Wellington Mara documentary shows his Giant impact on NFL, family

No one has had a front-row seat for all 100 of the Giants’ seasons. But someone did for 81 of them, and his life and legacy are celebrated in a documentary that premieres on the NFL Network on Friday night, the 19th anniversary of his death.

“The Duke: The Giant Life of Wellington Mara” is an NFL Films production that seeks to capture the iconic Giants co-owner and the role he played in the sport.

It was a gigantic one, as evidenced by the who’s who of interview subjects who participated, from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to both of the Giants’ Super Bowl-winning coaches, Bill Parcells and Tom Coughlin, to players such as Phil Simms, Lawrence Taylor, Michael Strahan, Eli Manning and Tiki Barber.

Filmmaker Neil Zender said at a screening on Wednesday, “I don’t think there’s any person who experiences a football game, whether they’re watching it or playing it, who is not experiencing something that Wellington Mara played a part in putting into football.”

That includes selecting the NFL football itself, which now honors Mara’s nickname with the words “The Duke” emblazoned on each one.

Zender said his team initially was frustrated by the relative lack of images of Mara, who died at 89 in 2005, in NFL Films archives.

Eventually, he said they concluded, “We’re looking for Wellington Mara in the wrong place. If you want to understand Wellington Mara and how important he is, don’t look in the past, look in the present.”

Still, it helped to have the assistance of one of Mara’s 11 children, Susan Mara McDonnell, the unofficial family archivist, in assembling more material.

McDonnell said at the screening, “We’ve always wanted to try to do something to highlight his life and his accomplishments in the NFL for many and to shine a light on his character, somebody who always tried to do the right thing for his family, the league and his players.

“ 'Once a Giant, always a Giant’ was not just a phrase for him. It was a way of life.”

McDonnell got deeper into her father’s mementos as she worked to recreate his desk for the Legacy Club at MetLife Stadium.

“I thought I knew so much about him, but as I uncovered each document, I learned more and more,” she said.

Mara saved everything. McDonnell came across hundreds of letters he wrote home during his service in the Navy in World War II, as well as football-centric material.

“There were draft lists, draft notes from the 1940s up until the year that he died,” she said. “There were many letters to all three commissioners, Bert Bell, Pete Rozelle, [Paul] Tagliabue, describing ways to make the league better, make the game better, make the officiating better. There were a lot of those letters.”

Goodell noted one of Mara’s most enduring legacies: The family’s decision, with his brother and co-owner Jack, in the early 1960s to agree to equal revenue sharing of television revenue with smaller markets.

“That wouldn’t happen today,” Goodell said. “If that did not happen at that point in time, I think as a league we’d be much different.”

Goodell called Mara being “very much the conscience of the league,” willing to complain about things he thought could be done better.

Team president John Mara said the most poignant aspect of the film for him was hearing former players talk about their feelings about his father.

In one scene, Barber and Jeremy Shockey walk together on the Giants' practice field and remember visiting Mara shortly before he died.

Coughlin recalled the Giants’ 36-0 rout of Washington at Giants Stadium — led by Barber’s 206 rushing yards — in their first game after Mara’s death as a tribute from the players to the late owner.

“That was their way of showing it,” the coach said.

The premiere of the film conflicts with Game 1 of the World Series, but Giants radio announcer Bob Papa said even that is fitting.

In 1956, the last time the Dodgers and Yankees met in a World Series as New York-based teams, the Yankees and Giants — who also won a championship that year — shared Yankee Stadium.

The documentary will re-air on NFL Network throughout the season and be available on the Giants’ website.

“The 100-year anniversary seemed like the perfect opportunity to share his story,” McDonnell said. “It means a lot to my family, all 100-plus members of us, but especially the generation that was too young to really witness many aspects of his life.

“I think a film was the perfect way to bring his NFL journey to life and to help people understand his legacy of faith, family and football.”

By Neil Best

neil.best@newsday.com@sportswatch

Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.