Giants Head Coach John Harbaugh Outlines Four Forces Teams Must Avoid

In a presentation he gave a few years ago, new Giants head coach John Harbaugh listed four forces that can sabotage a team — all of which the Giants have been guilty of in recent years.

NY Giants head coach John Harbaugh | Jim Rassol-Imagn Images

Over the past few years, it’s safe to say the New York Giants have been a team in disarray when it comes to putting together winning seasons.  

The reasons for that have been varied, from injuries ravaging the roster to just an overall sense of “here we go again” to a fundamental lack of understanding of how to win.

But John Harbaugh, the Giants' new head coach, is here to change all of that and get Big Blue back on the path to relevance, so that, come this time next year, hopefully the discussion will be about the playoffs rather than the long offseason ahead.

John Harbaugh shares the 4 forces that destroy teams from the inside.

"It's one of these 4 things: It's us vs. them, it's division from within, it's complacency, or it's fatigue."

When something feels off or when you're frustrated, he says it's almost always one of these:
1.… https://t.co/mx9viI1ZXz pic.twitter.com/1NS2e5A7Wq

— Coach AJ 🎯 Mental Fitness (@coachajkings) December 28, 2025

In a clip from a speech, Harbaugh is believed to have delivered in May 2017 at the Inaugural Maryland Governor’s Business Summit in Baltimore, he spoke of four silent forces that can sabotage a team regardless of the industry.

The Giants, especially in the last three years, have been guilty of allowing these forces to enter their domain. Harbaugh is here to eliminate them, having had success in Baltimore by keeping these forces as far away from the team as possible.

Let’s break down each one and how it has affected the Giants.

Division from Within

New York Giants tight end Theo Johnson (84) reacts after the game against the Detroit Lions at Ford Field. | Lon Horwedel-Imagn Images

Division from within starts with the splintering of team unity through complaining or blame. 

Without question, there were, at times during the Giants' decade-plus struggle to remain relevant in the postseason discussion, instances of division within the locker room.

A recent example of that happened in 2024 after a blowout loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Defensive lineman Dexter Lawerence opined that the team played “soft,” a sentiment echoed by receiver Malik Nabers. 

And after the Giants suffered another embarrassing loss this season, this one to the Detroit Lions, Nabers took to X (formerly Twitter) to question the play-calling in that game, only to delete the criticism soon after.

Right or wrong, it was bad enough that those opinions existed. It was even worse that they made their way out of the locker room as that season was spiraling out of control.

Us vs. Them

New York Giants offensive tackle Evan Neal | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

The minute the team starts worrying about what others are saying and doing rather than focusing on their own shop, it’s fair to wonder whether they've lost the plot.

Soon-to-be former Giants offensive lineman Evan Neal was guilty of this. After a blowout loss in 2023 to the Seattle Seahawks, during which the fans were particularly vociferous in expressing their dissatisfaction with what they had seen, Neal unwisely and publicly challenged the fans.

“They were booing us, so I said, ‘Boo louder!’” he told NJ Advance Media. “Because that just further shows that people are fair-weather. A lot of fans are bandwagoners. I mean, I get it: They want to see us perform well. And I respect all of that. 

“But no one wants us to perform well more than we do. And how can you say you’re really a fan when we’re out there battling our asses off — and the game wasn’t going well — but the best you can do is boo your home team? So how much of a fan are you, really?”

While not to pick on Neal specifically, if he and any other teammates who were bothered by the incessant, justified booing had used it to fuel their resolve to silence the critics, things may have turned out differently.  

Fatigue

New York Giants cornerback Deonte Banks | Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

This force can be more difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, though, for most, the eye test is usually a good indicator of whether it has made its way into the locker room.

One could point to the fourth-quarter collapses the Giants had this season, in which they started strong only to let a lead slip away. Was that simply a matter of play-calling, or was fatigue involved?  

Fatigue can also manifest as “loser fatigue,” which occurs when a team gets stuck in a vicious cycle of losing. That, in turn, can lead to a lack of motivation, emotional detachment, and decreased performance, all of which one can argue the Giants players have shown at various points over the past few seasons.

A case could be made that cornerback Deonte Banks has been guilty of this. Banks’s effort has been called into question, and in fact led to him being benched in a 2024 Week 8 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers after he appeared to give up.

It’s one thing to be burned–it happens to the best players out there. But to let one incident totally sway one’s demeanor or effort is a clear sign that fatigue–in this case, loser’s fatigue–has set in. 

Complacency

Have the New York Giants brass as led by co-owner John Mara and general manager Joe Schoen become too complacent in how it does business? | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

This force could apply to the organization as a whole, given that the Giants have reportedly been stuck in their ways for several years, even when those ways no longer contributed to winning results.

Although we have heard everyone from former head coach Brian Daboll to Schoen to co-owner John Mara speak about the constant evaluation of the processes the team has in place, the bottom line is that those processes have not yielded the desired results, leading to unintentional finger-pointing, which has resulted in the firing of coaches or the departure of players.

While there is never really one reason for an organization’s collapse, a big one that has led to the Giants hitting hard times has been one lousy draft after another, a pattern that began late in the Jerry Reese era and which continued through Dave Gettleman’s short stay as general manager and through to Schoen’s early tenure.

When only two players remain from 2019’s draft–the draft being the lifeline of an organization–that is a clear indication of the massive turnover the roster has had, which has led to an inability to establish a foundation and continue building on it. 

Regardless of who or what is at fault, it can be argued that because this has happened year after year, it’s not a coincidence, but rather an embedded complacency within the organization and its processes.

One of the issues that held up Harbaugh’s contract was reportedly the organizational structure and the football operations. According to reports, the organizational structure was altered so that he became the first Giants head coach to report directly to ownership rather than to the general manager. 

It’s also been reported that he and the rest of the front office staff will work toward building out the football operations further, which would suggest that progress and perhaps real change are coming to the processes that have not produced desired results.

A New Era

There’s a reason why Harbaugh has been successful in his head coaching career, and that’s because he has shown that he can not only get the most out of his players, but he also knows what negative cultural factors look like and how to get rid of them before they become a problem.

For whatever issues remain in the Giants organization, including the locker room, it will be up to Harbaugh to have a plan to eradicate them, which have dragged the organization down for far too long.

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