Manning, the Giants quarterback who will visit Gillette Stadium on Sunday, said it was a matter of being confident in his own ability as a player.
"The question was if I thought I was an elite quarterback, and basically, I was just saying that I did," Manning said. "I'm usually not into the business of ranking and rating quarterbacks, or comparing myself to other guys. But looking back, I thought I gave an honest answer, and I don't regret anything."
Manning threw 25 interceptions last season — the same amount Brady has had in the last two and a half seasons — but he did beat Brady in Super Bowl XLII. Brady, of course, has three Super Bowl victories and two NFL MVP awards.
Manning's comments in August came on ESPN New York 1050. According to the story, Manning was asked if he considered himself to be in specifically Brady's class.
"I consider myself in that class," Manning told the radio station. "Tom Brady is a great quarterback. He's a great player, and what you've seen with him is he's gotten better every year. He started off winning championships, and I think he's a better quarterback now than what he was, in all honesty, when he was winning those championships.
"I think now he's grown up and gotten better every year, and that's what I'm trying to do. I kind of hope these next seven years of my quarterback days are my best."
Manning said Wednesday he didn't think the comments would draw nearly as much attention as they did.
"I just didn't worry about it," Manning said. "It caught a lot of attention. After doing the interview, you kind of think back to see if you said anything that might cause attention. I didn't think that would be a big deal. I think it was circumstances where not a whole lot was going on in sports at the time. There's training camp and no games yet, so I think sometimes depending on the timing of things that they have to have something to talk about in the sports world."
