Mara bends on knee issue
Giants co-owner John Mara said Thursday that he will support players who kneel during the national anthem in protest this season. “Yes,” Mara said. “I’ll say the same thing to the players that I said to the group in 2017: my preference is that everybody stand, but if you decide in your conscience that you think taking a knee is the right thing to do, I’m gonna support your right to do that. Because I believe in the First Amendment, and I believe in the right of people, especially players, to take a knee in silent protest if that’s what they want to do.”
Mara has not always answered this question so unequivocally.
In 2018, he helped NFL commissioner Roger Goodell create a national anthem policy that sought to forbid players from kneeling. Mara said in May 2018 that “we’ve gotten to a point now where it’s become such a divisive issue that I think it’s important that we come out of here with a policy that everybody can respect and adhere to.”
The NFL Players’ Association challenged and squashed the anthem policy, however, accusing Goodell and Mara of telling the players’ leadership one thing and doing another.
Mara and Giants co-owner Steve Tisch had their players’ backs in Week 3 of the 2017 NFL season, when President Trump called any player who knelt a “son of a b—-h.” Mara and Tisch at the time called Trump’s comments “inappropriate, offensive and divisive,” saying they were “proud of our players.”
Fast forward to Thursday, Mara’s first media availability since January, and the Giants’ co-owner was willing to admit that he’s OK turning off a percentage of his fan base to do the right thing.
“I’m gonna continue to support (the players),” Mara said. “I understand the fact and accept the fact that that’s not gonna be necessarily popular with certain segments of our fan base, but I think that’s the right thing to do.”
Mara said it’s easy for him to support his players’ rights to protest peacefully especially because “I see how much work they’re doing in the community and how important what is going on right now in this country is to them — and they back it up with actions, not just words.”
He admitted his players opened his eyes in an emotional Zoom meeting after George Floyd’s death in May, as well.
“I will tell you this: One of the most memorable team meetings I’ve ever been involved with I guess
took place right after the George Floyd murder,” Mara said.id “I lilistenedtd tto ththe playersl ttalklk aboutbt ththeiri own experiences growing up, dealing with law enforcement. And to see the raw emotion that came out of them — I mean, guys got very very emotional talking about it — it was something that really was an eyeopener for me.”
Mara said he also met with coach Joe Judge and the player leadership group last week to discuss some of the additional steps they wanted to take after the Jacob Blake shooting in Kenosha, Wis.
“One of the things we’d like to do is get our players in front of some of our local political leaders, whether it be the governor, the mayor, maybe the police chief, just to talk about what steps are being taken to effect some sort of change,” Mara said.
Mara wouldn’t comment on “hypotheticals” when asked how he’d react if Giants players wished to boycott a regular-season game this fall and follow the NBA players’ lead. “I don’t want to get into hypotheticals about when the next incident happens are you gonna be concerned about if players want to boycott,” Mara said. “We’ll continue to have communications with our players. I’m not gonna worry about that.”