Tom Rock: John Mara remains stable force for Giants, even in uneasy times with health, Steve Tisch
Giants co-owner John Mara at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center on Jan. 20, 2026. Credit: Noah K. Murray
PHOENIX — For as long as they have been around — which is pretty much to say as long as the NFL has been around — the Giants have enjoyed nearly unparalleled stability of ownership. The stewardship of the Mara family, beginning with Tim, the founder, back in 1925, didn’t always translate into on-field success, and there were certainly tensions between family members in the dim 1970s when Wellington and his nephew Timothy rarely saw eye-to-eye on the direction of the organization they each owned half of, but there was always a steadiness to the Giants that set them apart from other teams.
Even after Bob Tisch bought 50% of the team in 1991, the Giants remained a remarkably balanced constant in the league and in sports in general. That partnership between Tisch and Wellington Mara continued on after their deaths with their eldest sons, Steve and John, for the past few decades. It resulted in a pair of Super Bowl wins this century.
It was to the point that whenever a coaching or general manager job opened up with the team — and that’s happened more times in recent years than it should have — the Giants were always considered a desirable landing spot for candidates because of that perceived granite at the upper levels of the franchise. It helped the Giants lure John Harbaugh just this past offseason.
“Always had tremendous respect for these two families,” Harbaugh said back in January at his introductory news conference, adding that “nobody knows more about this league” than Mara.
It was no surprise then, as the NFL’s annual meetings kicked off here in Arizona on Sunday, that Mara’s presence seemed to brighten the humdrum gatherings more even than the desert sun. Wherever he went folks were obviously overjoyed just to see him.
There was no way Mara was going to miss this, those close to the team’s current president and CEO and head of the family that now owns 45% of the franchise, confided to Newsday. It’s one of his favorite events on the calendar, a chance to dive into the nitty-gritty details of the sport and continue the legacy of his ancestors who helped shape it. The treatments for the cancer that he disclosed in the fall may have prevented him from traveling with the team to road games during the 2025 season, but they wouldn’t stop him from this responsibility.
So at one point in the afternoon Mara sat in a competition committee meeting, walked through the lobby of the hotel where the events are taking place, stopped to chat with Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and then ducked into a restaurant for a late lunch. It was almost business as usual.
It’s very much not, however. Not for the Giants at least.
The future of the league’s bedrock franchise is suddenly shaky. Mara remains in charge and still works regularly from his office in East Rutherford, but his health certainly opens questions regarding the future of his family’s stake in the team. His younger brother, Chris, took on a more active role in the Harbaugh hiring, yet any succession plans beyond those two are fuzzy. What might the next generation plan to do when they inherit their pigskin birthright?
And the Tisch side of the operation? They were nowhere to be seen at this league event. Steve Tisch has become embroiled in controversy after emails between him and Jeffrey Epstein were disclosed earlier this year. He remains the team’s chairman in title but the actual ownership piece that he has long represented is in the process of being transferred from he and his two siblings to their children.
Then there is the non-controlling private equity portion of the team that was purchased by Julie Koch and her family in the fall, establishing the reported value of the franchise at an overwhelming $10 billion but diluting the ownership percentage pieces further.
For now, things remain relatively steady. Mara, as he has always done, provides that. He may need the assistance of his daughter on his arm to help him navigate the room these days, but it is he himself who braces up the Giants.
It remains his greatest asset.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
