Let’s stop pretending Giants are ‘classy’ organization

The 15th paragraph of The Athletic’s follow-up report on Steve Tisch’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein is the most important one.

In the weeks and months that followed, Epstein introduced Tisch to at least four women. None of the women responded to messages from The Athletic. An attorney representing one of the women wrote in an email that her client “endured substantial abuse at the hands of Epstein.”

In other words: The late pedophile financier and convicted child sex trafficker directed at least one of his victims to the Giants co-owner.

The team’s response? Continued silence.

Let’s be clear: The Giants’ reputation as a “classy” organization ends here. It was never terribly deserved in the first place — see, the Josh Brown scandal and the continued celebration and lionization of another convicted sex offender, Lawrence Taylor. But anyone who clings to it after this is either delusional or a shameless shill. And this is not just a Tisch problem; the Mara family owns this too.

Tisch’s BS statement following the initial report of his 400-plus appearances in the Epstein files incredibly looks even worse now. We’re still waiting for those erudite conversations about movies, philanthropy and investments. And so much for a “brief association” given The Athletic now has an email Tisch sent to Epstein in 2017.

For those keeping score:

That is nine years after Epstein pleaded guilty to prostitution of a minor in Florida state court in 2008 and registered as a sex offender.

Four years after Epstein began connecting Tisch to women in 2013.

And a year after Epstein’s infamy was re-introduced to the nation as a subplot in the 2016 presidential election.

So Tisch knew exactly who he was palling around with.

We wrote last week that Tisch behaved like a pig with and has colossally bad judgment at best. The latest revelations make it clear his conduct doesn’t even clear that bar, which is on the ground. And it would be naive to think there will not be more and that things will not get worse.

At some point the dam will break. The NFL has a storied history of doing the rightish thing after exhausting all other options. Commissioner Roger Goodell may have originally thought he could brass this out for one of his bosses, especially with the lack of local media outcry here (take note of the reporters and outlets pretending this is not happening). But Goodell will eventually recognize Tisch is a threat to The Shield — if he has not already — and send him into exile.

This situation is exactly what you have a personal conduct policy for and it is perplexing the NFL has not already acted. Tisch is about to turn 77 and has not spoken publicly in years. He has no real say in football matters. He probably would not even have to divest his stake. All you need to do is disassociate him, give Jonathan or Laurie Tisch his chairman and executive vice president titles and move on.

But while the league will likely clean this up in the end, the stain on the Giants will not wash off. Like Tisch, they have made it quite clear who they are.