John Mara confident Giants are more than paper tigers
Giants owner John Mara smiles as he leaves the field after a day of training camp on Aug. 9, 2021. Credit: James Escher
John Mara knows the difference.
He knows when there is reason for optimism about the season that lies ahead, and he knows if what he sees is false hope — even if he’d never publicly admit as much.
And while the Giants’ owner is cautiously optimistic about what 2021 holds for a team that hasn’t won a playoff game since its last Super Bowl win a decade ago, he understands a brutally honest assessment won’t occur until months from now.
"When I walk off the field [after] the last game, whenever that is, I want to feel like, do we have a chance to win a Super Bowl with this group," Mara said Tuesday during a briefing with reporters before practice. "Are we moving in that direction? I think the answer to that is yes."
It is certainly a long way from 6-10 last season to a Super Bowl any time soon, and Mara has been disappointed before. A lot, in fact; the Giants have made the playoffs only once since Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning authored their second Super Bowl title. There will be no playoff mandate this year.
"I don’t think those ever do you any good," Mara said. "I don’t think I need to say or do anything to motivate the people in this building any more than they’re already motivated."
But Mara sees enough promise in Joe Judge and Daniel Jones to at least be cautiously optimistic about what lies ahead, both this year and well into the future.
"I certainly think we’re a lot better on paper," he said. "I’d like to see us show that on the field and win more games and make the playoffs. Obviously, we’ve fallen far short of that the last four years, but I think on paper I think I’m pleased with where we are."
Yet the owner knows all too painfully that what appears on paper in August can disintegrate into the reality of losing records. And not just this current spate of futility; when Mara grew up watching his father, Wellington, preside over teams that repeatedly failed in the late 1960s and '70s, he understood how difficult times could be in the sports arena.
"No question, I’ve thought about that quite a bit over the last few years," Mara said. "I think what changed this thing was bringing in [general manager] George Young and finally getting the right people in the building."
Before Young settled the front office and teamed with Bill Parcells to win the franchise’s first two Super Bowls, the Giants were lost in a cycle of chasing veterans from other teams and watching them flounder in New York. "We went through the period in the '70s where we were trading draft picks to bring in the next franchise quarterback, and it never worked out."
Out of that misfortune, however, Mara learned a valuable lesson he carries with him now.
"Even when you’ve had a bad stretch, you still have to maintain some level of patience and look at the long term," he said. "It’s taken a little while longer than I would have liked, but I do feel like we’re heading in the right direction."
Mara believes he has the right organizational infrastructure for eventual success.
"I think we have the right people in the building right now," he said.
That includes the right coach and the right quarterback — the two central elements of a team’s success. Or failure.
"[Judge] exudes confidence," he said. "His attention to detail, the way the players respond to him, I think is something that adds to my level of confidence. He demonstrates leadership, he sees the big picture. I’m convinced he’s the right guy."
And Jones, who faces a critical test in Year 3?
"Obviously, we need to see more wins," Mara said. "But one of the things that gives me that confidence is the way the coaches in this building feel about him. They love everything about him."
The investment in high-profile free-agent receiver Kenny Golladay and the reinvestment in Pro Bowl defensive lineman Leonard Williams underscore Mara’s belief in what he sees. "We believe in the guys we were spending on," he said.
And still, the answers won’t truly reveal themselves until the Giants’ season ends sometime in January — or, if this team lives up to the owner’s wildest hopes — sometime in February.
"We desperately want to be back playing in championship games," Mara said. "I think we have a group here that is on its way to doing that. But until we do it on the field, there’s going to be that level of skepticism and I certainly understand that."
Bob Glauber retired in 2022 after covering the NFL for nearly 40 years. He was selected in 2021 for the Bill Nunn Career Achievement Award by the Pro Football Writers of America, and is a three-time winner of the New York State Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. President of the PFWA for the 2018-20 seasons, he is the author of “The Forgotten First” and “Guts and Genius.”
