FIX THIS MESS!
JOHN Mara has a terribly difficult task on his hands, and the truth is that parting ways with his coach and his general manager might well be the easiest thing he may have to do — if he chooses even to do that. It has long been the Mara Way to seek and savor stability, and that has more often than not been the right way, too.
Just not now.
Now, he needs a blowtorch to rectify what ails his team. It’s funny: the past few days, there have been a lot of Giants fans who have voiced their disapproval with Odell Beckham’s tirade, and about how Tom Coughlin handled it Sunday, how Coughlin has handled Beckham’s chronic lapses in judgment.
Just as interesting to me has been how many have strained themselves trying to defend Beckham’s antics. Maybe that’s just the natural reaction of fans circling their wagons. I think it’s something else: Giants fans have long been comforted by the fact their team, and the men who run it, almost always do the right thing. They’ve been conditioned to expect it.
Somehow, there has to be a way to explain this, if not justify it.
But there is little question that Mara — and Jonathan Tisch, too — has to be privately seething at what’s become of their model franchise this year. Forget the Beckham incident; if oldoldschool Wellington Mara was able to live with Lawrence Taylor for a decade’s worth of wild rides on and off the field, then his son will be able to live with Beckham’s growing pains.
It’s deeper than that. It’s their franchise defensive lineman, Jason PierrePaul, having that fireworks accident last summer and then treating the Giants people who wanted to visit him as if they were carrying mumps. It’s the kind of culture that now exists that Damontre Moore could apparently disrespect Coughlin and not be released — but then feels free enough to double down and engage in a lockerroom fight, too, which ultimately forced his exile.
And, yes: it’s four straight nonwinning seasons, and the likelihood of four straight years outside the playoffs. That alone would be a bottomline ejection button for 30 or 31 other teams.
But when youu mix th hat with thee other stuff … well, if you’ve spent 30 seconds around John Mara you know how much all of it combined has to tear at him. And how he knows — has to know — that what’s best for his franchise, is a complete overhaul. As quickly as possible.
That isn’t Mara’s natural habitat, of course. If he could manipulate the celestial forces that oversee such things, he would make certain the Giants defeated the Vikings this weekend in Minneapolis and the Eagles next week in East Rutherford, and the Redskins would fall Saturday night in Philadelphia and then again next week in Dallas.
His way — the Mara Way of 90 years and counting — always has been this: find reasons to retain your most loyal subjects, rather than searching for reasons to jettison them. Tisch’s philosophy seems to dovetail nicely with that, and it has made this the best of all of New York’s ownership groups, and it isn’t close.
But such a Christmas football miracle would be profoundly counterproductive to what the Giants need now, to what the owners crave as protectors of the team’s legacy and the guardians of their future. Anything that tempers their frustrations and instead feeds the better angels of their nature would be counterproductive.
Sometimes, a team really needs a fresh voice coaching the players, and a fresh set of eyes picking those players. It’s been a hell of a run for Coughlin and for Jerry Reese, and Mara has rewarded them the past few years with extra helpings of benefit and fewer servings of doubt, not always to the betterment of the team. It’s happened before.
Wellington Mara waited far too long to part ways with Allie Sherman back in the day, going so far as to award Sherman a 10year contract as a message to disgruntled fans who tried to singsong him out of town. Pete Rozelle practically had to order Wellington to hire George Young to fix the mess the franchise had become by the late ’70s, partially due to Mara staying too long with faithful sons like Alex Webster and Andy Robustelli.
Things aren’t quite THAT bad for the Giants — yet. The Giants are better off for the fact they are owned by men with patience, who don’t allow emotion to frazzle their common sense. But they really do need to be frazzled here. The time is right and the time is now for change. Save the miracle for another day.