GOLDEN ARCH TOPS BIG EASY MENU

by Larry Carlson ( lc13@txstate.edu )

Dateline: NEW ORLEANS, August 26

In the ol' Crescent City, there's always a checklist.

Muffaletta and Pimm's Cup at Napoleon House. Check

Praline at Southern Candy. Check

Staring out at barges on the Big Muddy. Check

Mint Julep at The Columns. Check

Walk in Audubon Park. Check

Eggplant Napoleon at Joey K's. Check

Now it was time to check out young Arch Manning's senior debut. Isidore Newman School's Michael Lupin Field is an easy five-minute walk from my sister's house. I go strolling past it every time I visit.

But I hadn't seen a game there in, well, a quarter-century. That was when my buddy Mike Kickirillo and I -- on a road trip with an LSU game set for Saturday night in Baton Rouge and a Saints game scheduled for Sunday back in NOLA -- decided to check out some high school ball over at Newman, right there in Uptown, by the Garden District. Peyton Manning was a senior at Tennessee but his little brother, Eli, was quarterbacking the Newman Greenies. We couldn't resist. I had been a fan of Archie's since his Ole Miss days, honoring him with a Colonel Rebel decal that accompanied the prominent Texas Longhorn sticker on the back windshield of my rusted, sea foam green '62 Oldsmobile with ripped upholstery and an air-conditioner that always spewed smoke for thirty seconds before starting to cool. And Kick had become a devout lifelong Saints fan because of Archie, the franchise player without a franchise through the 1970s.

So we've been bragging ever since having witnessed that 1997 game at Newman. Hell yeah, we were there to see Eli as a pup of a schoolboy. And a few years later we rounded up a bunch of buddies and took trips to Memphis and on to Oxford three straight years to watch Easy E play for Ole Miss. More big fun. We saw Peyton fire six -- yeah, six -- touchdown passes one Sunday in 2003, a dark day for the Saints.

So it seemed like full circle last Friday as my wife and I strolled past handsome homes, moss-draped oaks, wrought-iron fences, even a cemetery, then entered the gates reading "Manning Family Complex."

The grounds were packed. Newman is big-time because of alums such as Cooper (sidelined early on at Ole Miss because of the diagnosis of spinal stenosis), Peyton and Eli Manning and because of the school's academic rep. But a K-12 non-denominational co-ed school with just 1200 students doesn't really mirror Texas spots like Westlake, Southlake Carroll, Katy and Denton Guyer.

Michael Lupin Field has a grandstand on just one side, with maybe fifteen rows between the 20-yardlines. It looks like a junior Ivy League or the prep school setting for a Hollywood movie set in New England. Ivy does, in fact, grow on the side of the grandstand and the tidy, blockish press box looks smart and snappy.

On this night, it was standing room only for the preseason "Jamboree" game of two fifteen-minute periods. The Newman students, especially a sizable group of jovial teenaged boys, yelled loudly from their "Greenie Swamp" section, just a few feet above 24 cheerleaders and the mascot, Greenie Gator. Amy and I grabbed a spot on the fence rail that circled the field, at about the ten-yardline. The lady wedged in next to us asked who we were here for. Told that we came to watch Arch Manning, the lady smiled and sassily said, "Well, you're gonna watch Manning get beat....my son plays safety for De LaSalle!"

As luck would have it this pleasant late August evening, most of the game action happened at the opposite end. We did get a pretty good look at the flashiest pass that Arch threw, a frozen rope of a 20-yard out. It appeared to be fired by a machine. And it was complete. By the way, Manning hit fellow Longhorn commit, TE Will Randle, three times for 44 yards in a tune-up appearance that showed only a dozen pass attempts.

Lanky Arch's mannerisms, movements and hands-on-hips countenance on the field absolutely resembled his grandpa and uncles. I'm certainly not going to label him a "dual-threat" quarterback but he moved well in and out of the pocket and made opposing De LaSalle Cavalier players pay when they dropped too many in coverage. Manning, protected well by his center/guard younger brother, Heid, ran for timely first downs on at least three third-and-long occasions. A couple of times, he even reminded me a little bit of Archie, by far the fastest and most athletic of Manning men.

Late in the game, Amy and I had found a better standing room vantage point near midfield when Arch slipped and lost yardage on a second-down dropback at the edge of the red zone. "O-ver-ra-ted," the De LaSalle students instantly began chanting. "They won't be singing that when he throws a touchdown on 'em," I told Amy, over the din.

But Arch just used his legs to burn the Cavs again on third and long. Finding no receivers open as he rolled right, Manning cut up the sidelines and scored on a twenty-yard jaunt. The chants had been silenced in thirty seconds. Newman's defense held and then the Greenies ran out the clock for a 20-13 win. The "Greenie Swamp" was gleeful, numerous beachballs and swimming pool noodles flying high as fans filtered out.

Amy, still on eagle-eye duty, noticed that Arch, having congratulated his teammates and patted the backs of vanquished Cavaliers, hurried over to shake hands with each of the game officials. Good eye, Amy.

Good move, Arch. He's been listening. Lots of experience, lots of wisdom in that Manning family tree.

And an unmatched athletic bloodline that also features Arch's mom, Ellen, and his sis, May. Momma was a stellar volleyball player at The Academy of the Sacred Heart in NOLA, MVP of the school's first state championship team. And last fall, May followed that legacy as MVP when the Cardinals won another state volleyball title.

Maybe there's enough of everything good to silence the doubters who say Arch doesn't play against top-flight, big-school talent and would be a three-star recruit if he didn't have the family name.

Remember this. Grandpa played high school ball in the tiny Delta town of Drew, Mississippi Dear ol' Dad, Cooper, and uncles Peyton and Eli all learned the ropes as Newman Greenies. Let's face it. They all kinda turned out alright.

And even the doubters know that Arch does indeed have that Manning family name. It comes with the cool, the confidence, the competitiveness to override the pressure that's always along for the ride.