New York Giants owner John Mara is generally pretty involved in what happens with his team.
He is the principal owner, president and CEO of the franchise and he knows everything that happens with this team, which is why his comments at today’s press conference were somewhat surprising.
Giants head coach Brian Daboll may not behave irrationally, but that doesn’t mean he gets to walk around treating people disrespectfully, either, which he clearly does — and that has obviously led to a culture problem in the Giants’ building.
Don’t agree?
Forget the Wink stuff for now, it’s not even about that.
There are reports that Daboll makes things personal during outbursts, that the current environment is toxic, that assistants from other organizations have been warned to “stay away” from this environment, and that Daboll’s volatility cost him coaching jobs in the past.
While speaking to reporters during the annual league meetings on Monday, Mara admitted he wishes Daboll would “tone it down a little bit” but also downplayed the issue and rejected the idea of a culture problem.
“There are times when I wish he would tone it down a little bit,” Mara said, per Darryl Slater of NJ.com. “But I’m also in the team meetings, and I see how he acts around his coaches in the office. And he always maintains his cool there. Does he get excitable during the games sometimes? Yeah. So do I. But I don’t think it’s a major issue. I don’t think it affects the culture that we have in the building at all. I still very firmly believe that Brian is the right guy for us going forward. I want him to be himself at the end of the day. If I get to the point where I think he’s acting irrationally and it’s affecting his performance, I certainly would have a word with him. I have not seen that.”
Now consider a few other things.
Ex-Giant Jon Feliciano said he was unsurprised by the Daboll/Martindale fallout, which points to his understanding of how Daboll is perceived.
Several teams, including the Carolina Panthers, blocked staff from interviewing with the Giants.
Whether that was for their franchise or for the protection of their staff members doesn’t really matter, the perception is the same. This led to the Giants’ options for a new defensive coordinator wilting away as the “bigger” names didn’t want to come here, which forced them to adjust their tactics.
The final thing to consider is how the Giants handled Wink’s departure. They worked him out the door by first firing two of his top assistants, Drew and Kevin Wilkins, and that resulted in Wink’s resignation a few days later.
Explain how there is not a culture problem in the building. Would you want to work for a company that conducted business in this way?
Hindsight is always 20/20, but it is mind boggling to hear Mara say that there is no culture problem in the organization when there is so much evidence to the contrary.
