New York Giants CEO and co-owner John Mara is the dean of NFL owners. He is well-respected around the league and his counsel is relied upon around the league to keep this NFL juggernaut going.
One would think Mara would be against his players kneeling for the national anthem before games and they would be right. Mara said on a conference call with reporters on Thursday that he prefers the players stand for the Anthem.
But with the recent developments in this country the past several months and the push for social justice after numerous incidents where unarmed black men died at the hands of law enforcement, Mara has softened his stance.
“My preference is that everybody stand, but if you decide in your conscience that taking a knee is the right thing to do I’m going to support your right to do that because I believe in the First Amendment,” Mara said.
“I’ll support any players’ right to engage in silent protest. What makes it easy for me to do that is when I see how much work they’re [Giants players] doing in the community and how important what is going on right now in this country is to each of them, and they back it up with actions, not just words.”
After an “eye-opening” session with the team after the killing of George Floyd, Mara began to see the “raw emotion” that was displayed by many of the players. He realized the need for freedom of expression in these very trying times.
“Our players are very engaged in working in a lot of different areas. They asked me to take part in that video last week and I was happy to do that. I’m going to support our players, particularly when they engage in the type of activity that they have been off the field. They’ve been fantastic about that,” Mara said.
It is expected that many white players will be joining their black teammates in kneeling this season. That will be okay with Mara, who is even encouraging the players to further activism.
“We would like to get our players in front of local political leaders — governors, mayors, police chief — to talk about steps to make change,” Mara said.
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