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Wednesday's Report
Topic Started: Oct 26 2005, 09:07 PM (19 Views)
KCGirl
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Shaper of Young Minds (aaahhhhhh!)
[ *  *  *  *  * ]
October 26, 2005

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Amani Toomer thought he had a chance to make the NFC Pro Bowl team in 2002, but when the votes were counted with two games remaining in the season, the Giants’ wide receiver came up short. But Toomer was an All-Pro to an important man who didn’t have a vote, Wellington Mara, and that meant more to him than the conference-wide ballot.

“He said, ‘You made my Pro Bowl,’” Toomer said today. “That’s all I needed. I was happy the next day. I said, ‘Okay, I made the Pro Bowl this year.’ It made me feel great. The next game I had my best career day (10 catches for 204 yards and three touchdowns at Indianapolis).”

It seemed everyone at Giants Stadium had a Wellington Mara story to share today. Mara, the Giants’ President and Co-Chief Executive Officer, passed away yesterday at age 89 from cancer. The patriarch of a large and loving family, the Giants and the entire NFL was remembered by his team, which plays the Washington Redskins on Sunday in a game for at least a share of first place in the NFC East. Mara would have loved it – an important game against an ancient division rival. As the players and coaches struggled to focus on the Redskins, thoughts of Mara were never far away. His funeral Mass will be Friday morning in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The entire Giants team will attend.

“We gathered as a team this morning,” coach Tom Coughlin said. “We stood, we devoted a moment of silence to our beloved owner, Wellington Mara. We asked God to accept his soul. We talked about honoring Mr. Mara in death and celebrating his life. We talked about what his expectations would be for us, and the words and the phrase that I have used is that, ‘He would expect us to carry on.’ I don’t think he expects us to walk around with our lower lip down to the floor. We all are very much aware of this week. There is no real script for this week. Our emotions are literally all over the place. We do know that Mr. Mara, right now, is scheming somehow to try to beat the Redskins. We have to follow his lead and his example as always, and move on. And so while, on the one hand our hearts are heavy, on the other hand we celebrate his life and recognize and what he meant to all of us. We shared some of the personal experiences that we have had and we prepare for the Washington Redskins.”

Tiki Barber and Jeremy Shockey had the most recent personal experiences to share. They visited Mara’s Westchester County home on Monday, a poignant encounter for two players who feel particularly close to Mara.

“The family had asked (vice president of medical services) Ronnie Barnes to get in touch with me,” Barber said. “They knew he was in his last hours and days. It was a privilege and an honor for me to be one of the guys to go up and say my goodbyes, say a prayer with him. It was tough to see him in that state, but I’m glad I had an opportunity. He was sleeping. He knew we were around. He knew he was surrounded by his family and loved ones.”

“We went up there and saw a lot of family members and him for the last time,” Shockey said. “It was hard. A year ago, my grandfather was in the same situation. He was two years younger. It’s hardest for the family members. He was a strong man, and he wanted nothing else but for his family and friends to be with him in the last minutes of his life. He requested to leave the hospital to go home, and that shows the character of the man.”

Mara and Shockey would seem to be an odd pairing. The former was a conservative, religious man who attended Mass daily. Soon after joining the Giants in 2002, Shockey, in addition to being a great player, developed a reputation as a young man who liked to stay out late and have a good time. But Mara, as he had done with so many players over so many decades, bonded with Shockey, a relationship that carries great significance for the star tight end.

“He really touched my life for the past four years,” Shockey said. “His family members, I can imagine how much he touched their lives and the other people he’s been around for a long time. It was a great experience for me as player, and more importantly as a person, to get to know (him) and really talk to him and be friends with him. We never really talked about business. It was always stories and always trying to help a person be better in living their life day-to-day.

“The things he’s done in his life, any man would be more than proud of the things he’s accomplished. I’m just happy to be able to (play) here and talk to him. He’s done multiple things in his life and he’s accomplished more than any man can even dream of. He’s strong and such a beautiful person, and I feel very honored to get to know a person like that.”

Toomer, a Giant for 10 seasons, talked about Mara’s two addresses to the team.

“We had just lost to the Vikings (in the 15th game of the 1999 season) and he talked to the team for the first time in 30 years,” Toomer said. “He was very quick and very short. He said, ‘To the players who played hard, I congratulate you. And to the players, who didn’t, you will not be wearing a Giants jersey for long.’ And the next year, half the team was gone. His words definitely weren’t taken lightly around here. He definitely sent a message to everybody in this locker room, you better be playing hard, or you’re not going to be here.

“The second time (in 2003, when Jim Fassel resigned as head coach) it was more of the same thing.”

If there was any reason to smile today, it was for the memory of last Sunday when the last game of Mara’s life became one of the most memorable victories in the Giants’ 81-year history. Eli Manning’s two-yard touchdown pass to Toomer with five seconds remaining gave the Giants an exhilarating 24-23 victory over the Denver Broncos. The score capped a Giants comeback that began when they trailed by 13 points early in the fourth quarter.

After the game, Manning told reporters about his locker room conversation with Conor Mara, one of Wellington’s grandsons, who said at the end of the game Mara woke up, saw that the Giants had won, and with a smile on his face went back to sleep.

“Hopefully, I’ll have a lot more games that I’ll remember for a long time,” Manning said today. “But I don’t think this one will ever leave me. Just for the fact that it was a big game, and it was the last game that he’ll see. Getting a win for him, and hearing that story about him waking up and smiling. That’s something that will never leave me.”

“I think that’s something to be proud of,” Barber said. “It put a smile on his face, I’m sure. I think it made us feel good. We had three Dukes for him after the game (the players chanted, “Duke, Duke, Duke” – Mara’s nickname – in the post-game locker room). It was emotional – it’s funny how sports transcends life in some ways.”

Coughlin, meanwhile, has the task of steering the team through this emotional week while preparing for one of the season’s most important games. The coach has known Mara longer than any of his players – he was the Giants’ wide receivers coach from 1988-90. Coughlin was asked today what comes to mind when he thinks of Mara.

“Benevolence. Great example. An individual who seemed to have a tremendous capacity for saying and doing the right thing at the right time,” Coughlin said. “When I first was hired, he would literally come by my office every day and if he missed a day, he would come by to tell me, ‘Coach, I haven’t forgotten you, I was busy for a day or two and I didn’t get down here.’ He would come by on his walk and just see how I was doing and how we were doing, and if there was anything more that he could do. I just look at what he meant to us all - this organization. I still see the glitter in his eye. I see the enthusiasm. Eighty years of going to practice every day, being involved in every draft meeting, literally knowing the details about every player, taking great pride in it. Knowing the players on an individual basis, being there for them and if their families or they needed any help of any kind. A great example that he gave to us all – extended to us all – was his own family, with his job, with his God. It doesn’t get any better than what he provided for all of us. Like I said, this is a day, a week, in which our emotions will be all over the place. But as I also reminded our team, the young, the old, no one has a script for this. But we have to find a way to focus and concentrate on the job at hand, knowing full well that is what he would want, this is what he would want us to do.”

Notes

• 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

• The flags at the Meadowlands sports complex were lowered to half-staff yesterday on the order of Governor Richard Codey. They will remain at half-staff through Sunday

• Aside from cornerback William Peterson, who is out indefinitely with a back injury, four Giants did not practice today. Three are questionable: linebacker Carlos Emmons (pec) and wide receivers Plaxico Burress (shoulder) and David Tyree (elbow). Defensive end Michael Strahan didn’t feel well, but he is listed as probable.

Coughlin said an MRI revealed that Emmons has a slight tear of his pectoral muscle.

“He feels better today,” Coughlin said. “He (did) not work today but he does feel better. We will have to see as this goes forward (about the game).”

Emmons is hopeful he will be ready for the Redskins. “Nothing is too optimistic when it comes to me,” he said.

• Barrett Green’s season has ended before it really got started. Green, who was placed on injured reserve today, played in only one game this season, against St. Louis on Oct. 2. He saw action only on special teams and did not record any tackles. Green never fully recovered from offseason surgeries on his knee and ankle. In the last few weeks, his ankle increasingly bothered him.

“There was no conclusion drawn as to what they were going to do immediately,” Coughlin said. “So it seems as if there was more extensive review and work that would have to be done. And the timing is just not very good for us to continue to wait.”

To take Green’s place on the roster, the Giants signed defensive end/linebacker Alonzo Jackson off the Philadelphia Eagles’ practice squad. A third-year pro, Jackson had two solo tackles for the Eagles at Dallas on Oct. 9, the only game he was active for this season. Jackson was released two days later, then re-signed to the practice squad.

Jackson, 6-4, 265, entered the NFL as the Pittsburgh Steelers’ second-round draft choice in 2002, from Florida State. He played in two games in 2003 and seven last season, when he had three defensive tackles and four special teams tackles. Jackson was cut on Sept. 3 of this year and signed to the Eagles’ practice squad two days later.

Jackson played at Americus High School in Georgia, where he was a USA Today honorable mention All-America. He was born on Sept. 15, 1980.

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