The Country Club Is CLOSED! | How John Harbaugh Fixed The Giants' Soft Culture

0:00It is a new era for the New York Giants, and more specifically, it is the John Harbaugh era. And John Harbaugh has stepped in and reset the culture and set brand new standards for this New York Giants team in terms of how often they practice, how hard they practice, and how ready and prepared they should be on a game day. This is obviously a big deal for the New York Giants is they've been largely under-prepared for most of their game days in the last recent seasons, especially in the first month of the year. But Newtide and Isaiah likely recently spoke to the media and just kind of gave his insight into John Harbaugh. John Harbaugh's work ethic, the amount of practices that the Giants have done this summer, and how hearing what the New York Giants summers used to look like was mind-boggling to him. So I want to go ahead and react to Isaiah like these quotes. You just have a good discussion on the new John Harbaugh standard. On today's episode of Fireside Giants presented by PricePix. I'm Anthony Revarter. Let's go ahead. Dive right in. So as I mentioned, this is a new standard and this topic is really stemming from some comments that Isaiah likely made. So I figured we'll start this off by listening to the

1:03comments that Isaiah likely made recently. We'll speak it to the media and this is courtesy of S&Y. About him that stood out to guys that's commonplace for you. I say really that first two weeks we had in Greenbrough at 11 days 10 practices. I feel like that's normal to me. I'm just, if I wake up, I'm putting on cleats. That's just the mantra I have. So hearing how Giants training camp was in the past, I was mind-boggling to me. But I felt like the guys embraced it. We had a good time in Greenbrough. And then when we got here, I felt like not everybody's on the same mantra as if we were in the building. It's all bull. If you're in the building, it's all bull. That's exactly what I want to hear. I want the New York Giants to be all-ball. I don't want them to be country clubs, summers like they have been in recent years with Brian Dable. And we're going to talk more about that in a second. But just a general first impressions hearing what Isaiah likely said in that press conference. This is something that he's

2:05used to because his entire career, he has played under John Harbour. But the rest of the New York Giants players, well, they haven't. Most of them haven't at least. And so they're not used to practicing 10 of 11 days and going all in on every single day in all of these practices. The New York Giants had some practices this summer that were three hours long. In the heat of the summer, they were out there all damn day. So that's a big change for the Giants who last year, according to most reports, and, you know, according to even just fans who were at those training camp practices. This is a team that would go out there would practice for an hour and a half maybe, a lot of that being a walkthrough and not a whole lot of conditioning and definitely not a whole lot of aggression. The Giants took a lot of days off in recent years in terms of their training camp practices. They just were not preparing the same way under Brian Dable. And I don't think there was preparing the same way under their previous head coaches either. But this is the John Harbour way. This is a standard that he set across 18 season, successful season. I might add as the

3:06head coach of the Baltimore Ravens. Now he's the new head coach of the New York Giants. And he was tasked with a few things, chief among them being winning football games, but also chief among them being resetting the program and resetting the culture. The New York Giants had lost their identity in recent seasons. I mean, especially over the last, I want to say six years, they really lost that identity. When I was growing up and listen, I know I'm only 25 years old here. So I'm going to refer to the 2008 and 12 Giants teams as the teams that I watched growing up. But a lot of you listening or watching, you'll refer to the teams in the 80s and the 90s as the teams you watched growing up. And that's kind of my point here. Those 80s, 90s teams, those 2010s teams, early 2010s, slash late 2000s, they all had a very specific identity. And it was physical, aggressive, a defense that wants to kill the quarterback, right? A running game that wants to punch you in the mouth for 60 minutes and a quarterback who plays with resilience, whether you're talking Phil Sims or Eli Manning, whether you're talking Michael Strahan or Jason Pierre Paul, Justin Tuck, Lawrence Taylor,

4:11all of these guys, all of these legends, Bill Parcels. I mean, he was no nonsense. He was practice until you can't feel your legs anymore. And so was Tom Caulin and so is John Horbohn. That is the central identity of the New York Giants that was completely lost from them over the last several years. Whether you're talking about guys like Pat Shermer or you're talking to my Brian Dable, Ben McAdoo, even Joe Judge, Joe Judge tried to reinstall that big blue physical mentality, but he clearly just was in over his head. And he wasn't meant to be a head coach. And that's fine. But I do admire the fact that he tried to be that no-nose nonsense. Kind of, let me do it with the Bella check, Parcels, Caulin, way. He tried to do it. It didn't work out. It is what it is. But John Horbohn has done it for the better part of the last two decades. And he did it underneath the thumb of Andy Reed as well when he was with the Philadelphia Eagles 20 years ago as their special teams coordinator. He's always practiced and coached with intense detail. And he always cares about those little details and about what they mean for a team as they prepare to win football

5:14games in the regular season. So I've been calling for a new kind of director of football operations, president of football operations, whatever title you wanted to give it. I've been calling for this for a long time for the New York Giants on this podcast. Really, I've gotten really loud about over the last three years as I've had my criticisms with the front office in Jo Shane. I've had, of course, my criticisms with the coaching staffs. And I've had my criticisms with ownership. And so I always felt like they needed an outside voice from a proven football engine to step in and revamp the culture, revamp the football operations, not just from a coaching standpoint, but from an operational standpoint in the front office and even above the front office. And here we are. We got it, right? He didn't get the title of the director of football operations or VP of football. So whatever you want to call it, he got the title of head coach. But John Harboh changed the entire structure of the New York Giants organization. He reports directly to ownership, which is something that New York Giants head coaches have never done. This is a big deal for the

6:17New York Giants getting John Harboh and allowing him to revamp not just their culture, but the way that their business operates. At the end of the day, these football teams are businesses. And this guy came in and changed the entire business. He is now the CEO of the New York Giants football operations. And again, that is a massive deal. It's why he's getting paid $20 million a year, $100 million five year contract, making him one of the highest paid head coaches in the sport, making him by far the highest paid head coach in New York Giants franchise history. But he deserves that title. And he's already doing an excellent job just reinstalling that culture and that identity that was so critical to the success of the New York Giants in the 80s, 90s, 2000s and 2010s. That's been completely lost from them throughout the first five years of the 2020s. But here we are. It's 2026. It is a new era. We are now officially, if you guys didn't realize, we are officially in the second half of the 2020s. We are classified as late 2020s now because we're through the second half

7:19of 2026. So here we are in the late 2020s, turning a new page and entering a new era of New York Giants football. That's really reminiscent of the old era. But it's different. Like I said, it's reminiscent in the fact that the identity is coming back. There a football team that cares about the details again. That practice is hard and that plays with a punishing mentality. That's bringing it back. But this is very much a new era because of all the other changes that I've mentioned with the structuring of the football program, so to speak, and everything else like that. This is John Harboss program now and I couldn't be happier. So I do want to dive a little bit deeper on that, give some more of my thoughts. But first, I do want to give a quick shout out to the sponsor of today's episode, which is prize picks. Now, if you guys aren't playing on prize picks yet, it is America's number one sports pick apps, sports picks app rather. It's super easy to use. And it's available in most states, including California, Texas and Florida and pretty much everywhere else. You wherever you are, you could probably play prize picks and you'll definitely enjoy it because it's a very fun app. All you do is pick more or less and a few of your favorite players

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9:21box. Use code HMA. New users play $5 get 150 if they win. Remember to always play responsibly and definitely make sure to have fun. All right, diving back into it and going over some more details here from this New York Giants team and just discussing this John Harbott standard. So like we mentioned, mind boggling is how Isaiah likely described the New York Giants training camps of old. And you know, just to kind of like deep in the perspective of Isaiah likely here, he's been in the NFL for four seasons, all four of those seasons he's played on their John Harbott. And he followed John Harbott over here to the New York Giants. This is all he knows practicing 10 of 11 days, practicing three hour days, practicing really hard and always competing and always focusing on details. This is all that Isaiah likely knows. What about the players that have been on the New York Giants for the last four years guys like Evan Neal, guys like Jaylen Hyatt, guys like I don't know, Darius Slatiny's been with the Giants his entire career, a couple of coaching staffs, but still

10:23bad coaching staffs all the way through nonetheless. What about these guys the longer ten years New York Giants? Well, they have no idea what this is like. This was a brand new experience to them. Now, some of them definitely came from a illustrious college football programs that have a similar mentality. I actually do think of Evan Neal in that regard playing under Nick Sabin at Alabama. I'm sure he did have some pretty grueling practices back in college and they probably did play and practice with a lot more detail and a lot more discipline. But let me add to that guys like Evan Neal who probably came up through football playing and practicing in an environment like that. And then they get to the NFL and they're not forced to continue to practice like that. They don't have that drive inherently and they need it from a coaching staff. That could be part of the reason why some of these New York Giants players have been busts. And again, I'm not going to go too far. I'm not exonerating Evan Neal. If he wanted to be good or if he was good, he would have been good. So to speak. But let me just add perspective here because think about all these Giants draft

11:29classes that they have had and right away analysts are like a plus and so are fans. They're like, this looks like an amazing draft class. Think about grabbing Deonte Banks, a stud out of Maryland that cornerback who could have went higher. Jaylen Hyatt and the same draft. John Michael Schmitz and the same draft Tyler Nuban. They've had some players that are just great football players at the collegiate level that just completely don't pan out. Jaylen Hyatt is one of them. Evan Neal is one of them. Even cave on Timidow, just some extent, he should have been a player than he is, been a better player than he is right now. A lot of mid-round players who are not on the team anymore. A lot of first round players who just are not great as they should be when you're picking top 10 every year. And part of that in my opinion, and this is one that I've stated before in the channel is a lack of proper development. I think some of these guys would have been good if drafted to another team. Not all of them. I think you guys know I don't think Jaylen Hyatt would have been good, but a lot of that might have to do with work ethic. From everything that we've heard, all the reports, rumors, whatever you want to call them, I think there's actually substantial reporting,

12:32an official reporting on this. Jaylen Hyatt, I'm sorry, Evan Neal just does not have the greatest work ethic. That's what we've heard. Doesn't put in the same amount of effort. He doesn't have the same love for football that some of these other guys like an Andrew Thomas has. Andrew Thomas similarly coming out of the SEC and a big football program of Georgia. Really talented player coming out. But Evan Neal was viewed as a very talented player in his own right on a similar level of Andrew Thomas coming out of college. One pan doubt and the other didn't. That comes down to character in my opinion. That also comes down to yes, and they talent, but the talent was there for Evan Neal and his talent in college and it comes down to a love of the game of football. But it also comes down to coaching and development. Andrew Thomas had the love of the game of football and the work ethic to fight through poor coaching and make something of himself in his career. Evan Neal, I don't have that love of the game of football and he needed more discipline and a more rigorous approach to practicing in order to achieve any greatness. And because he never had that, I do think that's one of the reasons that he did not pan out in the NFL. I think it's one of the contributing

13:33factors because you look at Evan Neal, you look at his collegiate stats, you look at his build as an offensive lineman. How was he a bust? I don't know. But I think that's what it comes down to. And I think that is often the case for a really talented NFL players. Sometimes they just need great discipline. They need great coaching. They need details and they need to be kicked around. They need their asses kicked on the practice field. Some of them don't get it when they come to the New York Giants over the last several years. And again, I feel like that did contribute to a lot of these drafts busts. And it's always been mind boggling to me as well. How the New York Giants were so laxed as a goal in their approach to practicing over the last several years. Because if you go back and you watch a football life or what are they called? The documentaries on NFL network about those Super Bowl teams. I think they're America's game. If I'm not mistaken, when you go watch those documentaries about the New York Giants teams of 2007, 2008 or 2011, 2012, you'll see the training camp videos and clips and you'll see the practice videos and clips and they are working. Tom Caulfan had those guys going crazy. And Michael Strahan famously hated it. He thought that he was

14:37being overworked and that Tom Caulfan was using this military drill sergeant background a little bit to, I don't know, harshly. That was the reality then. Michael Strahan came around and said, this is actually what this team needed. We needed this kind of discipline. This is why we were so good in those seasons, right? That's what Michael Strahan said. And I think that's what players are going to say about John Harbaugh when he leads them to their fifth Lamaritrofi. That's what I think is going to happen because that's what this New York Giants team needs. This is the medicine that they've needed for quite a long time and they're finally getting it with John Harbaugh. So moving on to this, let's address the country club thing. So one of the things that we saw reported this summer, I believe it was Dan Delgan of the athletic. He said that the Giants practiced 10 of 11 10 of their first 11 days of training camp at West Virginia, right? That was an early set the tone message from John Harbaugh, hard practices and plenty of them. And I think it was also reported by Dan Delgan that Brian Dable never had more than three practices in a row. And then I saw reports

15:43later this summer that one of the practices for the Giants went to two hours, 15 minutes. And I think they were saying the longest we ever saw, Brian Dable practice go was like an hour, 40 minutes. And again, there's just always been this reporting from the New Jersey beat that Brian Dable's country club of mantra and attitude to these practices was clear and evident. They weren't practicing hard. They were doing a lot of walkthroughs. They weren't hitting. They weren't physical. They weren't playing full contact practices. It just wasn't anything discipline. It wasn't anything intense. It wasn't intensive enough. And you guys know if you've been watching the channel for a while. I've been super critical about this because I feel as though the New York Giants show up to week one every single year, underprepared and outclassed by their opponents in recent years. And I feel as though that is because the New York Giants are not practicing hard enough during the summer and not playing enough in the preseason. I do have more to say on that preseason note in a second here. But again, country club, not my country club. I don't want to see the New York Giants playing country club football in the summers anymore. But again,

16:48under John Harbour, the message is simple. If they're in the building, it's all ball. It's a real culture change going on in New York Giants training camp. And I love that all ball mantra and mentality. Isaiah likely said that we've heard John Harbour say that as well. He's all football all the time. And it's reflecting in some of the players that they are drafting and signing, right? Isaiah likely just said it. He's a new signing. You've got guys like Patrick or CARD who's clearly all ball all the time. Jordan Stout seems like he's all ball all the time coming from again. The Ravens pipeline. But even Arvel Reese, he made it very clear. He is all ball all the time. That is super important to him. And that's pretty much all that's important to him. He just loves football. And I think that's critical for this New York Giants team that they now identify not just great football players, but great characters who love football in the pre draft process. That's crucial. And I think that's what the Giants did with Arvel Reese Frances Malino and the rest of the guys that they added in this year's draft class. But this is the point that I want to talk about this slide here. Prove it likely isn't gloating about practice week one is where the Giants have to

17:51prove any of this actually matters. That is 100% true. So this New York Giants team needs to prove that these long practices, these often practices this summer, this hard, arduous practice that the New York Giants are scheduled that the New York Giants have undergone this summer. They need to prove that it actually made a difference. How are they going to do that? They got to win week one, I think week one is the most important game on the New York Giants schedule this season. Beat Dallas at home, prime time, and just think about what that's going to do for your team and the kind of momentum that that can carry for you for the next month. And then you get to the easier part of the schedule. And then maybe for the rest of the year, it can carry you like it'll make all the difference in the world. If the New York Giants win that home game on prime time Sunday night versus the Dallas Cowboys. But I will say this. I'm doing a lot of praising of John Harbont now, but I'm going to give you guys the flip side of the coin. I don't love the fact that the Giants starters didn't play much in the preseason this year. And I'm sure many of you know that I feel that way. And many of you probably predicted that I was going to feel that way because I've been begging for the Giants

18:52to play their starters in training camp for the last couple of years. I've attributed this, I've attributed this to being a Brian Dable thing where his country club of mantra and mentality to practice led to the New York Giants players not in the preseason. I see a lot of good NFL teams have their best players out there for some preseason snaps. One of the reasons they do that is just so that there's not so much time off. But the New York Giants even under John Harbont still didn't have their starters play much this preseason. And I'm not crazy about that. If there's one thing that I'm going to criticize from this entire summer out of John Harbont and just the Giants in general, I think that the starters should have played a little bit more. Now again, I have the utmost faith and confidence in Jackson Dork in John Harbont. And this team right now, I'm very optimistic going into the season. And I'm not going to lower my overall total win predictions over the fact that the Giants started isn't play much in the preseason. But I will say if we come out in week one, the offense looks underprepared. It looks like Jackson Dork isn't fully comfortable in

19:56the scheme and in the playbook and under center. And this team loses week one versus Dallas. And it's not very close. We're going to be talking about the narrative of narrative of should the New York Giants have played their starters more in the preseason. It's inevitable. It's going to happen if they lose in week one. And it's justified because again, this team has been so underprepared in week one over the last several years. And we just simply cannot tolerate that anymore, especially with John Harbont stepping in saying that his standard is winning football games and his expectation is to compete for a championship the second he walks into the building. That's what he said. So he wants to be held to a high standard. So we got to call it out. We got to hold them to the high standard and say, Hey, we wanted to see the starters play in the preseason. It's okay that they didn't, but we now need to see all this hard work and preparation show up on Sundays. Otherwise, we can then criticize it. So I'm not really going to criticize it yet. But again, if they don't play well week one, 10 days from now, I'm ending days away from the season opener. Okay, then I'm going to have to be a little bit critical of it in my opinion at least. So

20:56that's just my take on it. I think that August 15th to September 13th is a long time for the starting quarterback in a new offense in year two of his NFL career to go without taking game reps. I think Jackson Darts should have gotten more game reps at some point preseason week two, preseason week three, so that he wasn't going a month without them. And he didn't really play a ton at that first preseason game anyway, only through four passes. So I think there's still a lot of getting comfortable to do in this offense. There's still a lot of learning to do in this offense. And the same goes for the defense as well. I think some of those starters should have gotten some reps too. But I get it. Those games don't count. You don't want to risk injuries. I fully understand the guys, but this is just kind of my take on it. And it's my axe to grind over the last several years. I just want to see the giants practice a little harder in the summer, which they did this year, but also compete a little bit in the preseason. But moving on to this final slide and really wrapping up here, it's a new standard. But like I said, I need to see the New York Giants prove it. I've been caught by Fools Gold before. And listen, I fully believe in Jackson Dart. I fully believe

22:05in this New York Giants team because of John Horbaugh. But I have fully bought in before and I've been wrong. So I just want to see the Giants actually back it up this season on the football field prove us right for a change and be the good team that we hope expect them to be this upcoming season. So that's pretty much going to wrap it up with my thoughts and my takes on the New York Giants new John Horbaugh standard. Let me know what you think about it down below in the comment section. Drop your thoughts on their lack of participation in the preseason. Drop your thoughts on John Horbaugh standards for practice. Drop your thoughts on Isaiah-likely's comments saying it's mind-boggling that the Giants weren't practicing this way before. I definitely found that to be an eye opening quote. Let me know what you think about it down below. Do make sure to leave a like and enjoy and subscribe if you're new and ring the bell so that I'm in some episode and definitely share this channel with your friends as we are very close to 30,000 subscribers and I'm really excited for that and definitely going to be having some sort of 30k special in the coming days after we hit that fantastic milestone. So thank you all for tuning in. As always I will catch you on the next one. Have

23:06a good one and let's go to New York Giants.