The Foundation of Giants: Why John Harbaugh was the Only Choice for New York

The New York Giants no choice but to hireJohn Harbaugh. Late Wednesday night, after the two sides spent the day together, the two sides agreed to a deal. The Giants now will loom to the future. For the first time, this franchise has a picture, and the foundation is Harbaugh.

Culture Shift

The Giants have not had the best culture in recent seasons. Since the Giants fired Tom Coughlin at the end of the 2015 season, they have had just two seasons where they made the playoffs. Not one of the coaches hired since have had a record above .500.

The lack of veteran leadership within the coaching ranks has often resulted in a locker room where players held more sway than the staff. None of the coaches were able to truly command the room. The most glaring and recent example of this systemic failure occurred this past season, as former head coach Brian Daboll proved unable to manage the erratic behavior and disciplinary lapses of star defender Abdul Carter.

While Carter’s talent is undeniable, his frequent sideline outbursts and reported clashes with the defensive staff became a public distraction that Daboll seemed powerless to stop. This inability to enforce accountability not only undermined Daboll’s authority but also created a visible rift within the roster, ultimately proving that the Giants’ issues were as much about a vacuum in leadership as they were about X’s and O’s.

Bringing in Harbaugh, who is a CEO coach, should take care of these issues.

The Maras and Joe Schoen

The Mara family has received a lot of flack over the past decade for the franchises lack of success. That should be dead for a bit. John Mara has not been as heavily involved with the organization, for good reason. The team announced that he is undergoing treatment for cancer. Even with Mr. Mara's suffering over the recent years, he was heavily involved in the head coaching search, and the hiring of Harbaugh.

Another member of the Mara family needs recognition in the Harbaugh sweepstakes, and that is Chris Mara, John Mara's brother. After receiving word that other teams had multiple phone calls with Harbaugh, Chris Mara took matters into his own hands. He travel to Baltimore and meet with Harbaugh in an unofficial meeting. It was reported by The Athletic that the Giants, among other teams, were not happy with the Falcons announcing a phone call as an official interview.

The Giants then pounced to interview, and hire Harbaugh thanks to these efforts.

Joe Schoen can't be discounted in the sweepstakes. The word around is that Harbaugh would not have taken the Giants job without believing in Schoen. While Schoen will need to change his processes in order to reflect Harbaugh's demands, it's promising that Harbaugh wants to work for him. Harbaugh will have say in the roster desicions, which should help Schoen overall at his job.

Beginning with Free Agency in about two months, the Giants will begin to rebuild the franchise. It's time to restore glory to the name that is the New York Giants.