Archie Manning
Answers Your Questions

Let me tell you, that game was tough. I mean one of the hardest of my entire football career. The cast on my left arm did not necessarily affect my passing, but the weeks I had taken for recovery definitely affected my conditioning - I remember feeling more winded than usual throughout much of the game. We really wanted to win that bowl game for Coach Vaught, but before we knew what had hit us, we were down 21-0. We regrouped mentally, raised our emotions, and were able to score two quick touchdowns before half time. We were still down 7, but we had some momentum going into half time. Unfortunately, our comeback fell short in the 2nd half and we ended up losing the game 35-28. I remember sitting in the locker room after the game with a pit in my stomach, replaying the game over and over again in my head. I could not believe that tough loss was how I would end my college career and it still sticks out as one of the most difficult losses of my career.

Until the dust settles and all the rumors about teams moving conferences ends, it’s tough to evaluate how exactly this whole thing will play out. I do hope that if we ever get to four super conferences that we still maintain the rivalries and some of the traditions and pageantry that make college football such a special game. In regard to these BCS teams who may be left out, I would say that the game hasn’t changed- you still have to go out every week and win ball games. You can’t concern yourself too much with this stuff, because you’ll go crazy if you do and we still have the incredible bowl system at the end of every year which rewards the teams that put in the hard work every week and go out there and lay it all on the line.

I certainly think that parents are putting too much pressure on their children to succeed in sports. Sports are a beautiful thing as they help teach our youth a lot of lessons that will be very valuable to them no matter what they do, but we cannot let the pressure to succeed get in the way. If your child so happens to excel at sports, great, but this shouldn’t be the only emphasis. When Peyton, Eli and Cooper were growing up, I certainly did not pressure them to play any sports. They happened to take a liking to sports from an early age, but I let them figure that out on their own. I also didn’t want to see them get burnt out from any one sport so I encouraged them to play as many different sports as possible.

Sports, in my mind, help teach the youth of our country some of the most invaluable life lessons out there. I sincerely believe that the perseverance and dedication required to play sports carry over to all facets of life. While most kids will not go onto play in college or professional sports, the lessons and values learned through sports are something that will translate into anything.

Well, you know, that’s a tough question, but I believe the answer to be no. The experience and scholarship given to college football players is really something we cannot attach a price to because it’s so valuable. I would not change one thing about my experience at Ole Miss and I believe that if our college athletes of today really take advantage of everything that their college experience offers them, then they are very well-compensated. So many questions start to arise if we start compensating players. Do we only compensate players from teams that make money on their football program? How do we prove a players worth? Does the starting quarterback make more than the starting nose tackle?