Far be it from us to shout out Giants owner John Mara, but he showed a lot of common sense at the NFL meetings on Tuesday.

The short version of the story is that the owners were going to vote on a proposal that would allow Sunday games to be flexed to Thursday night instead. That proposal was tabled, but Mara came out anyway and ripped the idea, because he thinks it screws with fans who make plans to travel to games.

Via Brooke Pryor at ESPN:

…some were adamantly opposed, including New York Giants owner John Mara, who called the idea “abusive.”

Mara said owner support for the proposal was close and said he’s concerned a vote will come up again at the spring league meetings in May and will pass. A flexed game would be announced 15 days before the scheduled Thursday kickoff.

“At some point, can we please give some consideration to the people who are coming to our games?” Mara said. “People make plans to go to these games weeks and months in advance. And 15 days ahead of time to say, ‘Sorry, folks, that game you were planning on taking your kids to Sunday at 1, now it’s on Thursday night?’ What are we thinking about?”

The NFL’s stance is that they’re trying to find a middle ground between the interests of traveling fans and those watching on TV. But it’s easy for the latter group to adjust. They didn’t buy tickets and make arrangements. If you had plans to take your son to a Sunday 1 p.m. game, now you’re trying to adjust for a Thursday primetime game instead. You might need to leave work early, take off the next day, or have your kid miss school. That’s a lot to navigate in a short amount of time, and if you’re a fan group arranging travel, then what? You’re talking about charter bus rescheduling as well, which is difficult.

We talked last year about flex scheduling in terms of moving games to Monday night, noting that traveling fans might end up having to book another night at the hotel, change a flight, etc. It really makes things tricky for them, and even if this would not have presented some huge issue for the NFL, it’s more about the optics + lack of consideration.