Eli Manning isn’t a Hall of Famer, but he’ll still get in, and I’m OK with that, too.

He might not get in on his first ballot in the year 2025. He’ll eventually secure the 80 percent of the vote required for enshrinement in Canton, Ohio, though, and there are two main reasons why:

First, because of his pair of iconic Super Bowl comeback wins and MVP awards; and second, because of how he treated people during his 16 seasons in the league.

A player ultimately is judged by what he does on the field, and negative off-field issues might hurt a player’s case (Terrell Owens took three years) more than positive off-field behavior might help.

The voters are human. The locker room is a major part of who these players are as professionals, even if their actions don’t factor as much in the balance.

And if a player’s case is as hotly debated and tenuous as Manning’s would seem to be, I believe ultimately what will put him over the top is that he isn’t only one of the best big game players in NFL history, he’s also one of the classiest and most well-respected.

That said, while I do not have a vote, I do not believe Manning is a Hall of Famer. He is a catalyst of two of the greatest moments in Super Bowl history, and his durability, longevity and professionalism were all admirable.

However, his heroics on the big stage were anomalies within a mostly pedestrian career.

To me, being a Hall of Famer is about being a transcendent talent. Manning was not that. In the regular season, he was just as often the reason his team lost as he was the reason it won.

Win-loss record is not the best way to measure quarterbacks, but in Manning’s case, his 117-117 career mark does accurately reflect what he was: win some, lose some.

If winning two Super Bowls were enough to get a player in, then great Giants linebacker Carl Banks would be enshrined.

Banks, a 1987 All-Pro, is not in Canton despite 13 total tackles in Super Bowls XXI and XXV, including a team-high 10 tackles (Lawrence Taylor had four) in the franchise’s first-ever Super Bowl win over the Denver Broncos on Jan. 25, 1987.

Heck, late GM George Young was not elected until this month, 18 years after his passing, as part of the NFL’s Centennial Class. And Young turned the entire Giants franchise around.

Two Super Bowls aren’t even guaranteed to get a quarterback into the Hall, though it’s close.

Twelve QBs have won two or more Super Bowls. Eight have come up for the Hall. Seven have gotten in. The outsider? The Oakland Raiders’ Jim Plunkett, with two Super Bowl rings and one Super Bowl MVP to his name.

Manning never made an All-Pro team. He is not even the best quarterback from his own draft class. That would be Ben Roethlisberger, a two-time Super Bowl winner himself. And even Manning’s partner in draft day trades Philip Rivers – though he’s never won a championship – has more passing yards and started more consecutive games than the ironman Manning.

So again, it’s back to the Super Bowls and the iconic fourth-quarter drives. That is what separates Manning. And it’s the fact he did it twice, though apparently it’s immaterial that a transcendent defense paced the first incredible upset of the undefeated Patriots.

If Manning had won only a single title, voting him into the Hall of Fame would mean Joe Flacco and Nick Foles were next up. But, of course, one could make the same argument in Manning’s favor, as well.

Joe Namath (62-63-4) and Sonny Jurgensen (69-71-7) are both in the Hall of Fame despite career losing records. Just above them sit the likes of Dan Fouts (86-84-1), George Blanda (53-50-1) and Warren Moon (102-101).

It’s hard to argue that Manning doesn’t belong, for example, if the Hall includes Moon, who had a 3-7 career postseason record and didn’t win a single championship.

Still, the precedent of a less-qualified candidate getting in cannot be the argument for another player’s election later. He must be judged on his own resume.

And whereas older brother Peyton Manning is a slam-dunk, first ballot Hall of Famer who will require nothing more than his name being spoken prior to voting in 2021, little brother Eli’s case warrants significant debate.

Every little bit matters. Optics matter. This is why it was important for Manning to start against the Miami Dolphins and beat them in Week 15, to draw his career regular-season record back to .500, if not above it.

No quarterback with a losing record from 1978 on has gotten into the Hall of Fame.

This is why it’s important to point out that Manning led 37 game-winning, regular-season drives in the fourth quarter or overtime with the Giants trailing or the game tied; this ranks ninth all-time among QBs since the 1970 merger, per Elias Sports Bureau.

But it’s also important to point out that Matt Ryan has 38.

It’s important to qualify that Troy Aikman never made an All-Pro team, either, but also that he won three Super Bowls, not two. That Kurt Warner played far fewer games, backed up Manning in New York, and lost two of his three Super Bowls, but also won two MVP awards and directed one of the most unstoppable offenses ever to a title.

Like many of those other men, however, Manning is more than his stats. Roethlisberger, for example, does not even hold a candle to Manning off the field, even if he is the better player.

All of this is to say that Manning is far from perfect and never will be remembered as a dominant all-time talent. But he is one of the clutchest winners in pro football history.

And that fleeting greatness, along with his consistency as a person, will be enough for 80 percent of the voters to sign off, even if it wouldn’t be enough for me.

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