Giants president John Mara gets a well-deserved game ball
New York Giants president John Mara, shown in 2023, was honored with a game ball after the Giants beat the Eagles on Thursday night. Credit: AP
The Giants had just beaten the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles in one of the most dominant and well-balanced efforts of Brian Daboll’s tenure with the team, so there were plenty of nominees to receive the game ball from the head coach in the postgame locker room Thursday night.
Rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart, who threw for a touchdown and ran for another and who has instilled a new spark into the organization, certainly was a top candidate. Rookie Cam Skattebo ran for three touchdowns and nearly 100 yards and managed to do the unthinkable by making Saquon Barkley seem like an irrelevant afterthought.
On defense, Brian Burns had two sacks, Cor’Dale Flott had a key interception that set up a touchdown and Dane Belton punched out a fumble late in the game to help seal the victory.
But there was really just one choice to receive the honor after this statement victory.
So Daboll handed the football to John Mara.
A little more than a week after the team’s president and CEO made the public disclosure that he is battling cancer, the Giants made sure that he understood just how much he means to them with an inspired 60-minute effort punctuated by the ceremonial gesture.
“He deserves it, man,” linebacker Kayvon Thibodeaux said. “You talk about the trials and tribulations we’ve been through as an organization, you talk about the battle he is fighting right now that is bigger than football, and him still being dedicated, being here, showing up day in and day out . . . It’s tough to see, but it gives us some resilience when our leader can go through the toughest battle and keep his head high.”
Added left tackle Andrew Thomas: “He puts so much into this franchise, his family has for a long time, and it means everything to him. For us to go out and get a win for him felt great.”
Mara wasn’t available for comment after the game, but he did pop outside the locker room briefly with that leather football — the one that is named “The Duke” after his father, Wellington Mara — tucked under his arm.
Steve Tisch, the team’s chairman and the head of the family that co-owns the Giants with the Maras, emerged from the same locker room with a broad smile on his face. Even Eli Manning was part of the festivities.
“That was a good one,” Manning said as he walked out of the stadium.
The game? Yes. The moment in the locker room? Definitely.
Those who spoke with Newsday about it said it was a very deep, complex, raw moment.
“He is the face of this franchise,” guard Jon Runyan Jr. said. “Him opening up about the struggles he is going through, he said that all of the chemo and all the radiation doesn’t compare to feelings like this. For us to be able to give him that, a big win, on a Thursday night, it was very emotional. I’m happy we were able to do that.”
Said defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence: “He was happy, man. He said this feels good to him to get this win.”
The Giants certainly haven’t had many opportunities to hand out postgame souvenirs these past few years, and Mara would be the first to note how frustrating that has been. At the end of last season, when he announced that he was retaining Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen despite only three wins on the year, he said he was running out of patience. It certainly was warranted, considering how gloomy the franchise’s 100th season had been and how dim the prospects for the future seemed at the time.
But things have changed since then. The Giants still are far from a great team and their inconsistency can be maddening. How do you explain upset wins over the previously unbeaten Chargers and the Eagles sandwiching a road loss to the previously winless Saints? The optimism, though, is palpable.
For the first time in a long time, the Giants feel as if they are heading in the right direction. Dart has given them an entirely new perspective and joy. Scattebo brings the crowds to their feet each time he touches the ball and lines up a defender to roll over.
It is the progress that Mara often says he wants to see.
So many times in recent years, Mara had to wade through a sea of Eagles fans or Cowboys fans at MetLife Stadium chanting for their victorious team after games. This time he made his way down to the locker room from his suite with the sound of “Let’s Go Giants!” ringing in the crisp autumn air.
“I feel like he deserves it,” linebacker Brian Burns said of the entire experience. “He’s dealt with a lot with this franchise and with life in general. Being able to give that to him and give him this win on a special night against a division opponent . . . It was important to let him know we are all in this together.”
Mara showed his appreciation for the recognition the best way he could. He told the players they were off until Monday.
Coaches often will give teams that reward for a job well done. When it comes from ownership? “It holds some weight,” Lawrence said, laughing.
A lot of things in that locker room on Thursday night did.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
