Peter King’s eulogy to Wellington Mara is oddly disappointing. At least I had expected more from such a prominent writer about such a great man. King’s piece is nice but flat, light on both history and anecdotes. Outright mindboggling is this sentence towards the end of the article:

“If the NFL were being created today, the business would be ruthless.”

Um, yeah, but my take-home from working a little bit with NFL mid-level managers a few years ago confirms what I had guessed from reading about television contract negotiations, stadium deals, collective bargaining agreements, league expansion and much more: the NFL is a ruthless business. I’m not saying it could have been otherwise, but it certainly isn’t otherwise.

Update: King’s Monday Morning Quarterback column has a very, very strong segment on Mara.