The NFL has expressed concerns about the Titans ownership in recent months, specifically the lack of a clear succession plan.
But while commissioner Roger Goodell talked around those issues Friday, one influential owner said he didn’t think it was a tremendous concern.
According to Paul Kuharsky of ESPN.com, Giants owner John Mara said he didn’t have a close relationship with owner Amy Adams Strunk, but didn’t seem in a panic about it.
“I really don’t know her,” Mara said. “I mean I’ve met her a couple of times but I really don’t know her, . . . I know [team president] Steve Underwood is a very capable executive. But I don’t have enough knowledge about what’s going on ownership-wise. I just know they have a good man in Steve.
“I don’t know if it’s a major issue, no. I don’t think so. As long as you have a good, capable executive running the team, which I think Steve is, and I think they’ve got a good team, a good coach and a good general manager. They’ll be fine.”
Goodell was predictably vague when asked about the problems during his press conference.
“We have ownership policies, the ownership policies are lengthy, but essentially they require a single owner, to represent the club locally, but also at the league level,” he said. “We work on the basis of 32 individual owners, each having a vote. When league matters come up, whatever they may be, we work on a vote of 24 of the 32. It’s a very important principle to owners and their partners.
“They want to know who their partner is, they want to know who’s responsible for how the team is operated locally and they want to know that their partner is sitting at the table when they are making difficult decisions. So we will try to encourage our policies to encourage that type of behavior.
“We have to continue to work with the Tennessee ownership group to see how that’s going to conform with our policies. We’ll be meeting with our finance committee in the next few weeks. That’s a subject we’ll be discussing.”
Strunk owns 33 percent of the team, but Bud Adams’ heirs agreed to have her front the group. But she skipped the last round of owners meetings which were in Houston, near her home, which seemed an apparent finger to the eye of the league.