Batnick was like “I just want to warn you, I am definitely going to cry.”

No, stop. You’ll be fine.

“Nope, I will cry. Eli might cry too.”

I woudn’t worry about it. Just say what you want to say, people come up to him all the time and pour their hearts out. It’s Eli F***ing Manning! He can handle it.

The GOAT

You’ll be happy to know that Michael Batnick was able to hold it together and host one of the most incredible episodes of The Compound and Friends we’ve ever had the pleasure of recording. My media team was also incredible and everything just clicked.

We had an amazing conversation with one of the greatest New York hometown heroes in the history of sports. We talked football, coaching, playing, dealing with the media and figuring out what to do after the game. Eli was so excited to talk about his new job with a private equity sponsor called Brand Velocity Partners. The founder of the firm called up and ran an idea by Eli’s advisors during the pandemic. It led to an investment for the Manning family in a business called BBQGuys - a Louisiana-based company that was literally a perfect fit. And it was a huge home run. Eli caught the investing bug and he asked his new colleagues to start including him on phone calls and in meetings. He wanted to learn the business side, not just do the public-facing endorsement stuff. Drew Sheinman and his partners jumped on the opportunity to include Eli and here we are.

Watch!

Join us for this story and many others on the latest episode. We’re honored to have had this time with the two-time Super Bowl champion and MVP. Michael does a great job here emceeing the show while Duncan, John, Nicole, Rob and Daniel turn it into a beautiful piece of content for all our fans. Eli signed a bunch of jerseys and footballs for our kids and he even signed the script Michael was reading off of for the introduction. What an amazing day.

Video here…

Pics or it didn’t happen

…and some pics from the taping:

You can really tell how enthusiastic Eli is about his association with Drew’s firm and all the deals they are doing together. He’s having a lot of fun learning the ropes.

Michael was levitating six inches off the ground all day. I have never seen him this excited about anything before. He watched a one hour supercut of all of Eli’s three hundred something touchdowns in preparation for this.

60/40. Nice.

Yes, we asked about Chad Powers. How could we not. Think fast run fast.

That white jersey is a replica of what he wore for Super Bowl XLII in 2008. It’ll hang framed on my kid’s wall til the end of time.

We’ve built an entire media company. If you had told me in 2018 when we were starting the YouTube channel that this is where things were going, I would never have believed it.

Amazing day.

Going to need a red carpet at The Compound next time.

Thanks, Eli!

Okay, that’s it from me. Talk soon - JB