The Giants' Giant Leaves Us

I'm sure you all know about this....

^Wellington Mara, NFL's senior owner, dies at 89
^By DAVE GOLDBERG= ^AP Football Writer=
NEW YORK (AP) Wellington Mara of the New York Giants, one of the NFL's most influential owners for more than a half century and the last of the league's founding generation, died Tuesday. He was 89.
Mara, who was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1997, died of cancer at his home in Rye, the team said.
``Wellington Mara is the face of not only the New York Giants but the NFL,'' Giants tight end Jeremy Shockey. ``He's a pioneer and the guy that everybody looks up to.''
Mara's influence went far beyond the Giants. He clearly was one of the most important figures in NFL history.
Perhaps his greatest contribution came in the early 1960s. He and brother Jack, owners of the biggest team in the biggest market, agreed to share television revenue on a leaguewide basis, dividing the huge amounts of money available in cities like New York with smaller markets from Pittsburgh to Green Bay.
Part of that agreement meant that the Giants ceded the right to sell their own games to television for a leaguewide contract, in those days with CBS. That concept of revenue sharing allowed the NFL to thrive and remains in place today.

You could argue that Mara was actually better for the NFL than he was for his own team. Could you imagine a big market owner in any sport today that would agree to share their tv revenue in the way that Mara did in the 60's. Mara understood that the future of the league's success was far more important than his team's short-term success.

Mara along with George Halas is also a big reason why the Green Bay Packers still exist. When the Packers were on the beginning of their incredible roll in the sixties, there was a brief moment in time where Mara could have brought Vince Lombardi back to the Giants. Halas convinced him that if he took Lombardi, that the Packer franchise would have crumbled. Noone tortured the Bears and the Giants more on the field at that time than Lombardi. But they put the league's needs ahead of their individual franchises.

You had that sad sack period from the mid sixties to late seventies where the game seemed to pass the Maras by. Landry was playing Chess and the Giants were playing Connect Four. But after the Piscarcik/Herm Edwards Miracle of the Meadowlands play in 1978, Mara had enough and along with Pete Rozelle, brought in George Young to be the GM. The rest is history for Giants fans.

As a Giants fan would you have liked him to be a little more fiery in putting a quality product on the field? Absolutely. Mara seemed content at times if the team had meaningful games in December. Not if they could win a Super Bowl. But being a Yankees fan and all the drama that goes with it, it was great having such calm steady presence running the G-Men.

Mara was truly a giant(no pun intended)figure in the history of American sports. He will be missed.