Eli Raps About Growing Up Manning; Where Have You Gone, J.D. Salinger?
TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. Now it's time for the Sports Lead. He's won two Super Bowls and total gut check fashion. He's conquered the world of hip-hop, kind of, and sketch comedy, sort of. But there's one thing Eli Manning has not done and that's beat big brother Peyton on the pro football field. He'll get another chance to top the guy who once gave him Noogies this Sunday when the Broncos come to the meadowlands to face the Giants. And our own Rachel Nichols sat down with Eli before the big Manning bowl --- Rachel.</s>RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, it was more than just Noogies in a story that's probably going to ring familiar if you got little brothers everywhere. When they were kids, Peyton would actually pin Eli to the floor with his knees, then beat on Eli's chest until Eli named every NFL franchise. Eli has gotten a little bit of revenge. The two played basketball, Eli has reported dunking on his big brother, but real scoreboard will always be the football field. Eli talked to me about just how special it is to continue that sibling rivalry in front of the whole world.</s>NICHOLS: So you're looking New Orleans, you're playing football with your big brother, Peyton in the front yard. You look up 20 years later, and you're playing against him in the NFL, the biggest stage of all. What's going g to be the most special for you?</s>ELI MANNING, NEW YORK GIANTS QUARTERBACK: I'm proud of Peyton. I think he's proud of me. We've worked hard to get to this point and play in the NFL. We support each other. We want each other to play well each year and I think, you know, I think seeing him before the game and shaking his hand and just talking for those few minutes are special moments. That's what you'll remember down the road. Hi. I'm Eli Manning and I'm a proud ambassador to the Little Brothers Program.</s>NICHOLS: You did this great "Saturday Night Live" sketch where you were part of a gang for the little brothers of the world getting revenge.</s>MANNING: Now you learn to treat the younger brother with some respect, Peyton.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My name's not Peyton.</s>MANNING: Whatever.</s>NICHOLS: I know it's a joke, but is there any revenge maybe you can get in this game for the beatings and teasings you got as a kid?</s>MANNING: I'm not playing defense, I don't get to go hit him. I won't get a free shot at him in any way. You know, Peyton's been a great big brother. He's been very supportive. He's helped me in many ways.</s>NICHOLS: What's the strategy your parents use to get through the game?</s>MANNING: I think it's a pretty easy strategy. I think they just root for the offense. A high-scoring game and maybe a missed extra point, loses the game, some sort of moral victory, if that really exists.</s>NICHOLS: Exactly. I will say, you and Peyton are going to meet on the field on Sunday, but you have already met on a very grand stage already this season, performing a rap video. Who came out on top with that one?</s>MANNING: I think we both lost on that one. Hopefully, years from now, our play of playing football will be more viewed than that rap video.</s>NICHOLS: You know, this whole week actually, Jake, is an adjustment for the brothers. They are a close-knit family as Eli referenced. They make a point of helping each other during the season. They talked on the phone each week to share strategy. They will even watch film for each other to help catch each other's mistakes. They won't do that this week.</s>TAPPER: I would think not. Rachel, multiple neck surgeries put Peyton's career in doubt a couple years ago. How likely is it that this is the last time we see the two brothers play each other on the NFL field?</s>NICHOLS: It probably will be. Their two divisions aren't scheduled to play again until 2017. Peyton would be 41 years old by then. There is always the possibility that they meet in the Super Bowl and certainly, with the Super Bowl in New York, there are a lot of Giants fans that would love that this upcoming year. But those odds are long and certainly, the neck surgeries, as you mentioned, Eli was in the inside of Peyton's recovery. The family kept it hush-hush, but Eli told me there were times that were really scary for the brothers. That Peyton just didn't have the zip on the ball, the velocity, and they were worried he wouldn't be able to get it back. The fact he had a successful comeback, made it back to this point, will be a special day on Sunday.</s>TAPPER: I'll be watching. Rachel Nichols, thank you so much. The Buried Lead, those are the stories we think have not gotten enough attention. Though this is about an author who thought he got more than enough attention in his time. You write one classic American novel and then try to disappear forever and no one will let you hear the end of it. J.D. Salinger published "The Catcher In The Rye," a few novel and short stories and then he was about as invisible as the tooth fairy until his death in 2010. But a new book and film are putting the author back where he loathed to be in the public eye.</s>TAPPER (voice-over): The landscape is littered with those famous for being famous, photographed almost out of habit. So it's easy to forget about the era when well-known names could be legendarily private.</s>SHANE SALERNO, DIRECTOR, "SALINGER": He turned his back on celebrity before celebrity was celebrity.</s>TAPPER: But now even the secrets of J.D. Salinger, one of the most solitary figures in recent history have oddly enough been made into a feature film.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Salinger was a national story, a shooting star.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At the height of that success, he disappears.</s>TAPPER: The documentary "Salinger" was written, directed and produced by Shane Salerno, who dedicated a decade to the project.</s>SALERNO: I conducted over 200 interviews personally. We were on five continents. We went through diaries, journals, government records, so this was an archeological dig. This was a detective story.</s>TAPPER: For those who say "The Catcher In The Rye" author would not want to be captured this way.</s>SALERNO: He maintained lifelong friendships when he wanted to. He would call the press and grant spontaneous interviews. He really was a recluse who liked to come out of hiding to remind the world that he was a recluse.</s>TAPPER: Salerno wants audiences to know that beyond the rarely seen images and imagined solitude was a man full of life and stories untold.</s>SALERNO: J.D. Salinger lived an extraordinary life. When I found out that J.D. Salinger landed on d-day. That J.D. Salinger fought in some of the bloodiest battles of World War II. That he was in a mental institution. That he entered a concentration camp. There were so many aspects of his life that the public didn't know that I had to make the film.</s>TAPPER: And the director says without his film, Salinger's life stories may have been lost forever.</s>SALERNO: There were a number of people who were never going to speak about J.D. Salinger on the record while he was alive. Many of the people that I interviewed were in their 80s and 90s. A number of people we interviewed for this film have since passed away.</s>TAPPER: Among the most intriguing discoveries pertained of course to love.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People hurt him. People he trusted.</s>TAPPER: The late author's romantic relationships were among his best and worst-kept secrets.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He said you have ruined my life.</s>TAPPER: Salinger's affair with Danielle student, Joyce Maynard, is well known but his later loves are practically top secret.</s>SALERNO: Many people didn't know she really existed for years. We found her. We found the records of how Salinger actually brought her into the United States.</s>TAPPER: Including Salinger's forbidden love whom he understandably kept private.</s>SALERNO: J.D. Salinger was a counterintelligence agent in World War II and in the process of being part of the de-Nazification of Germany. He met and fell in love with a Gestapo agent named Sylvia and married her, and brought her --</s>TAPPER: The book shot to the top of the Amazon bestseller list in recent weeks. Now is a good a time as any to read it like you were supposed to in high school. Coming up on THE LEAD, the first lady heads to Hollywood to raise some cash. Just how much will a sit-down with Michelle Obama cost you?