New York Giants senior player personnel executive Chris Mara recently detailed his role in recruiting head coach John Harbaugh during a wide-ranging interview with the New York Post, describing a process driven by ownership priorities and the need to move quickly.
Mara said the outreach was his idea and received full support.
“At the time, I really didn’t think it was that big a deal. I was going based on what both ownership’s wishes were," Mara told The Post It certainly was my idea to do it, and everybody gave me their blessing. There was some outside noise about getting my ass down there [Harbaugh’s house in Baltimore area].”
Chris explained the urgency of making first contact given interest from multiple teams, noting that his brother, Giants
co-owner John Mara, had wanted to join but was undergoing treatment.
“Because I knew there were three or four other teams out there. We had to make contact with him first. John wanted to come with me, but he was going through his [cancer] treatment and stuff back then,” he said.
On the drive south, Mara admitted to some anxiety about the first meeting.
“I was thinking I never met this friggin’ guy before, he might think I’m the biggest [expletive] in the world," Chris said laughingly. "I’m sure he had made phone calls and all this, and I’m thinking, 'Man, what does my Google page say? Because he’s probably Googling me right now. This guy’s a horse racing guy, who is he?'”
After the visit, Chris reported back that the meeting had gone well and that Harbaugh viewed the Giants as his top choice.
“I called my brother John first," he recalled. "I told him how I thought it went really good, and I relayed the message that he said to me, 'The Giants are my first choice.' And I said the same thing to Steve Tisch.”
John Mara’s reaction was one of excitement.
“He was ecstatic. … The first thing he said: 'You’re [expletive] me.' I go, 'No, I’m not.' I told him, 'John, I’m 90 percent sure he’s going to be our next coach.' He was ecstatic, and he says, 'What do we do next?' I just told him, 'Hang on. Just hang on,'" Chris said. "We came back, met about it. Of course I went back a second time and we met. … I think it was two [days later].”
A second meeting in southern New Jersey focused on organizational structure and personnel.
“We needed to iron a few things out in terms of power structure-type stuff, how the organization was going to be run. He just asked me a million questions. I did not meet him at his house. I met him at somebody else’s house. It was actually in southern New Jersey,” Chris said.
“It was just more clarity on coaches, roster -- I went over the whole roster with him. He asked my opinion on basically every player, and I gave it to him. And he wanted to know about coaches and who I thought he should keep, stuff like that, all roster building and coaches.”
Chris said the idea of giving the coach complete command of football operations initially met with some shock and reluctance within the organization, though that was resolved. He also sought to protect general manager Joe Schoen during the transition.
“I was feeling just as good, but I knew it would be a little harder sell to John and to ownership, because this was a guy who was going to take complete command and control of football, and we had never had that structure before. At first, it was a little bit of a shock to everybody, and a little bit of reluctance. But we got around it,” he said.
“And that went with also trying to protect as much as I could Joe Schoen, because I like Joe Schoen. Everybody in the building did, and the guy works his [expletive] off.”
The process ultimately aligned the organization around Harbaugh’s arrival and the new structure that came with it.
This article originally appeared on Giants Wire: Inside Chris Mara's role in recruiting John Harbaugh to New York Giants
