In what was a hard fought battle throughout, Sunday’s game between the New York Giants and San Diego Chargers ended with an ironic reminder of the 2004 draft-day trade that was. Philip Rivers threw a game winning touchdown pass to Vincent Jackson with just 21 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter and kicker Nate Kaeding’s extra point put the Chargers ahead for good 21-20. The game ended a few seconds later on a quarterback sack by San Diego Chargers’ linebacker Sean Merriman, as he took Eli Manning to the turf just in time to watch the final seconds tick off the clock. Quite an ending and one that even the top screen writers in Hollywood could not have scripted better in terms of a game that reminded us all of “the Trade.”

To refresh your recollection, in 2004 the Chargers held the number one pick in the draft and were set to use the pick on that year’s consensus number one pick, Mississippi quarterback Eli Manning. Eli Manning, a southern boy, wanted no part of San Diego and rumors have it that he forced the Chargers’ hand, requiring them to get as much value as they could for the pick in order to avoid a messy contract battle with the star quarterback. The Chargers ended up drafting and then trading Manning to the New York Giants in a draft-day trade for Giant’s top pick Philip Rivers (number 4 overall) and three other draft picks, one of which ended up being used to draft all-pro linebacker Shawn Merriman and another to draft kicker Nate Kaeding.

Well, the trade came full circle on Sunday as Rivers (lead a game winning drive that ended with a touchdown pass to Vincent Jackson with 21 seconds left on the clock), Merriman (2 sacks, including a game ending sack of Eli Manning) and Nate Kaeding (3 PATs, including the one that put the Chargers ahead 21-20) reminded the Giants of the 2004 trade that brought all three players to San Diego.

Although the results from today’s game may seem as if it is clear-cut that the Chargers got the better end of that draft-day deal, if you look back at the reults of the trade in totality it is still tough to say who got the better end of it.  Sure, Merriman is an all-pro linebacker and one of the most dominant at his position this decade, Kaeding is a top-tier kicker and Rivers is a pro bowler who puts up snazzy numbers year in and year out, but Manning has that ever so valuable Superbowl ring and has put up equally impressive numbers of late in his career.  Tough to say who got the better end of “the Trade” at this point, but if the Chargers can finally put the pieces together and win a Superbowl ring the analysis would become far more clear.

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