The Giants‘ pursuit of John Harbaugh — from start to finish and now still — has had ulterior motives riding shotgun.
Hiring him was clearly always the top priority. But there have been shifting 1A concerns, too.
It was pretty clear the Giants were unsure if Harbaugh would reciprocate early on. So they went out of their way to ensure they would get a medal for trying if he went elsewhere. They even quietly laid the groundwork establishing an excuse if that happened. It then became a race for members of the Big Blue Brass to grab their individual glory once it became clear Harbaugh was interested.
We had the biennial reports about Steve Tisch taking a bigger role in football decisions. Senior personnel consultant Chris Mara was providing running updates on Chris Mara’s heroics. Tim McDonnell apparently became the first player-personnel director in league history to tell a head coach he could make $20 million a year. And embattled general manager Joe Schoen’s recruiting prowess was compared to John Calipari (both regularly add high draft picks and do little with them) while being painted a Henry Kissinger-esque statesman and a respected Football Man whose leaguewide cachet escaped the fans who have watched his horrible teams play.
Then came the Baghdad Bob/Chip Diller portion of the search. The delay in finalizing a deal was not because the Giants were resisting Harbaugh’s demands to change everything about how they do business and give him control of the operation. Calm down, anxious and concerned fans! You are being foolish! Contracts are hard! Insert your lawyer jokes here! You try hammering out a dental plan! These things take time!
Which brings us to now. Harbaugh, as you know, got his way. And the holdup was a bit more complex and serious than the all-is-well message being pumped out through a largely head-over-heels local press corps. But the deal is done.
Harbaugh and his wife arrived to team’s East Rutherford facility on Monday night. What awaited them? A totally not staged Press Conference Eve welcome and photo shoot with Schoen:
The Giants have been a disaster for over a decade. They just hired the 14th-winningest coach in NFL history. Harbaugh is not Vince Lombardi, as former WFAN voice and current team propagandist Russ “The Sweater” Salzberg astutely observed on his podcast. But he is pretty darn good — 12 postseason appearances, six division titles, four conference championship game appearances, a Super Bowl win and only one real losing season in 18 years (the other two were 8-9s). The fact the Giants got him to come here is a colossal coup for the organization and they should be feted for it and for the concessions they made to close it out.
And yet they are expending significant energy during this joyous occasion trying to convince the world Harbaugh is not actually the Emperor of East Rutherford and Schoen does not actually remain employed at his mercy and pleasure. Because the gaslighting never ends with the Giants, even when there is no reason for it.
Yes, Harbaugh is contributing by saying all the right things about his budding partnership with Schoen. And there is no reason to think his words have not been sincere. But we know Harbaugh is in charge and will make that quite clear over time. This is his team and his operation. Schoen is just along for the ride. If the Giants are truly going to change, they will abandon the charade too. They have already done the hard part, after all.
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