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00:00John Harbaugh was officially announced as the head football coach for the New York football
00:10Giants. Paul Schwartz here, Ryan Dunleavy. This is Blue Rush. It's here. It's final. No reports.
00:16It is official. So I guess let's just go with you guys' takeaways from Harbaugh's presser
00:22and what you guys are able to ask him over in the scrum. Paul, I'll start with you.
00:26Big, right? Big. Big. I mean, it's a big event. He's a big coach. He was the big fish in a pretty big
00:34pond of, you know, 10 openings and Giants got it done first. Look, he doesn't seem like a first-time
00:41coordinator getting a head coaching job. He's been there, done that. Now, he's never had a second
00:44head coaching job. I mean, he's in one place for 18 years. He was in Philadelphia for 10 years on
00:50special teams. And then he goes to Baltimore for 18 years. And now he's with the Giants. So he said
00:57it's new. He said it can be fresh. He said it can be different. He said he's excited. First time he
01:01gets up in front of the team, he said his brother, Jim, told him, who's done this before, that it's
01:06going to feel different to you. It's going to feel invigorating. Look, he's 63 years old. He's got
01:11tremendous energy, tremendous enthusiasm. And, you know, it's a whole new ballgame in every way,
01:17shape or form in every, every level of this. It's a whole new ballgame, not just players,
01:21media, front office, everything. It's all going to be different now with John Harbaugh here.
01:26I was back watching with a bunch of the players, spoke with Tyrone Tracy Jr. after this, Ryan,
01:32and I asked him, like, what did it feel like? And he said, well, he can definitely command a room.
01:36He understood that. You've been to these pressers, these introductory press conferences for the
01:41head coaches for the Giants. Too many of them. Did this one feel different, though?
01:45Yeah, because he wasn't shy, Brandon, about expectations, about, I can remember where we
01:50did one with Joe Judge, who I think we all really liked, but he wouldn't even say the quarterback's
01:55name for, like, the first two months on the job. He raved, John Harbaugh raved about Jackson Dart. He
02:00had a good conversation with Malik Neighbors. At one point during the press conference, he said
02:04something, and he said, right, guys? And the players in the back of the room said, yes, sir. Like, it was
02:09almost like they were transported to that first meeting room. So, yeah, he can command a room. He's not
02:14afraid of expectations. He's already talked about playoffs. He's talked about competing,
02:18not rebuilding, wants to win. Some things that I think were needed for the Giants, that it's not
02:24just process and day by day and things that make guys roll their eyes. They can see the big picture.
02:29He checks a lot of boxes, or all the boxes, for what this franchise needs, I feel like, to get out of
02:35just the mud right now. And again, you heard the players back there. The respect was from day one.
02:41I asked Tyrone Tracy, like, during the first team meeting, do you feel like that the players
02:45that weren't here are going to feel that energy and his message was going to resonate with them?
02:50He said, absolutely. Paul, we talk about this resume. He's 18 years, a Super Bowl championship.
02:57But this is him working with Joe Shane, a new GM. A team, a roster is different, but that dynamic,
03:04do you see it working?
03:05I do. I do. Look, his father, Jack, was here, right? He's a longtime coach. You know, this guy
03:12is not some superstar. This isn't Pat Riley coming in with Armani suits. Now, a four-time
03:19champion, a great coach, but this is not a superstar coach. This is a great coach, a Hall of Fame
03:25coach, but he's a coach. His father was a coach. His brother was a coach. I mean, didn't you get
03:30that sense? He's a coach. He talks about the core tenets of coaching. You know, he didn't come in
03:38here breathing fire like Tom Coughlin did in 2004 at all. Now, he said very interestingly that Tom
03:46Coughlin spoke with him several times and pushed him to it. And Chris Mara actually said, Tom Coughlin's
03:53the one who set up the meeting, you know, that first meeting with Chris Mara and John
03:59Harbaugh in Baltimore. And he was asked, well, what did Tom say? And Chris Mara said, get
04:05your ass down there. It's like, so this is like, they're not cut from the same cloth, but
04:11they're similar. I talked to Sean O'Hara before, who was here when Tom Coughlin was here. And
04:16he said, it's not the exact same, but you can tell it's a standard. It's a, it's a, it's
04:21an expectation. So they're not the same personality, Coughlin and Harbaugh, but I think it's going
04:26to resonate the same. When you mentioned the first team meeting, you know, it's not, look,
04:33Dayball, Joe Judge, Shermer, McAdoo, they were fine, but they were first time guys. Pat
04:39Shermer wasn't, but this is different. This is, this is, there's one, there's a new sheriff
04:44was town in town and his name is John Harbaugh. And like I said, everyone's going to feel
04:47it. Media relations, uh, every, everything it's new. It's going to be his vision.
04:52I call him Tom Coughlin 2.0, old school with a little modernization to him. And you could
04:58just tell by the way he was bouncy. Players are going to absolutely love that and feed
05:01off of that energy. We mentioned Jackson Dart, obviously there's a huge selling point
05:06to get him here, to get him in the building and, uh, and to take this job. Now what he mentioned
05:12about talking to coordinators, maybe bring in some guys from in-house in Buffalo. Does
05:16he retain now? What Ryan? Yeah, I think that's where the focus is. He said he anticipates
05:22some people, whether assistant coaches or, uh, support staff coming with him from Baltimore.
05:26Can't say he's got to do interviews. Obviously he's got to meet certain requirements. Uh, somebody
05:32who's worked with him before told me John Harbaugh is only as good as his coordinators and he
05:36has a knack for hiring great coordinators. What I thought was interesting is Mike Tomlin's
05:40only had, I think one of his coordinators go on to be a head coach in his 19 years while
05:46John Harbaugh has got a tree everywhere. He's got defensive coordinators, like at five different
05:50spots are from Baltimore. Wink Martindale was here. Uh, there's guys who are position coaches
05:55everywhere. The Baltimore tree is huge. The Harbaugh tree is huge. So, uh, he is as good
06:00as coordinators cause he's a CEO who doesn't call plays on either side of the ball. Remember
06:04the whole day ball? Kafka is going to come up. We don't have to do that anymore. That's over.
06:07It's going to be the coordinators, but he hires really good coordinators. That's where
06:11the focus will be. I think there's a chance one or two guys maybe stays from the current
06:15program. Not many, but, uh, I think Baltimore probably comes, uh, becomes a big focus.
06:21And Todd Munkin, if he doesn't get the Browns, um, head coaching job will probably be the offensive
06:26coordinator. And that's good for Jesse Jackson Dart. That their styles mesh. Yeah. I mean,
06:31I mean, you know, we, we both have been writing about this, right? And we, you know,
06:34you speculate, well, he's going to like the New York football giants of tradition. He's going to
06:38like, you know, Jackson Dart's going to be a magnet, but you don't really know, you know,
06:42you assume he's going to like Jackson Dart, you know, maybe he scouted him a little bit,
06:46you know, the Ravens, they need a quarterback. I don't like that kind of quarterback, you know,
06:49but from listening to talking to people behind the scenes and then talking to John Harbaugh on the
06:55podium and off the podium, Jackson Dart was a big thing in this, you know, look, he he's,
07:00he's not coming to a place and saying, okay, let's see if we can get a quarterback. You know,
07:05we have a guy in a roster who's okay. We picked 15th. We pick, you know, fifth. We'll try to get
07:11a quarterback. It's not a great quarterback. He wants as much, you know, he's John Harbaugh. He
07:16doesn't have to settle for anything. So that the tradition, he mentioned John Mara, you know,
07:20many times is a big thing. Jackson Dart. I think if you would have to pick one person, it would be,
07:25well, you have to pick one person, maybe John Mara. He would be first, but one A is Jackson
07:32Dart because John Mara can't play quarterback. Jackson Dart can. And he said, you know,
07:37he spoke to him on the phone. He met him when he was here for his visit. And they said they had to
07:43pull him out of the room. It's like, okay, guys, we can't talk football all day. We got to keep this
07:48visit going, right? They got to go eat Mediterranean food. And then they get back on Steve Tish's plane.
07:53And he's texting him ever since. So, I mean, Jackson Dart, he loved Brian D'Abel. It was a
07:59great relationship. This will be a great relationship, I think. But this was, you know,
08:03Jackson Dart is a magnet, man. You know, I mean, you get, either you have one or you don't. The
08:07Giants think they have one. Why do you think this relationship will work, Ryan?
08:10I think it'll work because Jackson Dart wants to win. Like that, that's as much as I've been around
08:15Jackson Dart. He wants to win. He was, he took it as hard as anybody, as hard as any rookie I've ever
08:20seen that they didn't win. He put a lot of it on his shoulders. Now he's got a coach who knows how
08:24to win. And Paul, I got to, I'd be remiss if I think we didn't talk about this, Brandon, is I
08:29thought, Harbo's the story of the day. But I thought 1B story was seeing John Mara in the front row
08:35today. Obviously, he's sick. He was very involved in the process from Paul's reporting and from
08:41everybody saying today, he really rallied to the, answered the bell, wanted to get it done to the very
08:47last minute. Everybody knows it was a 72-hour holdup or whatnot. Seeing him and then hearing
08:53Chris Mara talk, he, I've been doing this eight years. I think that's the first time I've ever
08:57heard Chris Mara do a group interview. It's kind of a meshing of the guards of the two brothers,
09:02Chris stepping up for John. And he was very blunt in his assessment of both John, of his role going
09:08down to talk to John, to John, to recruit him. Like Paul said, the Coughlin story of John,
09:13of John stepping up, of how much it meant for the Giants to get Harbo. I think the Chris Mara
09:19stepping up for his brother and John being here front row to see this was a very important part
09:24of today. From the Mara brothers to Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning, it truly does feel like it was
09:29all hands on deck to get this man in this building and to get him to take this job. I guess lastly here,
09:36because you mentioned the 72-hour holdup that had Giants fans panicking for the longer, that 72
09:44hours was absolutely crazy. I could probably compare it to the 72-hour water fast that I did
09:49one time. You're just waiting for it to be over. When you spoke to him over in the scrum, did he
09:56mention what the holdup was or did you get any indication that maybe that deal could have fell
10:02through? I'll tell you one thing. If I was on a 72-hour water fast, that would have seemed like
10:09a lot longer than sitting at my desk and waiting for John Harbo to put his name. I don't even know
10:14what a water fast is and I don't have any idea what that is. That's fine. You know what? I don't
10:23think it was... Look, in the social media world, an hour is agony. You know what I mean? So look,
10:29the thing is this deal got revealed late Wednesday night. So it was a little quick. You know what I
10:36mean? They had a handshake. We good? We good. Okay, now the owners and the lawyers and the agent
10:43take over. You know, the football part is good. We got a handshake deal. That's what Chris Mara said.
10:47We got a handshake deal. I feel great about this. That takes time. You know, I don't know what it's
10:51like, a $100 million contract. And there were structural things that they changed that they... And he
10:57wanted in writing. Direct report, head coach to owner, and GM obviously to owner. Not head coach
11:03to GM to owner. A big deal? Not a big deal, but it's something they want in writing. It has to be
11:08the way he wants it. He's John Harbaugh. He doesn't have to settle. They talk about, you know, a final
11:14say. GM has always had final say. Now, it's much more of a partnership. You know, John Harbaugh said
11:19they're not saying, you know, I don't think, you know, I know. I mean, does John Harbaugh have final say
11:25of the roster? I mean, I mean, I think what it is, is John Mara always feels you need to figure it out
11:32and be collaborative. And you know what? You know what he feels? You don't come. You said I pay you
11:37both a lot of money. You don't come to me unless, unless, you know, it's like two kids, right? Look,
11:42don't come for us. You figure it out. And if you can't, then you come to me. So look, that is not going
11:48to be a problem. I don't think, you know, I do. You think it's going to be? No, but Chris, I do think it's
11:53notable. Chris said, I don't know if it was significant again or important. He did say John
11:56will have the most significant or important, one word, voice in the room. John Harbaugh. And you
12:00know what? It's a very easy, he's making a hundred million dollars. The people who make the most money
12:08are, he is the face of the Giants now because he's making a hundred million dollars. So you pay a guy
12:15that much, he is now the important voice. But I don't think it's going to be with the fifth pick that
12:21he says, I want to receive her. And Joe Shane says, I guess all my people think we should take
12:26a cornerback. Okay. We can't figure this out. It's not going to come to that. Look, and you know
12:31what? John Harbaugh is not an expert in scouting. Joe Shane's the, and look, it can be, it's, if you
12:36want to have a conspiracy theory, you think it's the most, he's the most phony man in America. He said a
12:41lot of very complimentary things about Joe Shane. You know what I mean? And he didn't know him. He did not
12:46know him before this until Joe Shane went on the plane to, to get him in Baltimore. Okay. And on
12:52the way back, they started forming a relationship. If Harbaugh, after a couple of days said, you know
12:57what, I'm just not feeling it with this guy. You know what I mean? He's fine, but I'm not feeling
13:02it with him. Then, then it would have been, you know, I come, he goes, or, or he's, you know,
13:10demoted, you know, and he'll play out his last year in quiet, or I want to bring my own
13:14guy. John Harbaugh is not that kind of guy. We know a lot of, we've been to a lot of these
13:18things. There's a way if you're not confident in the guy to say, we'll see how it goes.
13:23Well, you took kick the can down the word. I'll bring my guy in to help. Yeah. You don't,
13:29you don't say it's going to be phenomenally great partnership. If you know that in four
13:34months, the New York post is going to use what happened to that phenomenally great partnership
13:39you were expecting against you. So you pick your words carefully. I think what was noticeable
13:43to answer your question, Brandon is Joshi and said, the reason it took so long is because
13:47Harbaugh canceled his meeting with the Titans on Wednesday. And once that happened, that
13:52was like an earlier sign than normal that a deal was done because so like maybe the deal
13:57wouldn't have been done Wednesday night. Maybe it wouldn't have leaked out. Then it wouldn't
14:00have been a 72 hour. But once he canceled his meeting with the Titans, everybody knew we
14:04wanted to come to the Giants. That's what made they were earlier in the negotiation than
14:09they normally are when the deal gets out because he canceled his meetings elsewhere.
14:12And I think Joe Shane did a great job of showing that he is a football mind. Like
14:16you heard Harbaugh say, like, he's a football guy, how meticulous he is. He has details and
14:22notes on what type of players he wants at each kind of position. So I think it was something
14:27where Joe Shane kind of had to win him over per se.
14:30Look, John Harbaugh, he said he had his father, Jack, you know, studying the roster. And he said
14:36his father said to him, Hey, do you see the Giants? Do you see this? So his fire off the
14:40ball? I want to ask Jack Harbaugh, are you seeing the same tape? I saw some of these games,
14:47but I digress. I digress there. Okay. But did you watch the tape end if in the, if the three
14:53quarters in some of these games, you know, maybe he turned off the tape. Oh, they could have been
14:57the Denver game. I don't know if they watch the fourth quarter, but John Harbaugh is, is
15:02investigating everything. So he has people all around the league. You don't think he asked people
15:06about Joe Shane, you know, from Miami, from Carolina, from the Giants, you know, asking
15:11him, what's the deal with this guy? Can I work with him? Is he good? Do you know what his stuff?
15:15John Harbaugh is not walking into a job and getting a general manager. He hasn't thoroughly
15:18researched. So clearly any questions he had were answered. Um, but Joe Shane has been here
15:24for four years. First year was terrific. Second year was not great. The third year was horrible.
15:30And the fourth year was almost worse, almost worse than a lot of reads one game better. But the only
15:34thing better about the fourth year is he found the quarterback. So that's the only thing that
15:38makes people believe, you know, and make keeps people hope. But, um, he's not going to screw
15:43this up by having a power play with a guy who's, who's, who has all the power or has, you know,
15:48holds most of the power. I think it'll be fine. Final thought, Ryan. Uh, it's a new era. Like
15:53there's excitement there. I believe there were 240 chairs here and plenty of standing room only
15:58people. I've been a lot of these. This was the most excitement that I've seen. Paul's been
16:04a more of these. Hey, he was at Coughlin. I was in college, you know, but, uh, this was
16:08the most excitement I've seen around the giants and talking to the players and the staff that
16:13are in the building. They can all, I guess they all feel it. You know, they're like you
16:17said, players are tired of losing staff, tired of losing John Harbaugh brings that hope.
16:22And today was the first day of that hope. Uh, thank you guys for watching blue rush for Ryan
16:27Dunleavy and Paul Schwartz. I'm Brandon London. See you guys next time.
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