Turns out that San Diego would have been just about as good a team for Eli to join as the Giants. From an exclusively on-the-field perspecitive, anyway.

In the long run, the New York market should greatly enhance his non-contract earnings (endorsements, advertising, etc.), and I suppose that was the basis of his decision. It was a gamble, though: the difficult media environment there nearly destroyed his career before he was able to establish himself. Looks now like he survived those first couple of difficult years well enough, but it might have gone differently, more like Rex Grossman's experience in Chicago.