Giants Owner Dies

[Gothamite]

Story here (NY Times)

Waiting to see what kind of uniform tribute the Giants will wear for Mr. Mara. He certainly deserves one....

[leopard88]

What does it say about me that upon reading about Wellington Mara's death, I thought first about what kind of uniform tribute the Giants would provide (bearing in mind, in my defense, that I first read about his passing in Gothamite's post, so uniforms and logos were already on my mind)? Fess up if you thought the same thing so I feel better about myself.

[TBGKon]

there is a thread about this in "Sports in General"

Other thread

[slats7]

Oh lord, here we go again. Honor him any way you want, but don't defile the uniforms. How bout a nice moment of silence or his face on the program?

[winghaz]

Oh, slats, don't be such a spoilsport. It's traditional for teams to "defile" as you say their uniforms when someone big in the organization dies. And the Giants don't get any bigger than Wellington Mara.

[Gothamite]

True enough.

So long as they don't create a permanent uniform memorial (although he deserves it more than the AL the Browns wear, which constantly bothers me since the man didn't actually do anything), I think a tribute is both appropriate and deserved.

[VitaminD]

So long as they don't create a permanent uniform memorial (although he deserves it more than the AL the Browns wear, which constantly bothers me since the man didn't actually do anything), I think a tribute is both appropriate and deserved.

Respectfully disagree, G'mite.

The Al Lerner nonsense in Cleveland aside, Wellington Mara is absolutely deserving of a permanent tribute, a la George Halas. The Bears saw fit to honor Mr. Halas, and I think Mr. Mara is thought of along those lines. He was at the first Giant game... 80 years ago. He was revered and adored by players for generations. Behind the scenes, he shaped a lot of what has become the modern NFL. And he was the New York Giants for well over a half-century.

If ever there was someone who deserved a tribute on the level of George Halas, it's Wellington Mara. (And this from an Eagles fan.)

[leopard88]

So long as they don't create a permanent uniform memorial (although he deserves it more than the AL the Browns wear, which constantly bothers me since the man didn't actually do anything), I think a tribute is both appropriate and deserved.

Respectfully disagree, G'mite.

The Al Lerner nonsense in Cleveland aside, Wellington Mara is absolutely deserving of a permanent tribute, a la George Halas. The Bears saw fit to honor Mr. Halas, and I think Mr. Mara is thought of along those lines. He was at the first Giant game... 80 years ago. He was revered and adored by players for generations. Behind the scenes, he shaped a lot of what has become the modern NFL. And he was the New York Giants for well over a half-century.

If ever there was someone who deserved a tribute on the level of George Halas, it's Wellington Mara. (And this from an Eagles fan.)

Agreed. This was one of the men who agreed to equitable sharing of TV revenues among all league teams when he could have made the Giants filthy rich at everyone else's expense by signing the Giants to their own deal. Instead of being Steinbrenner, he took the high road and wound up making everybody (including the small market teams) phenomenally successful. That is worthy of some sort of honor.

As for Al Lerner, that is a discussion for another day. As I recall/understand it, he set up Art Modell with his Baltimore connections, then, after the Browns moved, swooped in to buy the expansion version for himself. Not exactly a knight in shining armor.

[Gothamite]

Al Lerner somehow gets credited for bringing the Browns back to Cleveland. Which is nonsense - all he did was raise the money for a guaranteed franchise in a proven market. No risk whatsoever. To elevate him to the status of Halas is a farce at best.

I understand the contributions of the Mara family. I'm just not in favor of permanent uniform tributes. If you want to honor Wellington, resist the temptation to change his uniforms for temporary monitary gain.

[DrBear]

What would be nice - and hopefully somebody at NFL World Domination HQ thinks of it - is asking Wilson to make up a bunch of balls with "THE DUKE" on them for this weekend's games.

(For those of you who don't know, the official pre-merger NFL ball had that logo stamped on it in honor of Mara, who was dubbed "The Duke of Wellington." THe NFL used balls with a similar stamp a couple of years ago for Thanksgiving throwbacks).

[Survival79]

Giants Locker Room Report

In tribute to Mr. Mara, the Giants will wear a white oval patch with a black border on the left shoulder of the jersey with Mr. Mara's initials "W.T.M." in black

[Gothamite]

Here's a picture. It's a very subtle tribute:

I like it. The only thing I might have preferred would have been the name "DUKE" rather than his initials.