BleedGopher
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Per Will:
Watching the seemingly endless rotation of Arch Manning Warby Parker advertisements this past weekend felt a little like watching a political ad after an election in which your candidate has lost.
The ads all seemed to be beamed from a more hopeful past when we were much more innocent, more naïve and definitely more deluded. It was a little like seeing someone wearing an ATLANTA FALCONS SUPER BOWL LI T-shirt.
Many people are having a bad year in college football, but Arch Manning is having one of the worst. The Texas quarterback has gone from preseason Heisman Trophy favorite and projected No. 1 NFL Draft pick to a man synonymous with failure. It has reached the point that when his helmet came off late in Texas’ loss to Florida on Saturday and his backup Matthew Caldwell (who had a 13 to 8 TD/INT ratio for Troy last year) was forced to come in and throw a pass, it nearly sparked a quarterback controversy.
Manning has done so many ads that you probably don’t even remember the one he did for those Google cars that drive themselves. He remains the most high-profile player in college football despite being the public face of one of the most disappointing teams in the sport, a team that started the season ranked No. 1 in the polls (largely because of the hype for Manning) and now is outside the Top 25 entirely after losing to Florida.
Arch has claimed in the past to be hesitant to take so many paid advertisements — which might be the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard someone named “Manning” say — but if this keeps going, perhaps he can add one of those Progressive commercials in which backups like Tommy DeVito and Teddy Bridgewater show up to save normal people from banal but awkward situations.
Much of this is not entirely fair to Arch Manning, who, while certainly having his struggles so far, has shown occasional flashes of brilliance, is dealing with a wobbly offensive line and, we should probably try to remember, remains only 21 years old. (When I was 21 I was mostly hiding from gas stations where I’d bounced checks.) I don’t want to overdo it with a pity party here — his name is Arch Manning, I suspect his life is going to work out just fine — but I do wonder if it might behoove us to give a 21-year-old a little bit of grace and some room to grow. He does, after all, have two more seasons of college eligibility left after 2025 if he wants to use them.
But one thing is clear, and it’s something we’ve never really seen in college football but should probably start getting used to: Arch Manning, so far, is a flop.
We, as a society, love flops. There is nothing like a flop, because a flop flatters us. It justifies our suspicions that most of the world is just hype, that it’s full of hot gas, and that only we, the skeptical, cock-eyed, world-weary observers, are the ones wise enough to see through it. Flops remind us that the people in charge of our culture often know a lot less than they think they do.
www.nytimes.com
Go Gophers!!
Watching the seemingly endless rotation of Arch Manning Warby Parker advertisements this past weekend felt a little like watching a political ad after an election in which your candidate has lost.
The ads all seemed to be beamed from a more hopeful past when we were much more innocent, more naïve and definitely more deluded. It was a little like seeing someone wearing an ATLANTA FALCONS SUPER BOWL LI T-shirt.
Many people are having a bad year in college football, but Arch Manning is having one of the worst. The Texas quarterback has gone from preseason Heisman Trophy favorite and projected No. 1 NFL Draft pick to a man synonymous with failure. It has reached the point that when his helmet came off late in Texas’ loss to Florida on Saturday and his backup Matthew Caldwell (who had a 13 to 8 TD/INT ratio for Troy last year) was forced to come in and throw a pass, it nearly sparked a quarterback controversy.
Manning has done so many ads that you probably don’t even remember the one he did for those Google cars that drive themselves. He remains the most high-profile player in college football despite being the public face of one of the most disappointing teams in the sport, a team that started the season ranked No. 1 in the polls (largely because of the hype for Manning) and now is outside the Top 25 entirely after losing to Florida.
Arch has claimed in the past to be hesitant to take so many paid advertisements — which might be the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard someone named “Manning” say — but if this keeps going, perhaps he can add one of those Progressive commercials in which backups like Tommy DeVito and Teddy Bridgewater show up to save normal people from banal but awkward situations.
Much of this is not entirely fair to Arch Manning, who, while certainly having his struggles so far, has shown occasional flashes of brilliance, is dealing with a wobbly offensive line and, we should probably try to remember, remains only 21 years old. (When I was 21 I was mostly hiding from gas stations where I’d bounced checks.) I don’t want to overdo it with a pity party here — his name is Arch Manning, I suspect his life is going to work out just fine — but I do wonder if it might behoove us to give a 21-year-old a little bit of grace and some room to grow. He does, after all, have two more seasons of college eligibility left after 2025 if he wants to use them.
But one thing is clear, and it’s something we’ve never really seen in college football but should probably start getting used to: Arch Manning, so far, is a flop.
We, as a society, love flops. There is nothing like a flop, because a flop flatters us. It justifies our suspicions that most of the world is just hype, that it’s full of hot gas, and that only we, the skeptical, cock-eyed, world-weary observers, are the ones wise enough to see through it. Flops remind us that the people in charge of our culture often know a lot less than they think they do.
Is Arch Manning college football’s first flop? Why his slow start feels unprecedented
Arch has started seven games, and we already think he stinks. This is the logical next step in the increased professionalization of CFB.
www.nytimes.com
Go Gophers!!
