John Harbaugh Reveals Identity He Has in Mind for Giants Football

To the outside observer, the New York Giants, who have had just two winning seasons resulting in playoff berths since their 2011 Super Bowl championship, need a total overhaul from top to bottom.

That’s something that new head coach John Harbaugh has been busy doing in between watching film, hosting draft prospects, attending pro days, providing direction to the front office on free agency, and meeting with his staff to develop the Giants' playbooks on offense and defense while also trying to get settled in New Jersey.

Harbaugh has put his stamp on renovations to the first floor of the team’s East Rutherford, New Jersey headquarters, including aesthetic upgrades such as new paint jobs and signage, as well as the addition of more TV screens displaying different messages and schedules for players and coaches to consume throughout the day.

Speaking of messages, Harbaugh has established the identity he wants for the team to be when the players return for the start of the voluntary offseason program on April 7, which he revealed during a recent interview with the Pardon My Take podcast.

Straight and to the point

Just about every Giants head coach of late has implemented a mantra that serves as the basis for the football program’s identity.

Two-time Super Bowl-winning head coach Tom Coughlin famously had “Finish!” and “Talk is Cheap; play the game!” as his.

Ben McAdoo, Coughlin’s successor, chose “Smart. Tough. Dependable” for his team’s base identity. And Brian Daboll, who preceded Harbaugh, went with “D.A.W.G.”, which stood for “Discipline, Attitude, Win, Grit.”

Harbaugh’s choice of “Relentless Persistence” might not sound as flowery or poetic as some of those previous slogans, but the simply stated message still packs a punch.

“I was thinking about, like, okay, do I want ‘relentless’?” Harbaugh said. “Relentless is a big word, right? So I want ‘relentless’ there because being relentless is like, it's a relentless thing to do–we got to do that,” he told the PMT crew.

“I wanted ‘persistence.’ Like, persistent–that’s big, too. ‘Relentless’ and ‘persistent’--they seem like they're the same thing, but they're a little bit different.

“I couldn't decide, so I just put them both up. I went with ‘Relentless Persistence.’ I felt like that kind of captured the mindset.”

The other mantra he chose is actually an expansion of “Finish!”, which was something that Coughlin routinely preached during his tenure.

“‘Finish everything all the time,’” Harbaugh said. “Everything is going to be a big deal–confront everything, work hard at everything. That's what we're doing. Everything necessary, all the time.”

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