Everyone who has followed in the footsteps of Bill Parcells as the head coach of the New York Giants has had big shoes to fill. The two-time Super Bowl winner set a standard of not just success but of how to conduct oneself on the job.
Tom Coughlin upheld that standard but many of the others could not. That may be changing here with first-year head coach Brian Daboll, who has the Giants in the playoffs for the first time since 2016.
Parcells, a New Jersey native who says he’s rooted for the Giants since 1949, is especially pleased with this year’s team and the way Daboll has connected with his players.
In Sunday’s loss to Philadelphia, Daboll once again showed the type of coach he is when he sat next to and embraced beleaguered wide receiver Kenny Golladay after Golladay made a spectacular catch for a touchdown. It was his first as a Giant after 26 games of futility.
The positive reinforcement hit home with Parcells, who was a master of balancing praise and punishment.
“You can’t ever let a player go home at night thinking he doesn’t belong,” Parcells said in an interview with the New York Post. “It can’t be one way all the time, especially if it’s negative. The players have got to see your human side, too.”
In addition, the Hall of Fame coach had some advice for Daboll as the Giants gear up for their Super Wild Card matchup against the Vikings in Minnesota this Sunday.
“I’d tell him to keep doing whatever he’s been doing, because it’s working. You have to keep being yourself in the playoffs. This is what we’re supposed to do. We’re supposed to get in the playoffs,” he said.
“The Giants have to keep from losing to the Giants in this game. How do the Giants lose to the Giants? You get a lot of penalties. You turn the ball over. You get a kick blocked. You miss a lot of tackles. You don’t capitalize in the red zone… That’s how you lose to the Giants. I would tell them, ‘Don’t lose to them.'”
Parcells added that the “Giants players will believe, ‘If we play well, we will beat these guys.'”
The former coach ended by saying Daboll needs to pull out all the stops as there is no tomorrow.
“I’m not trying to make this dramatic here, but it’s just sound coaching to review some aspects that are not highly practiced,” he said. “So if there’s anything of a trick variety like a fake punt or fake field goal, I would go back and review those with the whole team. I’d tell them, ‘Listen, I’m going to do everything I can do to win this game, and these situations might come up.'”
