THE DUKE: The Giant Life of Wellington Mara | TRAILER | New York Giants

7 comments

1. John Mara needs to retire. Hes just a product of nepitism and doesnt do anything except seemingly hire the wrong people like Dave Gettleman which the Giants are still in the hole for right now and the Giants have gone through several different regimes since the Coughlin era. Nice moves Johnny Boy. The Duke is turning in his grave

2. I’m excited to learn more history about the NY giants!!

3. Yessir the Duke himself

4. Wellington Mara was one of the biggest incompetents ever to own a sports franchise . The team was a joke for twenty years (1964-1983), compiling only three winning seasons in that time period(1970, 1972, 1981) . If Pete Rozelle didn't practically force him to hire George Young, the organization would still be floundering . Mara : birdbrain.

5. There’s no hope for this New York Giants team.

6. This looks to be a joke. Wellington was co owner and vice president on paper until his father Tim died. He then had total control of football operations and slowly ran the team into the ground to become the laughingstock of the sports world.

   Wellington's father was the real boss until just before his death in the mid 50's. Tim Mara was the one that helped build the league from 1925 until the mid 1950's. His oldest son Jack was president and ran the business side. Jack would represent the team at many league meetings until his father died and all meetings until his death in 1965. Jack worked with Pete Rozelle to get the other team owners to agree to share all TV revenue.

   Father Tim and Wellington built the top teams of the late 1950's and after Tim died, Wellington finally had full control. The Giants continued to be one of the best teams in the NFL by Wellington trading draft picks for older, established players. His drafts with the picks he had left were horrible and by 1964 and 1965, most of their best players retired, were traded away or were well past their primes and there was no one to take their places. After brother Jack passed away, Wellington became president and Jack's son Tim became vice president.

   Wellington continued running terrible drafts and trades and by the early 1970's, nephew Tim encouraged his uncle to hire a GM. Andy Robustelli was given the title of Director of Operations and Tim expected him to run all football operations. Wellington never stopped mingling and by 1978, Tim had enough and called for Rozelle to settle disputes between him and his uncle. Rozelle refused to get involved. After "The Fumble", the s–t hit the fan and the "Mara Feud" went public.

   Rozelle finally got involved. The end result was that Wellington would allow the next GM to run the team without his interference. Once that was settled, Well and Tim were turned down by a couple of candidates that Rozelle SUGGESTED. George Young was eventually hired and was allowed to run the team without interference until Tim sold his family's share to Robert Tisch. After the sale, Wellington started interfering with Young just a little at first, but more and more with his son John as time went on. Right not now, we're reliving the Wilderness years as John is making many of the same mistakes his father made.

7. A lot of hate here. I don't understand it. I'll watch the documentary.