By Mallory Mattingly
After a tough loss to Ohio State, the reigning National Champions, Arch Manning and the Texas Longhorns struggled to hold their heads up high.
But defensive back Michael Taafe encouraged Manning to focus on the hope they have in Christ.
“I mean, we always remind each other before the game that you’re free,” Taafe told reporters in a post-game press conference. “God already won the battle on the cross. So everything that we do has no impact on this earth, and the plan on this earth has already been finished.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIz9TIRsbyk
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“So this is not our eternal life. It’s a temporary life. And I told him, I said, ‘Hey dude, you’re free.’ And we always remind ourselves,” he added. “So after the game we lost, he’s still free. He still has the ability to do whatever he wants in life because God came down and sent His only son to die on the cross. So, that’s what I reminded him. He’ll be good.”
Manning is the nephew of Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning. With that comes the pressures of living up to the name, something Arch didn’t ask for.
“I think a lot of undeserved attention,” he told ESPN when asked what comes with having Manning as his last name. “But hopefully it gets more deserving in the next few months.”
“I don’t think I’ve done enough yet to be taking a lot of pictures at restaurants and signing autographs, but maybe that’ll come eventually,” Arch added.
Most of all, he just wants to play the game he loves.
“I’m just here to play football. It’s a game I love, grew up playing,” Arch explained. “You’re out there with your friends playing every Saturday. What could get better than that? I’m not here to take someone off the throne, or like I’m not worried about my legacy. I’m just worried about playing ball and winning games.”
In the game against Ohio State, he “completed 17 of 30 passes for 170 yards, one touchdown and one interception,” according to ESPN.
Super Bowl-winning quarterback Tom Brady told Cris Collinsworth during a Pro Football Focus interview that Manning’s first game is a “blessing.”
“The blessing is that there needs to be resilience built up in a quarterback as well,” Brady said. “Even though he didn’t have his best game and they lost, if he uses this to his advantage, he’s gonna be tougher for it. And he’s gonna have a better next game because of it. I always felt like you’ve gotta deal with a lot of adversity from a quarterback standpoint to toughen you up to be the true leader for the organization.”
Despite a tough first game for Arch, he remembers, thanks to Taafe, that his identity is not in football but in the God who died on the cross for him.
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