 |
| |
|
 |
 |
||
 |
 |
||
 |
|||
EVENTS
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|
Heads up for Mara Longtime owner still has passion for game, team
Updated: Monday January 08, 2001 10:05 AM
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -- Walking back to the locker room after practice, Wellington Mara spied a penny on the ground. He didn't hesitate to pick it up. "It was heads up," the 84-year-old longtime owner of the New York Giants said. "If Bill Parcells was here, he would have been delighted. When he was the head coach I would always sneak into his office and put a heads-up penny on his desk or an elephant with a trunk turned up. An elephant with a trunk turned down is bad luck." Don't assume Mara is superstitious. Parcells is. Mara was just being nice. That's Mara, though. He is a kindly man devoted to religion, family, the Giants and the NFL. "He is not a guy looking to get his name in the paper or be on television," said John Mara, the owner's son and the team's executive vice president. "I think he has always been someone who prefers to take a low-key, behind-the-scenes approach, but he is very much a force within these walls. Very little of anything goes on here without his knowledge or stamp of approval." The elder Mara, whose team entertains the Philadelphia Eagles in an NFL playoff game Sunday, laughs when asked about his saintly image.
"They don't know me," he said. "I am able to mask my emotions." Mara also speaks his mind, especially on the Giants or the interests of the NFL. He's taken on Dallas owner Jerry Jones and Browns executive Carmen Policy for stances he felt hurt the league. "Wellington Mara is the National Football League," Baltimore Ravens owner and close friend Art Modell said. "Nobody else, myself included, can lay claim to that. His integrity and passion for the game is legendary." The name Mara has been around as long as the NFL. His father was one of the league's founding owners, buying the franchise for $500 in 1925. In 76 years, Mara has done everything -- from waterboy to general manager to owner. The only time he was away from the team came in World War II when he spent four years in the Navy. "I have never wanted to do anything else,' said Mara, who never played football, except for intramurals at Fordham. He still attends practice daily and occasionally walks through the locker room to talk with players -- father-son stuff when it's necessary. It's been like that for years, said Dick Lynch, a former defensive back and the Giants' analyst on radio broadcasts. "He always knew what we were doing," said Lynch, who played for the Giants from 1959 to 1966. Lynch recalled going to a New York bar one night and being introduced to boxer Jake LaMotta. The two sat at a table and talked for a while. The next day Mara walked up to Lynch on the field and said: "Who were you with last night?" Lynch never sat with LaMotta again, even though he had numerous chances. Image is important to Mara, but not the kind associated with fancy clothes. A simple man of simple tastes, he wears team jackets and hats that are 30 years old. "My mother is usually aghast at some of the outfits he walks out of the house with," John Mara said. "You'll bring it to his attention and he'll say it still has a few good years." A couple of years ago, John Mara recalled, his father got a pair of Gucci loafers for Christmas and wouldn't wear them because they had buckles.
"My mother nagged him for weeks to wear them, but they were just too flashy for him," the younger Mara said. "So he took a knife and cut the buckles off the shoes and wore them without the buckles." Family is important to Mara. Current coach Jim Fassel remembers an incident after he was hired as an assistant in the early 1990s. "I didn't know Wellington that well," Fassel said. "I was in the locker room and he came in and said, `How's it going?'" Fassel started talking about the team and practice. Mara stopped him. "I'm not talking about that," Mara said. "I'm talking about your son, Mike." Fassel's son had suffered a serious throat injury that required surgery. "I thought that was something," Fassel said. "This guy cares more about you more than just as a coach. He cares about you as a person." Mara also cares about winning. The Giants have won six titles since joining the league, including Super Bowls after the 1986 and '90 seasons. He desperately wants to win more, even though you would never know it, John Mara said. "We were playing a few years ago at home, and one player whose identity will remain unrecalled was having a particularly poor game," John Mara said. "I was getting increasingly more frustrated with the guy as the game went on and finally I screamed out in our box: `What the hell is this guy doing?'" Wellington Mara, who sits behind John in the box, grabbed his son firmly by the shoulder. "He's doing the best he can," he said. That's the way Mara runs the Giants. "He has been in thick of things," Modell said. "Every new owner, current owner and longtime owner should take notice of how he runs his team." Mara, who has co-owned the Giants for the past 10 years with Robert Tisch, has no intention of leaving the game soon. "This is what I do," Mara said. "As long as I feel good I'm going to continue." Asked if winning another Super Bowl would be special, Mara smiled. "Winning any game is special," he said.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
