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New York Giants coach John Harbaugh gets a chance to settle the controversy surrounding Jaxson Dart’s appearance at a President Donald Trump rally on Friday afternoon because he will speak with reporters for the first time since the issue began to suck all the oxygen out of the team’s offseason program.
Harbaugh will surely be asked about his starting quarterback’s apparent embrace of the president.
And the coach, who is the unquestioned epicenter of power within the franchise since being hired in January, will have his say and that will be it. Because whatever he decrees, players will follow suit. The front office will follow suit. And the media, agree or not, will have to report what the most consequential voice in the organization has decided.
So this saga is closing in on a climax.
ABDUL CARTER DELETES CRITICISM OF JAXSON DART OVER TRUMP RALLY
Got your popcorn ready?
The 2:30 p.m. ET scheduled availability — yes, around lunchtime for some — might be quite satisfying.
That leads to the next logical question: What’s Harbaugh going to say? How is he going to handle his first crisis, small and non-football related as it might be, with his new club?
We have an inkling based on experience of knowing how Harbaugh operates and what he believes. But before we share that, please understand the coach really only has a handful of options to choose from.
SUPER BOWL CHAMPION JOE THEISMANN WEIGHS IMPACT OF JAXSON DART-ABDUL CARTER TRUMP CONTROVERSY ON LOCKER ROOM
Harbaugh could:
- Agree Jaxson Dart got it wrong in agreeing to introduce the president of the United States at a rally and lead the crowd in a “Go Big Blue” cheer.
- Agree that Abdul Carter got it wrong in calling out his teammate on social media in posts the edge rusher has since deleted.
- Agree this is team business and it has been handled internally with no further details being offered, which means the narratives the media, pundits, ex-players and social media crave to keep the content flowing will be choked of all oxygen.
- Or, Harbaugh could be more nuanced.
We’re going to pick the last one.
There is zero chance Harbaugh throws Dart under the bus. It is simply not going to happen.
Firstly, and most importantly, he is not going to kneecap the man he most needs to succeed as a player and team leader. Secondly, Harbaugh agrees with Dart on most things Trump.
People seem to forget this.
JOHN HARBAUGH PUSHES BACK ON TRUMP-HATING REPORTER AFTER WHITE HOUSE VISIT
Much of the Harbaugh clan — Los Angeles Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh, their father and mother, their sister and four kids — visited Trump at the White House last year.
Afterward, the Harbaughs spoke enthusiastically about the visit. And when things got a little ugly in Baltimore because a left-wing journalist accused John Harbaugh of meeting with someone who had said mean things about the city, the coach pushed back eloquently.
So, that same man cannot logically criticize his starting quarterback for also meeting with Trump.
It will be interesting to what degree, if any, Harbaugh is critical of Carter by name.
Look, the coach almost certainly is going to preach keeping team business within the confines of the team. Carter broke that covenant by going public on social media. But there’s a way to make the point without embarrassing Carter and making him out to be a villain. That wouldn’t help anyone with an interest in having Carter grow and become a major contributor on defense.
So the coach is almost definitely going to walk a fine line between saying team business is sacrosanct without shining an investigative light on an important player.
Finally, prepare for this: If Harbaugh finds any blame in all of this, it will likely be with you — the prying public, the curious media, the opinionated influencers.
Y’all the bad guys.
Not his players, his team, his new family. You turned this into a thing, not the Giants.
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That, of course, wouldn’t play well out here in the real world. But Harbaugh doesn’t care about that. He cares about his world, which is where the Giants practice facility sits, where his players work, and the success or failure of Harbaugh as a coach is defined.
Tune in at 2:30 p.m.
FOLLOW ARMANDO SALGUERO ON X: @ARMANDOSALGUERO
