The Giants are 0-8 at home. Stadium seats can’t be given away for free. I’m sorry what fans are going through. The Giants don’t love us back.
Let’s review what we know about John Mara’s track record.
(1) John Mara could barely wait until his father was buried to build a new garage (er I mean stadium, $1.7B for cup holders) and soak fans on PSLs. They tapped out every ounce of goodwill, with proof being they wiped out the 15 year wait list for tickets very quickly. I was on that waitlist and passed. They added another level of suites which made the upper tier start where old Giants stadium ended. The working stiff had to pay up to the lucky sperm club of Mara and Johnson to watch ants.
(2) John Mara was the leaker of R1 draft information which ultimately cost the team when other teams traded ahead for players known to be targeted. Shockingly, we knew that Jones was going to be drafted at 1.06 because the man blabbed the pick a day early. The only reason he/the Giants weren’t fronted on that pick was because the Giants were seriously overdrafting and there were no other takes for Jones’ services above that spot. We chronicled this in past posts.
Imagine an owner betraying your draft information. Horrible.
3) If you look at the website, Ronnie Barnes does not report to the GM. That is structurally ridiculous. He reports to John Mara. Barnes was remarked by former players for having “juice”.. super powerful. He was considered a son to Wellington Mara, and essentially is untouchable. Yet the Giants have persistently been a bottom feeder in injuries. There is a lack of accountability. Any GM or President of Football Operations would fire Barnes. The Giants lack the structure to do so because John Mara is the President of Operations.
3a) The media stays away from talking about Barnes. I cannot prove this but the pattern of their reporting leads me to a conclusion that they would lose their access/privileges/“juice” if they said anything negative about him. I don’t think we will hear anything until he’s gone.
4) The nepotism needs to be cleared out.
5) Mara does not see himself as one of the structural issues. I used to think it was GM and Mara as figurehead but over time I’ve come to realize it is Mara himself who needs to step down and simply own. This was my error. Part of this realization came when I saw on Hard Knocks a weak and ineffective President that is trying to let Schoen operate; he brings nothing to this job.
6) John Mara sees the 2007 and 2011 Super Bowls as his, not his father’s. George Young, and then his handpicked successor Ernie Accorsi, built the team under Wellington Mara. Wellington Mara died in 2005. The fire (Young-> Strahan), logs (Manning, Osi, Tuck, Coughlin) and fumes (2007 draft from Reese when he was still in charge of player personnel) from Accorsi were responsible for the 2007 + 2011 SBs. With all of that falling away after 2011, the rot of 13 years (2012-2024) is at Mara’s feet. I like Schoen. Yet (two) people I know and trust tell me he must be removed and a new GM must objectively make the decisions on QB and beyond. Mara will most likely make the wrong decision, and (certainly) not step down either.
MARA NEEDS TO FIND A PRESIDENT OF FOOTBALL OPERATIONS and let that person figure everything out on a go-forward basis. Yet it will be Mara who makes that decision and it will probably be the wrong one. He will keep Schoen.
Others have observed that Sanders and Ward are not necessarily 1.01 and 1.02 QBs. We know that Schoen will take one there. Do we know that a new GM would do that? Maybe yes, maybe no. I think it’s pretty clear that a new GM will make a more reasoned and objective decision than Schoen. Given that Mara will keep Schoen, this is more evidence that it is Mara who needs to step down and not be involved at all in the running of the team.