Tag: john mara

New York Giants announce 100th-season celebration

The New York Giants will celebrate 100 seasons in 2024 and to commemorate that milestone they have unveiled a patch that will be worn on their jerseys.

“The entire Mara family is proud to commemorate the 100th season of New York Giants football,” said Giants co-owner John Mara. “As we reflect on this landmark season, I think about my family, and most specifically my father, grandfather and uncle who dedicated their entire lives to the Giants and the NFL. We would not be who we are without their vision and leadership. When we became partners with the Tisch family in 1991, our franchise grew even stronger. Together, the Mara and Tisch families are proud to celebrate the history of our franchise as we look to the future of Giants football.”

“I first saw the Giants play in person in the early 1960s when my father would take me to games at Yankee Stadium,” said fellow co-owner Steve Tisch. “Going to Giants games was a wonderfully magical ritual. It inspired my lifelong love of the Giants. When my father became an equal partner of the Giants in 1991, it was the realization of a longtime dream. Our family has relished our association with the Giants and look forward to many years of success in the future.”

In addition to the new jersey logo, the organization will host Giants 100: A Night with Legends at The Theater at Madison Square Garden. The town-hall event will feature more than 20 Giants legends and many current members of the team.

Those slated to attend include Eli Manning, Harry Carson, Tiki Barber, Bill Parcells, and Tom Coughlin.

“Our planning for the 100th season started close to two years ago and we are excited to celebrate this milestone with our fans, alumni and partners. This season will be a time to reflect on the players, moments and championship teams that have defined the first 100 seasons of Giants football. We will celebrate through featured content, events and special activations all season long,” said Nilay Shah, Giants Senior Vice President, Marketing & Brand Strategy.

In July, the team will release its ranking of the Giants’ 100 greatest players of all time as voted on by NFL historians, media members, and fan contributors. A 10-part podcast series hosted by Bob Papa will break down the contributions of those players.

Other plans to celebrate season No. 100 include merchandise; a book titled New York Football Giants: The People, The Moments, The Traditions; and an NFL Network documentary titled The Duke that focuses on late owner Wellington Mara.

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Giants’ love for Daniel Jones is ruining the franchise, says ex-NFL GM

The New York Giants went into the 2024 NFL draft with the hopes of coming away with a new franchise quarterback.

After a full-court press to move up in the draft to select UNC’s Drake Maye failed, the Giants then watched other options quickly dissipate and came away empty-handed and are still very much tethered to Daniel Jones for the upcoming season.

There is a possibility they hand the reins to free-agent signing Drew Lock for the interim until they find their new man, but still, they are back to where they left off in 2023.

The Giants appear to be satisfied with moving ahead with what they have in-house and that, says former NFL executive Michael Lombardi, is ruining the franchise.

“I wasn’t surprised at all by that,” Lombardi said on The Sports Junkies on 106.7 The Fan in D.C. this week. “Because if you listened to what John Mara said at the owners’ meetings… he said very clearly, ‘I’ll favor them drafting a quarterback if they’re in love.’ And he used the word ‘love.’”

General manager Joe Schoen did not appear too satisfied with the status quo. He’ll live with it, for now, but said, ‘this is where we are at’.

“I think they were in love with Drake Maye, but I don’t think they were in love with J.J. McCarthy. And remember, John Mara, the president of the team — he’s the reason why Daniel Jones is making all that money — he loves Daniel Jones. He drafted Daniel Jones as the sixth pick overall. Nothing would make them more happy than Daniel Jones being successful. They’re almost willing it to happen. It won’t, but they’re hoping it will.”

Lombardi says the Giants’ ‘love’ for players is bringing them down. They are forgetting that the logo on the side of the helmet is more important than the names on the back of the jerseys.

“They’ve gone 10 years — they’re the only team in the NFC East that has not won the East in the last 10 years,” he said. “They have the worst record in the last 10 years in the NFC East. It’s a shame, because the Giants should be a stellar franchise in the league. But, because they fall in love with their players, they love their players, they make bad decisions.”

Unfortunate, but true.

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New York Giants ownership reluctant to trade up for quarterback

With 24 hours remaining until Day 1 of the 2024 NFL draft, rumors continue circulating about the New York Giants and what they intend to do with the No. 6 overall pick.

More and more reports have surfaced suggesting they’d like to trade up for a quarterback — specifically, North Carolina’s Drake Maye. However, that may not be the case.

Diana Russini of The Athletic reports that team ownership is reluctant to sign off on trading up for a quarterback after giving Daniel Jones a four-year, $160 million deal last offseason.

This general manager, Joe Schoen, did not draft Daniel Jones, but he did give him that contract last year. There was a time where I was digging on trying to find out if they were willing to trade up. There have been some mocks out there that had the Giants moving up to go get a quarterback. It was explained to me that that was just a really tough sell to ownership after giving Daniel Jones that contract last year that we’re going to now give up assets to replace a quarterback that we’re paying $40 million. I think there’s a really small chance that they do that. I think there’s a better chance that they trade out for more picks.

Publicly, Giants co-owner John Mara has given the green light for general manager Joe Schoen to take a quarterback but he maintains that Jones will be the starter in 2024.

“I still have a lot of confidence in Daniel,” Mara told NFL Network in March. “I think the Daniel that we saw in 2022 is the real deal. Last year he was hurt, a lot of his offensive linemen were hurt, and things just did not go our way. But I still have all the confidence in the world in him. Hopefully, he will be able to go by training camp, and yes, I think we all expect him to be the starter in 2024.”

“If they fall in love with a quarterback and believe that it’s worth pick No. 6 or moving up, I certainly would support that,” Mara told ESPN.

In about 38-40 hours, the speculation will be put to rest and we’ll know where the Giants are going in Round 1.



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Giants’ John Mara ‘legitimately embarrassed’ by constant turnover

Since “parting ways” with Tom Coughlin following the 2015 season, there’s been nothing stable about the New York Giants.

A franchise that once prided itself on consistency and stability has turned into a hotbed of chaos. From 1947 through 2006, they had just four general managers. Since then? Three.

The situation at head coach has been even more hectic. Following Coughlin’s 12-year run, which included two Super Bowl championships, the Giants are on their fourth full-time head coach  — only one of which has survived a second season (Brian Daboll).

It’s been an ugly look for the Giants, and co-owner John Mara certainly feels it, reports Ralph Vacchiano of Fox Sports.

There is no indication that Brian Daboll is on the hot seat heading into his third season. But his seat isn’t exactly comfortable either — not after a season that Mara called “a huge disappointment to me.”

The last thing Mara wants to do is fire another coach, especially after he fired each of his past three after two seasons or less on the job. He craves stability for his franchise and, said one team source, “He’s legitimately embarrassed by how much turnover there’s been.”

Mara and fellow co-owner, Steve Tisch, have been quick to pull the plug over the past decade but realize the lack of consistency has plagued the organization.

Although Daboll managed to survive his second season, it wasn’t easy. The losing record aside, there were many reports of massive dysfunction within the building — something that culminated with an ugly divorce from defensive coordinator Wink Martindale.

“There are times where I wish he would tone it down a little bit,” Mara said of Daboll earlier in the offseason.

If the Giants fall flat again in 2024, it will be interesting to see how Mara and Tisch respond. Will they show potentially costly patience, fearing further embarrassment, or will they take their lumps and continue their seemingly endless cycle of change?

They hope to avoid having to make that decision. They’d rather just get back to winning.

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John Mara explains why Saquon Barkley wasn’t traded at 2023 deadline

The New York Giants failed to deal running back Saquon Barkley at the 2023 trade deadline despite sporting a 2-6 record at the time. That decision came back to haunt them when Barkley inked a long-term deal with the Philadelphia Eagles at the onset of free agency.

The Giants ultimately lost Barkley and got nothing in return.

Although they recognized the possibility of being caught flat-footed, Giants co-owner John Mara says they were still attempting to compete at the time so they gambled on keeping Barkley.

“I hate trading guys right at the trade deadline because it almost signals that you’re giving up on the season,” Mara said this week at the Annual League Meeting, via the New York Daily News. “And Saquon, I was still hoping to be able to sign him at some point. It’s unfortunate we weren’t able to do it.”

Although Mara says they weren’t giving up on the season, that didn’t stop general manager Joe Schoen from trading defensive lineman Leonard Williams to the Seattle Seahawks.

In the eyes of Schoen, Barkley was more valuable offensively than Williams was defensively.

“(Barkley) was one of our better offensive players, and we weren’t giving up,” Schoen said. “We still wanted him to go out there and perform for us . . . When (Daniel Jones) was coming back from the neck injury, we wanted to make sure they could go out there and operate. I think Saquon was a big part of that at that time.”

Mara wanted Schoen to find a way to make it work but ultimately, Barkley departed. The Giants never even made him a contract offer.

“That was kind of an ongoing discussion through the year that it could come to this, and they knew my feelings that I was hoping it didn’t come to this,” Mara said. “But at the end of the day, I know sometimes every once in a while I read, ‘Oh, he’s meddling, he’s meddling.’ No. We’ve run our organization the same way for many, many years.”

That also means, contrary to popular belief, that the four-year contract given to Jones was the decision of Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll.

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New York Giants owner John Mara weighs in on NFL rule changes

New York Giants co-owner John Mara was in attendance at the league meetings on Monday. Among the big topics at the league meetings were the rule changes for the upcoming season, which includes the hip-drop tackle rule.

Mara, a member of the competition committee and an advocate for player safety, spoke out about the rule change:

“I think it certainly will, it was a tactic that we had to get out of the game.” Mara told Mike Garafolo. “The injuries were too severe and there were too many of them and in my experience being on the competition committee, the players have never been happy with the safety-inspired rule changes; they always feel like it makes the defensive players’ jobs that much tougher, and it does. But at the end of the day it’s going to protect guys from injuries and it’s just a tactic we had to get out of there. These players are the greatest athletes in the world and every time there’s a rules change, they adapt. They figure out how to tackle the ball carrier without the horse collar, without the helmet to helmet, now they are going to have to do it without the hip-drop maneuver.”

Mara reiterated that the tackle was something they needed to get out of the game due to the injury risk included in such tackles. The rule change has caused quite the controversy this offseason and will continue to do so headed into the 2024 season.

The league also has focus on a new creative kickoff rule and Mara was also asked about that:

“I am in favor of making the change, I think right now we have a play that is just a ceremonial play. You look at the Super Bowl where you had 13 kickoffs and no returns and we don’t want that. We also don’t want the old kickoff because the rate of injury was too high so I think we need to try something; there is a lot of fear about what the unintended consequences will be but we still have a little bit of work to do.”

The new hip-drop tackle rule is going to be a hot topic in the early part of the 2024 season and it will be interesting to see the effect it has on the game.

With every rule change the NFL makes to kickoffs, it isn’t out of the realm of possibility for kickoffs to eventually be eliminated from the game.

Mara seems to have a clear interest in rule changes that make the game safer.



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We’re still headed in the right direction

The New York Giants took a few steps back in 2023, finishing 6-11 after qualifying for the postseason in 2022.

It was the franchise’s first trip to the playoffs since 2016 and the new general manager/head coach combo of Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll were seen as franchise saviors.

Giants co-owner John Mara told reporters in an interview at the league meeting in Orlando on Monday that although he was disappointed in the Giants’ performance last season, he still believes the team is “headed in the right direction” under Schoen and Daboll.

The Giants went through another spate of unusually high injuries to key players in 2023, including a season-ending knee injury to starting quarterback Daniel Jones.

Daboll had differences with top members of his staff, especially defensive coordinator Wink Martindale and special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey.

Both men have been relieved of their duties, as have several others, and most notably offensive line coach Bobby Johnson.



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Saquon Barkley going to Eagles made Giants owner John Mara ‘sick’

New York Giants CEO John Mara told reporters at the NFL annual league meeting in Orlando on Monday that watching star running back Saquon Barkley leave for the Philadelphia Eagles in free agency made him “sick.”

Barkley signed a three-year, $37.5 million deal with the Eagles on the first day of free agency, ending his six-year association with Big Blue.

The Giants did not make an offer or a counter offer to Barkley during free agency but had been speaking to his reps about a new contract.

The Giants did not want to use the franchise tag on Barkley for a second straight year, hoping they could work out a deal that would pay him less than the $12.4 million franchise tender price.

Over the past few years, the Giants had offered Barkley several deals, some reportedly for more money than the one he recently accepted from the Eagles.

Mara had dangled the idea that Barkley would be a “Giant for life,” but in this day and age of the NFL that has seen the devaluing of the running back position, that wish would be a hard one to fulfill.



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Giants’ John Mara expected to address media at NFL league meeting

The NFL will hold its annual meeting this week down in Orlando and New York Giants CEO John Mara is expected to formally field questions from the media for the first time in nearly a year.

Mara, once accused of being too “hands-on” and influential over the team’s direction, has basically stepped back since hiring Joe Schoen as general manager back in 2022.

NJ.com’s Darryl Slater recently wrote a piece about what subjects Mara might be probed about. They appear to range from his patience level with the current management team and coaching staff to the draft to his perception of how close the team is to contending after a 6-11 showing last season.

“The Giants last reached (and won) the Super Bowl after the 2011 season,” writes Slater. “In 12 seasons since, they have reached the playoffs twice — a one-and-done trip in 2016 and the 1-1 divisional round trip in 2022. Mara isn’t getting any younger (and probably isn’t getting any more patient). He turns 70 in December. Since that most recent Super Bowl title, the Giants have endured records of 9-7, 7-9, 6-10, 6-10, 11-5, 3-13, 5-11, 4-12, 6-10, 4-13, 9-7-1, and 6-11.

Their fans are fed up. Is Mara?”

That is a good point to ponder. Mara’s father, Wellington, viewed the fans as “customers” and even went through the fan mail personally, addressing and answering each letter and concern.

His son appears to be just as caring but the pro sports paradigm has changed vastly since those days. There is a formula for winning in the NFL now that allows the “meek” to “inherit the earth” so to speak. No team should have more than three consecutive losing seasons if they follow the formula.

The Giants veered away from that in the latter days of Jerry Reese’s stewardship and it continued through the archaic, old-school tenure of Dave Gettleman.

With Schoen still putting his stamp on the team, Mara has little choice but to sit back and see how things unfold. The Giants have a chance to draft a new quarterback and move on from Daniel Jones, of whom Mara was a chief proponent.

We’ll find out just how much faith he has in Schoen this week. Schoen’s performance in free agency has far onshore his record in the draft. He may have to outperform this year to gain Mara’s full support again.

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Louis Riddick roasts New York Giants for poor handling of Daniel Jones

“We’ve done everything possible to screw this kid up since he’s been here. We keep changing coaches, keep changing offensive coordinators, keep changing offensive line coaches. I take a lot of responsibility for that.”

Those were the words of New York Giants co-owner John Mara in January of 2022. He was publicly acknowledging that the organization had failed quarterback Daniel Jones and not the other way around.

Mara had previously shared similar sentiments about two-time Super Bowl champion Eli Manning, admitting that the franchise lost its way and essentially wasted the final years of his historic career.

Nearly three years removed from his comments on Manning and more than one year removed from his comments on Jones, nothing has changed for Mara’s Giants.

The franchise is still mired in staff turnover, injury, and inconsistency. They have one of the NFL’s worst win-loss records over the past decade and every issue that plagued them then continues to plague them now.

Entering the 2024 offseason, the Giants may or may not be ready to pull the plug on Jones just six games after signing him to a four-year, $160 million deal. Their general manager and head coach are firmly on the hot seat, and the past several months have been highlighted by circus-like dysfunction.

Louis Riddick, who once vied for the general manager job, has seen enough from these Giants. And although he is no fan of Jones, Riddick believes, as Mara once did, that the organization has failed their former first-round pick.

“Isn’t that amazing, how stuff can turn on its head? And you wonder why the Giants haven’t been able to make some headway in the (NFC) East and be true contenders? Because when you have this kind of thing that is happening within one calendar year, there’s no way you can make headway. There’s just no way,” Riddick said on Get Up.

“I just think it’s unfortunate. Look, I’ve never been a big, big supporter of Daniel Jones. I’ve always had my issues. But when you have this kind of flip-flopping and (these) kind of 180 turns away from people and these kind of structural deficiencies, no wonder you can’t make up any ground. No wonder.”

The Giants’ issues go far deeper than the player under center. They have persisted through multiple GMs, multiple head coaches, multiple coordinators, and a revolving door of personnel. Until they can diagnose the core cause for these failures, they will continue to waste the careers of their players.



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