Giants executive vice president Steve Tisch, the head of one of the Giants’ two owning families, attended Wednesday’s final minicamp practice and spoke at length with co-owner John Mara.
The Giants organization said defiantly this spring in the wake of Tisch’s Jeffrey Epstein scandal that his role with the organization would remain “status quo,” and they clearly weren’t kidding.
Despite Tisch transferring the remainder of his ownership shares to his children this spring, Tisch’s presence in the Giant’s draft room in April and on the field Wednesday gave the appearance that nothing has really changed.
He hobnobbed on the field with Mara, head coach John Harbaugh and chief security officer Jerry Meade. He spoke with senior VP of football operations Dawn Aponte, and he appeared to have family members with him.
What stuck out most was Tisch and Mara speaking at length, both in that group setting and alone on the field and sideline, as if the Mara family is continuing to embrace Tisch’s presence the same as ever.
Another way to say it would be that while NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said Tisch and his siblings were “no longer owners,” while letting Tisch go free from any accountability for his Epstein association — Tisch came across on Wednesday as involved as ever with the franchise.
Tisch was featured among millions of documents in the latest release of the Epstein files in late January, trading emails with the disgraced financier about connecting with women.
In one thread of correspondence in April 2013, Tisch emailed Epstein, then a convicted sex offender, to say he’d just had lunch with a friend of one of Epstein’s assistants. Describing her as a “very sweet girl,” he asked Epstein if he knew anything about her, the documents released show.
“no but I will ask [redacted] (all confidential) I will get all info, did you contact the great ass fake tit [redacted],” Epstein wrote back in a typo-laden response. “shes a character, short term, has an older boyfriend going to acting school, a 10 ass.
“I am happy to have you as a new but obviosly shared interest friend.”
That was one of several cringeworthy exchanges.
“We had a brief association where we exchanged emails about adult women, and in addition, we discussed movies, philanthropy, and investments,” Tisch said in his own statement back in January. “I did not take him up on any of his invitations and never went to his island. As we all know now, he was a terrible person and someone I deeply regret associating with.”
Epstein was a convicted sex offender three years prior to Tisch’s documented correspondences with him, however, and settled lawsuits with numerous victims alleging similar behavior.
Epstein was arrested on sweeping sex trafficking charges in July 2019 and found dead inside a cell at the now-shuttered Metropolitan Correctional Center about a month later. His death was officially ruled a suicide.
HARBAUGH: SCHOEN EXTENSION OWNERSHIP’S CALL
Harbaugh was asked for the first time about the multi-year extension for GM Joe Schoen that was slipped quietly in and out of the news cycle recently, with still no clarification on how many years it keeps Schoen with the Giants.
“I was happy,” Harbaugh said. “I think he’s a good guy, enjoy working with him and looking forward to what we all can do together. That’s a good thing.”
Harbaugh then was asked how much input he had in the decision.
“They asked me if I liked Joe and if he did a good job, I said yeah,” Harbaugh said. “It’s the decision of the … I respect the ownership group. It’s their call. That’s their call, and they made it. And I respect it. I think it’s a good decision; agree with it.”
CARTER SIDELINED FOR REST OF MINICAMP
Although Harbaugh said Abdul Carter’s twisted left ankle “doesn’t look serious,” his Monday injury did sideline him for the entire rest of the Giants’ three-day mandatory minicamp.
Carter didn’t participate in Tuesday’s practice after leaving Monday’s session midway through. And while he was on the field Wednesday for the Giants’ walkthrough, he did not even participate in light individual drills that would have required pushing off and exploding out of his stance.
Carter did jog with his team from one field to another at one point, but he wore a tight wrap around his injured left ankle under his shoe. And the trainers’ instruction for him was clearly to limit his movement.
This is sensible considering the goal is now to have Carter on the field for the start of training camp, which does not appear in jeopardy based on Harbaugh’s diagnosis.