Eli Manning Gave Bogus Game-Worn Apparel to Collectors Because he Wanted to Keep the Real Stuff

Eli Manning and the New York Giants are involved in a lawsuit in New Jersey with sports memorabilia collectors that alleges a years-long conspiracy to pass off regular old helmets and jerseys as game-worn items. The New York Post obtained court filings in the matter and it appears that the Giants "failed to preserve" emails that Eli sent from his AOL account—oh, Eli—to an equipment manager with an official NFL account. Eli recently turned over the email from his account, but the Giants never provided the emails from the equipment manager, Joe Skiba, who is still with the team.

The details of the exchange, per the Post:

Manning's email is contained in a pair of exchanges that allegedly began when his marketing agent, Alan Zucker, asked Manning to supply "2 game used helmets and 2 game used jerseys" as per the two-time Super Bowl MVP's contract with memorabilia dealer Steiner Sports.

Several hours after Zucker sent the request on April 27, 2010, Giants equipment manager Joe Skiba sent Manning an email saying: "Let me know what your looking for I'll try to get something down for you…," court papers say.

"2 helmets that can pass as game used. That is it. Eli," Manning allegedly responded from his BlackBerry at 2:08 p.m.

The plaintiffs attorney went so far as to the tell the Post that "it appears to be the case that someone at the Giants organization deleted" that email exchange and another one from 2008. In those earlier emails, Skiba allegedly admitted to one of the plaintiffs, Eric Inselberg, that Manning asked him to help create "BS" game-worn gear, because he "didn't want to give up the real stuff." One of those phony game-used items allegedly made its way to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Inselberg knew the Giants and Skiba well and ran what he calls a lucrative sports memorabilia business of his own at one time. In 2011, however, he was indicted for sports memorabilia fraud for, you guessed it, selling bogus jerseys from teams. HOWEVER! Those charges were eventually dropped when prosecutors learned that the Giants had instructed their staff to lie to the grand jury about the amount of business they did with Inselberg in order to cover up their own fraudulent racket. Now, it seems, Inselberg is out for blood.

The lesson, as always, is never buy sports memorabilia.