It’s amazing what a litle Super Bowl exposure can do for a career.

Eli Manning has been named 2008 Pro Athlete of the Year by the Sporting News.

A lengthy interview with the face of the franchise appears in the magazine, which hits newstands on Friday, but we’ve got some excerpts to pass along.

On whether 2008 was the best year of his life:

“Yeah, I have to say it’s been up there. It’s been a special year. We win four straight games in the playoffs and win a Super Bowl; that’s a good way to start 2008. Then I get married in April. And then the start (we had) this season. We’ve already clinched the NFC East title, which was our goal. We knew it was going to be a tough challenge – a lot of people didn’t pick us to do very well this year coming off the Super Bowl – but I think we worked hard and had our goals set that we wanted to become a better team.”

On life in New York:

“I like New York, I really do. Right now, I don’t know if I could live in Manhattan and deal with it on an everyday basis. But if I were coming out of college and I didn’t play football and I needed a job, I could live in New York and live the fast-paced life. I enjoy the energy of this city. … I love the food in the city. That’s usually what I do on a Monday night; my wife and I will go and get either a teammate or some other friends and go eat dinner in the city. Growing up in New Orleans, I’ve always been a big fan of food. But I never really had good Italian food until I got to New York, so that’s one of my favorites. During the offseason, I like going to plays. … I’d love for New York to be the only team I ever play for. It’ll always be a part of my life. I think maybe we’ll go back down South, but I just don’t know. If you’re here long enough and you start your family here, then maybe you end up here. It’s a special place.”

On the possibility of being more of a pitchman, like brother Peyton:

“I got asked to do Saturday Night Live this year, and I turned it down. It was almost like people expected me to do it just because Peyton won a Super Bowl and he did it. ‘Hey, you’ve got to do it.’ He really did pretty well, and I didn’t want to have to follow his act. I wasn’t quite ready to do it. I wasn’t craving to do it. I didn’t want to follow exactly what he did; I wanted to do things my own way. Down the road, though, I think it would be fun to do Saturday Night Live. And if the opportunity comes to do a funny commercial, I’d love to show that side of me.”

We’d love to see it.

Manning didn’t say whether things would be different the last two weeks if Domenik Hixon found a way to catch two potential touchdowns, but that’s another story.