The Giants, originally known as the New York Football Giants, are celebrating their 100th season. The team was founded in 1925 when businessman Tim Mara paid $500 to join the fledgling five-year-old league.
The Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers and Chicago Cardinals (now Arizona Cardinals) are the only other teams from back then that are still around.
John Mara, the current co-owner of the Giants, told Scripps News that his entire life has centered around the New York Giants. His father, Wellington, was a ball boy for the 1925 team.
"My earliest memories of my childhood are sharing a dorm room with my father at training camp during the summers," Mara said in an interview with Scripps News sports correspondent Paul Crane in East Rutherford, New Jersey. "That's not the case with most of the other NFL owners. They have [a] myriad of businesses that they deal with. I'm here every day. This is what we do."
Like all families, the Maras have had some rough patches. In 1991, some of the Maras chose to sell their 50% ownership stake in the team to another prominent New York family: the Tisches. They are the force behind the Loews Corporation.
RELATED STORY | Taylor Swift touches down for another football era at Chiefs' NFL season opener
Jonathan Tisch sits on the board alongside his siblings Laurie Tisch and Steve Tisch, the famed TV executive who is also the Giants' executive vice president and chairman.
Despite this 30-plus-year partnership, the name Mara has been synonymous with the New York Giants ever since John's grandfather made that modest investment in 1925.
The Giants are now one of the most valuable organizations in the NFL. Forbes estimates the organization is worth $7.3 billion, the fourth-highest in the league. However, Mara said that isn't something he's concerned about.
"We're more concerned about trying to put a winning team back on the field," Mara said. "It's been kind of a dry stretch for us over the last 10 years."
The Giants have won eight championships, including four Super Bowls, but the team has only been to the postseason twice, with just one playoff win, in the last 10 years.
RELATED STORY | NFL fines Detroit Lions and New York Giants $200K each for multiple fights at joint practices
"I have so many family members that, you know, are so passionate about the team, and so the losing is tough ... but the challenge every year to try to improve and get better is what keeps us going," Mara said.
It seems like every year teams have to adjust to changes in the NFL, which is making a push for a more global audience. For the first time this season, the league will feature a game in Brazil. Games will also be played in the United Kingdom and Germany.
"It's amazing what has happened, and I never would have imagined that, you know, 15 years ago," he said. "But we've been to the U.K. three times, played in three sold-out stadiums, wildly enthusiastic crowds. We're going to Munich this November, and we expect the same thing."
In addition to games outside the country, there's been talk about adding another week to the season. That's one potential change Mara is not excited about.
"I've always been less than enthusiastic about increasing the schedule, but I do think it's inevitable at this point," he said.
At least this season, the Giants won't have to worry about a Week 18. Instead, the team is expected to have its hands full in the NFC East. The Dallas Cowboys are the defending division champions, but the Philadelphia Eagles are favored to win the division this year.
