Giants head coach John Harbaugh downplayed his desire to report directly to ownership during an introductory press conference on Tuesday and stressed the need to work collaboratively with General Manager Joe Schoen and others in the organization as they try to build a winning team.
The issue was significant enough for Harbaugh to negotiate it into his contract, however, and Giants senior personnel executive Chris Mara made it clear in post-press conference comments to reporters that Harbaugh is now “the most important cog” in the organization. That suggests Harbaugh will have final say on all football decisions and Schoen was asked after the press conference it is humbling for him to have his role change after four years with the team.
“I’m not worried about that,” Schoen said, via SNY. “I’ve been in the league for 26 years, so everywhere I’ve been, the head coach and general manager work together. That’s the only way it’s going to work. Get on the same page, go through the process, we’ve done it everywhere I’ve been. I’m not worried about it. That’s just something on a piece of paper. Doesn’t matter. We need to work together and we’re going to come to the final conclusion. It’s always going to be about what’s best for the New York Giants. I have no problem with that and I’m looking forward to working with him.”
If it truly didn’t matter, it probably wouldn’t have taken a couple of days to work out the language setting up the organizational hierarchy in the “piece of paper” that Schoen referred to on Tuesday. It is unlikely to come up as a contentious issue if the Giants can win games, but any stumbles could lead to the kind of disputes that make it matter a great deal to all involved.
