When Eli Manning was about three years old, he tumbled down the stairs of the Manning family house.
His older brothers, Cooper and Peyton, were at the bottom and watched as little Eli went head over heels and ended up at their feet.
It was a scary sequence and, at first, Cooper, who was about 10, and Peyton, about eight, just stared.
''We didn't know what to do,'' Cooper said last week. ''But then Eli just sort of got up, looked around for a minute and ran off to play. And I remember Peyton and I talking about how he didn't cry at all.''
Cooper laughed. ''It was,'' he said, ''without a doubt the toughest thing I've ever seen.''
Impressive as that toddler's topple might have been, however, until recently that word - tough - was not often associated with the older Eli Manning, the one who is the New York Giants quarterback.
''Early in his career, you didn't see it,'' former Giants quarterback and current analyst for CBS Phil Simms said. ''You saw the guy in the pocket, the guy who made the faces when things weren't going his way. You didn't necessarily see Eli and think 'tough'.''
But, Simms continued, as the Giants weaved through this inconsistent season of failure and well-timed flourishing, Manning displayed a personal grit that most Giants fans had not seen before.
The sour faces were mostly gone, Simms said, replaced by a steely determination from Manning that carried the Giants to this lofty perch - set to face the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl today.
Manning had plenty of opportunities to buckle along the way. There was the forced chemistry that comes with new linemen and unproven receivers. There was the increased - and unexpected - focus on the passing game.
There was the heightened pressure to score as the defence laboured through injuries. And there was, at times, the pounding - particularly in the NFC championship game - that might have levelled a weaker player.
Ultimately, though, there was a toughness from Manning, mentally and physically, that may have seemed novel to some but was familiar to those close to him.
Still, Manning's appearance - he is 193cm and about 100kg but is not particularly broad or bulky - may have contributed to the perception that he lacked toughness. Unlike, say, Ben Roethlisberger or Carolina's Cam Newton, Manning is not an imposing presence. He has shown his teammates, though, that his toughness is more internal.
''We give him a lot of grief about his dorky appearance, and he doesn't look like he has been in a weight room ever,'' defensive end Justin Tuck said. ''But that guy is tough. He is like the Energizer bunny. He keeps firing.''
Manning's performance against the San Francisco 49ers two weeks ago in the NFC championship game was the most recent example, and maybe the most emblematic.
With the soggy Candlestick Park turf making for treacherous footing, the Giants' offensive line struggled to protect Manning.
He was crushed, over and over, with the 49ers recording 18 hits on Manning, including six sacks. Several hits were from the blindside, the type of brutal collision in which the quarterback prepares to throw and suddenly his body is folded as a defender blasts him from behind. Backup quarterback David Carr said that ''with those, you're usually on the ground, your chin strap is up your nose and you don't know which way is up''. Against San Francisco, though, Manning just kept getting up. ''There were a few times when I thought: 'Is he OK? Maybe I should warm up?' But he got up every single time,'' Carr said.
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