Eli Manning as the New York Giants took on the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Divisional Playoff Game at Lambeau Field on Jan. 15, 2012 en route to his second Super Bowl championship. Photograph by Mike Morbeck.

After 13 years and 210 games, including two Super Bowl titles in which he was named MVP, Eli Manning will not be starting at quarterback for the New York Giants this Sunday against the Oakland Raiders.

Manning – who has always been gracious to me as editor of WAG magazine in his role as spokesman for Guiding Eyes for the Blind – fought back tears as he told reporters, “I don’t have to make sense of it.”

No, Eli, you don’t, because in a way it doesn’t. It takes a particularly lousy group effort for a team to be 2 and 9. And while a 36-year-old Manning – a healthy 36-year-old Manning – may no longer be the answer, does anyone think successors Geno Smith and David Webb necessarily are?

Meanwhile, Colin Kaepernick – who lives and trains in the New York area – remains off the field, because, as Giants’ co-owner John Mara put it, nothing gets fans more upset than the National Anthem protest. But then, many of those critics are white males, while most football players are black.

No, Eli, it none of it makes sense.