Eli Manning speaks out on child abuse and domestic violence: Report

After no less than five NFL players have been hit with separate instances of domestic violence or child abuse charges in the past week,  Eli Manning became one of the first high-profile players to speak out publicly against the rash of abuse off the field that is wracking the league.

The Giants quarterback mixed his disdain for the incidents with a plea for his fellow NFL players to put an end to domestic violence for the good of children like Adrian Peterson’s beaten son and the league as a whole.

“You hate to see a child being hurt. . . . You don’t like seeing those things or hearing about ’em,” Manning said to reporters Wednesday.

“Try to go home and hug your own children. It makes you want to hopefully not put them in harm’s way,” said Manning.

The two-time Super Bowl champion — who has two small girls, ages 1 and 3, with his wife, Abby — didn't try to lay blame on anyone specific but said it's up to the players to repair the damage that the domestic violence and child abuse issues that have turned the the NFL and league commissioner Roger Goodell into media punching bags.

“Obviously those are serious issues. … We can’t accept that as players, we can’t accept that from our teammates and around the league,” Manning said. “The message is out that you can’t mess with domestic violence, and everybody should know that. Hopefully, things get cleared up and cleaned up and guys can learn from this, and we don’t make these mistakes, and the NFL can learn from this, and we can go on and start getting back to football. Our team hasn’t been having to deal with that issue personally, but when it’s on TV every day obviously you’re aware of it.

“And we don’t like when the NFL gets a black eye on anything.”