Mara's kindness, foresight helped make league great

	Wellington Mara, the NFL's senior owner, died at the age of 89 on Tuesday. AP
	RELATED • Giants owner Wellington Mara dies at 89

You always wonder when someone dies, how much of what is said about the person is real and how much is gussied up because people don't want to say bad things about a dead person.

I can guarantee nothing you'll read or hear about Wellington Mara, the Giants' owner who died Tuesday morning of cancer, will be phony. Nothing. Every bit of praise will be sincere,  real and deserving for a man who had such a big impact on football.

On Tuesday afternoon, I was on the phone with Colts GM Bill Polian, talking about his team, when the subject turned to the passing of Mara. He said something perfectly fitting. "A few years ago, I wrote him a note,'' Polian said. "And at the end of it, I told him I was so happy to know him because so often people or things that are supposed to be so great don't really turn out that way. I told him he was one of the rare people who lived up to the advanced billing.''

In 1985, I moved from Cincinnati to New Jersey to cover the Giants for Newsday. I saw Mara every day from July to the end of the season for three years. He never took a day off, and he was 69 when I got there. Funny story: The first year on the beat, I got a package at my house on Dec. 23. It was a big package. What could this be? I thought it might be a gift from a relative, because we'd just had our second daughter, Mary Beth, on Dec. 19. But no. It was a really nice TV. The note from the Giants said, "Merry Christmas.'' I guess the Giants gave the guys on the beat Christmas gifts, which was nice. But I couldn't keep the TV. It just felt wrong. So that week I brought the boxed TV to the offices at Giants Stadium and went in to see Wellington. (Don't know why, but I never called him Mr. Mara, which most people did.)

"I really appreciate the TV,'' I said, "but I just can't keep it.''

He wanted to know why and said he wasn't trying to buy me off. You guys work hard, he said, and you're around the team so much. He took the television back, with regrets. "I understand there has to be a distance there,'' he said, "but I consider you guys part of the Giants family.''