By Steve Politi | Columnist, NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
They met at an Indianapolis Colts playoff game almost two decades ago, back when Eli Manning's biggest claim to fame was still that his older brother was a No. 1 draft pick starting his brilliant career.
Manning was a senior in high school. Drew Brees was a prolific college passer at Purdue, just an hour-long drive from the since-demolished RCA Dome. They ran into each other on the sidelines before the Colts played the Tennessee Titans on Jan. 16, 2000, and shook hands.
It was their first -- but certainly not last -- encounter on a football field.
"I was a huge fan of Peyton," Brees said on Wednesday before adding with a chuckle, "and I knew he had his little brother Eli."
If you told them that day that they would play a combined 471 games and counting in the NFL, well, they would have probably have laughed. If you told them then that they'd still be putting on a uniform all these years later, with receding hairlines and running backs who were still in diapers when they started? ...
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