Chris Snee, seen here during the 2011-12 National Football Conference championship game, was among the former Giants on the runway at Bloomingdale’s White Plains recently for New York Pet Rescue. Photograph by Mike Morebeck.
Football took a holiday from its troubles Sept. 18 as members of the New York Giants’ most recent Super Bowl-winning teams hit the runway at Bloomingdale’s White Plains to support New York Pet Rescue.
Former wide receiver Amani Toomer, former punter Jeff Feagles and former guard Chris Snee walked some four-legged models – or rather the “models” walked them, perhaps giving credence to W.C. Field’s line that you should never work with kids or dogs.
Or maybe you should. At one point, Andy – one of the two-legged models – paused (or should that be pawsed?) to let a woman in the audience pet the dog he was carrying. Then he kissed the hand that had caressed the animal. Lovely.
The event underscored that it takes all kinds to make this world. Football players generally are not as lithe of physique as models. Nor do they slip easily into ready-to-wear or hold a pose the way models do. They’re built for and are used to moving.
But the Giants trio had good fun, with Amani Toomer even imitating the classic model’s slouch for the delighted audience. It included members of the Mara family, longtime co-owners of the Giants, led by patriarch Wellington Mara’s widow, Ann.
Afterward, I ran into son John, president and CEO of the team, with investment guru Howard Ward and asked them if I could take their picture for WAG, the luxury lifestyle magazine I edit.
“This will be in the November issue,” I said.
“Oh, I can’t wait,” John Mara said with a hearty laugh, perhaps reveling in a moment when he didn’t have to answer questions about the NFL’s botched handling of a number of recent domestic abuse cases amid its ranks. He is one of two owners – along with in-law Art Rooney of the Pittsburgh Steelers – who’ll be overseeing the Robert Mueller-led investigation into the NFL’s response to now-former Baltimore Raven Ray Rice coldcocking his future wife.
I could’ve asked Mara about his. Perhaps I should’ve. But he was so enjoying a moment when three members of the Giants’ extended family did something for defenseless animals.
Sometimes you need a night off when your thoughts run no deeper than a pair of broad shoulders in an Armani Collezioni jacket.
For more on Pet Rescue, visit ny-petrescue.org.