Caitlin Clark may be the WNBA’s reigning Rookie of the Year, but she was surprisingly unable to beat former Giants star Eli Manning in a recent game of Pop-A-Shot.
Clark and Manning met up in New Orleans during Super Bowl week for the quarterback’s eponymous show with his ex-franchise, and the two-time Super Bowl winner challenged the sharpshooting guard to a game of the classic shooting competition.
But rather than Clark – who made over 90 percent of her free throws last season – it was Manning who dominated the game, as he comfortably beat the Indiana Fever star 76-51.
Things were fairly close early on as Manning held just a 38-30 lead over Clark, but the Giants legend finished strong over Clark, who was not surprised by her own struggles.
‘I told you, I’m bad at Pop-a-Shot,’ she said during the game.
Manning, meanwhile, said after the game that he had been practicing the game ‘ a lot.’
Eli Manning and Caitlin Clark faced off in a Pop-A-Shot competition last month
Manning surprisingly beat the Indiana Fever star, who said she wasn’t good at the game
Manning achieved legendary status with the New York Giants, while Clark could be on her way to doing the same with the Fever
He was recently snubbed from the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, despite ranking 11th all-time in completions, passing yards and touchdowns.
Of course, he also beat Tom Brady and the Patriots in two Super Bowls, including in 2008 when the Giants beat a New England team that was 18-0 coming into the game.
Manning’s former Giants teammate, Shaun O’Hara (who was present in the aforementioned clip watching the ex-quarterback and Clark face off), told Mail Sport in an exclusive interview that Manning was ‘really honored’ to be a finalist and wasn’t ‘upset’ or ‘angry at the decision.
‘We made sure that we clanked enough glasses to still celebrate. And this doesn’t define him or his career,’ O’Hara said during Super Bowl week. ‘I’m obviously biased as a teammate and as a friend. Look, he definitely belongs. It’s not a matter of if, it’s just a matter of when.’
During the same episode of The Eli Manning Show, Clark playfully ribbed the former Giant as she admitted her favorite player growing up was his brother, Peyton.
‘I actually had a Peyton Manning jersey growing up, not to make you mad Eli,’ she said, when asked to name her favorite NFL star.
Eli jokingly replied, ‘It makes me very mad.’
Peyton is considered one of the finest passers of all time, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2021.
