‘”Well, I think you have to earn your stripes in the NFL,” Manuel said on Wednesday. “I didn’t start the whole season, we didn’t win and we didn’t win as many games as we would’ve wanted to, so I just attribute it to earning your stripes. I think all the guys that got voted captain, at least the guys that I voted for, they’re veteran guys and they’ve so called ‘earned their stripes in the NFL.’ They’ve played for a bunch of seasons, so I just think that’s something I have to work toward and just use that as motivation.”‘