Manning ‘got a pass’
Giants co-owner John Mara testified that e-mails about Eli Manning’s alleged game-worngear scheme were troubling enough that he would have investigated had known about them — but new court papers claim that the team’s in-house lawyer turned a blind eye to evidence against the quarterback.
Mara also said during a deposition that he has never asked the two-time Super Bowl MVP about an e-mail in which the team’s equipment manager wrote that a Manning helmet and jersey offered for sale as game-worn were “BS ones,” the filing says.
Mara, Manning and others, including the Steiner Sports memorabilia company, face a March civil-racketeering trial over allegations by memorabilia dealer Eric Inselberg that they schemed to pass off phony game-worn Manning equipment as real.
During pretrial questioning, Mara was confronted with the Aug. 31, 2008, e-mail from equipment manager Joe Skiba, according to the court papers filed by Inselberg in New Jersey Superior Court on Friday.
“I think if I had seen this prior to the lawsuit being filed, I would have asked about it or asked somebody about it,” Mara testified in the deposition.
Mara also insisted there was “no reason” he would have seen Skiba’s Aug. 31, 2008, e-mail until after Inselberg sued the team, Mara, Manning, Skiba and others in 2014.
“So after you saw this e-mail — recall seeing this e-mail for the first time — didn’t you ask Joe Skiba about it?” an unidentified Inselberg lawyer asked Mara.
“I don’t recall whether I went to him or whether I went to [Giants general counsel William Heller] about it,” the Giants owner answered.
“Did you ever ask Eli Manning about this?” the lawyer asked. “No,” Mara replied. Mara was then shown a letter that mentioned “an e-mail pertaining to Manning Steiner, which Eric informs me he submitted to you for your review” — and which Mara acknowledged had been sent to Heller on Sept. 28, 2011.
“Failing to investigate reflects not just negligence, but given Heller’s sophistication as an ex-
perienced . . . litigator and then general counsel, it was willful blindness,” Inselberg claims in the court filing.
“Simply put, he did not want to investigate because he was afraid of what he might find.”
Earlier this year, Inselberg filed court papers that show Manning sent an April 27, 2010, e-mail allegedly asking Skiba for “2 helmets that can pass as game used. That is it. Eli.”
At the time, the Giants said that the e-mail was “taken out of context,” that Manning “is well known for his integrity, and this is just the latest misguided attempt to defame his character.”
A Giants spokesman declined to comment Sunday. Heller did not return an e-mail message.