,317 passing yards, 12 passing touchdowns, 5 rushing touchdowns, and just led Texas to a convincing win over the No. 6 ranked team in the country — one with one of the best defenses in college football. Those numbers won’t blow you away, but for a first-year starting quarterback in the hardest conference in football, carrying the weight of a legendary name, and now being publicly trashed by the most prestigious name in journalism — Arch has played just fine.
Arch Manning is going to be fine. He’s going to have a good collegiate career and will continue on to the NFL. He is not the biggest flop in football history, and we should let him develop and actually play before making accusations that quite literally the entire world will see.
That being said, to quote the great Mike Gundy: “Don’t write about a kid that does everything right, that’s heart’s broken.” Go write hit pieces about grown men.
