John Mara ‘not happy’ Giants are playing 'MNF' game on Rosh Hashanah

Pockets of New York Giants fans were surprised and disappointed to learn during last week's NFL schedule release that Big Blue will be hosting the rival Dallas Cowboys for a "Monday Night Football" game in Week 3 on Sept. 26. That matchup occurs during Rosh Hashanah, meaning Jewish fans observing the High Holiday won't be able to make the journey to MetLife Stadium. 

According to Paul Schwartz of the New York Post, the Giants asked the NFL to be a road team for any Week 3 Sunday night or Monday night game. The league did not accommodate this request, and team co-owner John Mara made it clear when speaking to The Post on Tuesday he's less than pleased about that call. 

"I am well aware of that and not happy about it," Mara explained. "I made my feelings known to the league as soon as I saw the schedule. We have always requested the league take the Jewish High Holy Days into consideration when formulating our schedule. Not sure why it happened this year." 

Teams submitting schedule requests to the NFL is hardly rare. For the 2022 season, the Green Bay Packers asked for their bye to not be placed the week after they face the Giants at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London for Week 5 on Oct. 9. Green Bay instead is off in Week 14. 

"We are never able to accommodate every request," NFL senior vice president of broadcasting Howard Katz, who leads the group that creates the schedule, told The Post. "It’s a pretty complex puzzle we put together.

"Mr. Mara absolutely this year and every year when the Jewish holidays fall on football days, he always asks to avoid the Jewish holidays. He certainly did. In this particular case, we were not able to accommodate that request. 

"He makes the same request every year. He’s always been extremely sensitive to his Jewish fans and goes out of his way every year to remind us and ask us to avoid Jewish holidays."

Katz admitted that the NFL’s largest Jewish market hosting a game on Rosh Hashanah is a "flaw" in the schedule. 

"We were gonna play a Monday night game so Jewish fans somewhere were going to be conflicted and have to make decisions on whether or not to attend the game or watch the game or not," Katz added. "It turned out that it was really unfortunate that it happened in New York. But it was going to happen somewhere."