Manningham explains why he’s so good at catching passes along the sidelines

SANTA CLARA — One Bay Area reporter asked Mario Manningham at his press conference Thursday afternoon why he’s so good catching passes along the sidelines. Here’s what he said.

MANNINGHAM: When I was little, our yard wasn’t very big. Most kids when they’re little, they play one foot in. We always played two feet in, knowing that the yard was a little bit snug. If you didn’t get two feet in, you weren’t getting in.

Q: How old were you?

MANNINGHAM: Oh man, I was knee-high to a duck. I was like six or seven. Real young.

Q: Front yard or back yard?

MANNINGHAM: I lived in the projects – one building. It was a front yard, basically. Imagine, it was as wide as this tent and we were playing six-on-six. It was a little bit cluttered. We knew how to make it work.

Q: On your touchdown catch against the Bills, did you set up the cornerback?

MANNINGHAM: I kind of set him up, made him think I was going inside. He fell for it, so I just made sure I came out my route flat. Alex threw a good ball.

Q: You were wide open.

MANNINGHAM: Yeah, they were joking around saying the dude wasn’t even in the screen. They didn’t know if he blew the coverage or something. I was pretty wide open.

Q: Is that area of the field wider than your front yard growing up?

MANNINGHAM: Yeah, it was (laughs).

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