Manning gets his way with Chargers

The No. 1 pick by San Diego was quickly traded to the Giants.
NEW YORK (AP) -- After a tense hour in which Eli Manning was a prospective law student, the NFL's first family of quarterbacks got what it wanted.
Eli will be a New York Giant.
In one of the more bizarre first hours in recent draft history, Manning was taken with the first pick by the San Diego Chargers, for whom he later announced he wouldn't play.
Manning then appeared on the stage at The Theatre of Madison Square Garden with his parents, Archie and Olivia, looking as glum as any No. 1 pick ever has as commissioner Paul Tagliabue held up a Chargers jersey with "1" on it. He didn't put on the Chargers hat and boos cascaded down from the galleries.
An hour later
An hour later, as Manning walked away from the podium at a press conference in which he insisted he would go to law school, someone rushed into the room to say the Giants just obtained him for another quarterback, Philip Rivers, who they had taken with the fourth overall pick.
"I'm a lot happier now than I was 10 minutes ago," Manning said, jumping back on the podium. He then returned to the main room for a much happier picture, this one including brother Peyton and agent Tom Condon, the man behind the maneuvering.
Meanwhile, the rest of the draft went on around that soap opera.
The rest went smoothly
With the second pick, Oakland took offensive tackle Robert Gallery of Iowa and with the third, Arizona chose wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald of Pittsburgh, a ball boy for Cardinals coach Dennis Green when Green coached in Minnesota.
Washington then chose safety Sean Taylor of Miami, who was the first of six Hurricanes chosen in the opening round, a record.
The Lions took Texas wide receiver Roy Williams, who like Taylor and Kellen Winslow ranked as players with long-term star potential. And they used a second-round pick to move up late in the first to choose Kevin Jones of Virginia Tech, considered by some the best running back in the draft.
"We felt the second round was a pretty good price to pay," Browns coach Butch Davis said of the deal that brought him Winslow, who he had recruited for Miami. "He's going to bring a lot of energy and help this offense. He's a lightning rod."
That was typical of the round.
Receivers lead way
Five wide receivers went in the first 15 picks and six players from Miami in the first 21: Taylor, Winslow; linebackers Jonathan Vilma by the New York Jets and D.J. Williams by Denver; guard Vernon Carey by Miami and defensive tackle Vince Wilfork by New England.
That broke a record for most picks from one school in the entire first round, set by Southern California in 1968 and tied by the Hurricanes in 2002.
There were 10 trades, including the Manning headliner.
The Giants seemed delighted, implying that Eli could be as good as Peyton, the NFL's co-MVP last season for Indianapolis.
"We all had the unanimous opinion this was a special quarterback, and you don't get a chance very many times, for decades, to select someone like him," general manager Ernie Accorsi said.
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